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Stanford
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School of Humanities & Sciences

Office 2016 for MacOS End of Support

Person in front of a computer

As of October 13, 2020, Microsoft will no longer provide security and software updates for Office 2016 for Macs. Due to this change, all Macs need to be upgraded to Office 365 (O365) to avoid potential security vulnerabilities. 

What can you expect?

  1. You will not lose any data 
  2. If you are using Outlook email, it will continue to function after the upgrade
  3. Office 365 has new features, but it’s still very similar to Office 2016

Do you need assistance with the upgrade?  

Please submit a HelpSU ticket to schedule an appointment. 

Do you want to upgrade yourself from Office 2016 to O365?

Here is the step-by-step instruction:

  1. Close and quit all Office 2016 apps.
  2. From a web browser, go to https://portal.office.com/account#installs and click on Install Office to download Office 365 installer. If you are presented with a Microsoft Sign In window, enter your email address (sunetID [at] stanford.edutarget="_blank").
  3. After downloading, navigate to your Downloads folder and double click on the installer (Microsoft_Office_16.41.xx_Business_Pro_Installer.pkg). 
  4. Proceed with the installation accepting the license agreement and selecting the defaults by clicking Continue.
  5. After installation, your copy of Office 365 will require you to license the application using your SUNet account. Launch Word or Excel. Note that you will see a banner/button to activate Office or that Office is in view only mode and must use another account to sign in. Click “Activate” or “Use Another Account”.
  6. If prompted, click on the Sign In link at the bottom. In the Sign In window, enter your email address (sunetID [at] stanford.edu ()) and click Next.
  7. In the Stanford Login window, authenticate using your SUNet ID and password. When prompted, approve two-step authentication.
  8. Once you complete the sign in, your version should now be Office 365. To confirm, click on Word (or Excel depending on what you launched) at the top and select About Microsoft Word(or Excel). In the popup window, you should see Version 16.41 (or higher) and License: Microsoft 365 Subscription. You may close the window and continue working.