Just as scheduled, Office for Mac 2011 reached end of support on October 10, which means October’s ‘Patch Tuesday’ was the last patch for the productivity suite for Apple computers.
Office for Mac 2011 has always been a popular choice for Apple users, but without new security updates there’s a high possibility that running Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook can be vulnerable to attacks.
The security flaws detected in Office suites and which could exist in the 2011 version would remain unpatched without the security updates making it easy for hackers to break into user’s Mac systems.
Users who are running Office for Mac 2011 are recommended to update to a newer version as soon as possible, with Office 2016 being the best alternative considering its support will last until 2025.
Office 2016 offers full support for macOS High Sierra as compared to Office for Mac 2011 which works fine on this particular version, but which Microsoft could be vulnerable and might have compatibility issues which will remain unpatched forever.
The latest version however guarantees the longest support, but Microsoft says users can switch to Office 365 as an alternative.
Office 365 is a service based on subscription, meaning the customers will run the most recent version with all updates and security patches.
