As a Mac consultant, I’ve met lots of Windows users who tell me they’d love to switch to Mac, but can’t because they save all their documents in Word and Excel.
Even some who do know about Office for Mac think it was originally a Windows-only product that was eventually made available in a stripped-down Mac version.
The truth may surprise you: Office was a Mac-first product.
Not just the Office bundle, but each of the “big three” Office apps—Word, Excel, and PowerPoint—were released on the Mac before Windows. Mac users were using Word four years before the Windows version shipped ((The first version wasn’t for Mac or Windows, but for MS-DOS, released in 1983.))!
Office App Release Dates (in chronological order, rounded to the nearest whole month) ((An earlier version of this post had the wrong dates for PowerPoint and Word)):
| App | Mac | Windows | Mac headstart |
| PowerPoint | Apr 20, 1987 | May 22, 1990 | 3 years, 1 month |
| Excel | Sep 30, 1985 | Nov 19, 1987 | 2 years, 2 months |
| Word | Jan 18, 1985 ((I was unable to find any source citing the official release date of Word for Mac. The date I used, January 18 1985, was chosen because that is the date that appears in the “About…” box as seen on this page.)) | Jan 8, 1990 | 5 years |
| Office suite | Jun 19, 1989 | Oct 1, 1990 | 1 year, 3 months |
| Outlook | 1997 | 1997 | (tie) |
Not only was Office a Mac-first product, but Microsoft made a point of introducing new features on the Mac version. For proof look no further than this email to Bill Gates from then Microsoft exec Ben Walkman:
Because Mac Office is so much less critical to our business than Windows, we have the flexibility to test out new things in the product and in its marketing before we try them on Windows," Waldman said, adding, "I've personally also found the Mac market interesting because I've seen so many trends appear there first, and eventually become important on Windows.
(Emphasis mine. The email was made public as part of the discovery process in a class action lawsuit ((Joe Comes, Riley Paint, Inc., et. al. v Microsoft Corp., Iowa District Court for Polk County, Case No. CL 82311)).)
I knew Excel was mac first. To me, Excel on Windows never felt like a Windows app.Try as the might, MS could never hide Excel’s Mac origin
Remember, also, that PowerPoint was originally developed by Forethought and it (and the company) were purchased by Microsoft after it was released on Macintosh. It wasn’t released on Windows until Windows 3.0 because porting the Forethought program required OS features not present in Windows 2.1.
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