However, not all of Outlook’s business-focused features were available in the reworking, so for a while Mac users could quickly toggle between the new look and the old. Gone was the classic ribbon, complete with its notoriously cluttered design, replaced with a simplified layout that put the most-used features front-and-center. I could go on, but my space and your time are limited.Īs I mentioned, the Mac version of Outlook got a facelift three years ago. It can bog down under a heavy load, and its mail database can be fragile. Its filters routinely misidentify good email as spam. Those who complain about Outlook’s interface should take a good look at the Mail app’s design, which is fussy and busy. And while it’s Outlook-ish, it’s not Outlook.ĭie-hard Apple fans may ask: What’s wrong with Apple’s own Mail app on macOS? I gave a harsh review to version 3 in October (see /spark3), but fortunately version 2 is still around and getting regular updates. I’ve been using a free email app called Spark and have been very happy with it. Yeah, you can buy standalone copies of Office apps that don’t require a subscription, but they’re pricey (and the cheap “lifetime” Office deals you see offered on some tech sites are sketchy at best, according to Windows expert Ed Bott). As a newbie freelancer, I wasn’t interested in buying a subscription to Microsoft 365, the productivity software service previously known as Office 365.

I’ve been missing Outlook since I retired for the second time from a corporate journalism job and lost my access to Microsoft’s Office productivity suite. I’m always looking for the right tool for the job, and I don’t have much patience for knee-jerk haters. While I’m a happy dweller in Apple’s ecosystem, I’m also a cross-platform kinda guy, and willing to consider different software from different sources - including Microsoft - for use on my Macs, iPhone and iPad.

Others insisted that, just because it’s from Microsoft, it can’t be good. Several lectured me on the awfulness of Outlook for Mac’s design, though when queried they admitted they’d not used it in a while (it had a streamlining redo in 2020). “I don’t know any Mac user who WANTS to use Outlook,” huffed one follower on Mastodon.

Microsoft for macbook free