Microsoft Office Online Training

Introduction

This page is updated to contain links to external user guides for Microsoft Office. These might be useful if you are upgrading to a new version. As the University now has a Microsoft Agreement that makes Office free for all staff and students, we recommend upgrading if you are running an old version.

What is the latest version of Office?

Office 2016 Pro Plus for Windows and Office 2016 for Mac were both released at the end of 2015.

Which version of Office is recommended for work?

We test all new versions of Office for bugs and compatibility with our systems before recommending them. You can see a summary of which versions we support, and which version we recommend and install by default on the page Supported Office Suites.

As Office 2016 is relatively new, it is recommended for early adopters only.

We will always provide that latest recommended version of Office that we support in our Software Library - see Installing Software for more details.

If you are installing Office 365 Pro Plus on a personal / home computer via Office 365, you will get the latest version (although there is usually a 3 - 6 month delay). This is currently Office 2016. For more information see the /wiki/spaces/FAQSTAGE/pages/24379644.

I'm upgrading from an older version of Office - how different will the interface be?

Windows

I'm used to Office 2003

The interface has changed hugely since Office 2003, as in 2007 a new style of menu called the Ribbon was introduced (and continues to be used to this day)

If you have only used the Office 2003 style menus, then we recommend you try these courses to get used to the new style:

Learning to use the Ribbon

Although the course is aimed at moving to Office 2010, it is still useful.

I'm used to Office 2007 or 2010

If you are already used to the Ribbon interface, then not much has changed. We recommend looking at the Office 2016 quick start guides

I'm used to Office 2013

Office 2013 and 2016 interfaces are very similar. If upgrading from Office 2013 to Office 2016 we recommend checking the quick start guides

Mac OSX

Office 2016 for Mac now has a similar interface to the Windows version, so if you have only used Office 2011 for Mac before it will all be quite different. We recommend you watch the video: What's new in Office 2016 for Mac

Office 2016 Quick Start Guides

There are both in-depth training courses and quick-start guides:

Office 2016 Quick Start Guides for Windows

Office 2016 Quick Start Guides for Mac

Office 2016 Online Training Courses

Microsoft provides online training courses for each application, based around common tasks:

Office 2016 Training for Windows and Mac

The Microsoft's Office Training Centre

A range of guides for all recent versions of Office, across all platforms (including mobile), are available here:

Office Training Center