2020-4-3  Office for Mac Buying Guide: Office 365 vs Office 2019. You can run Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook on a Mac (and on your iPad or iPhone).

Q: 'Can I save the Microsoft Office installation to an external hard drive and run the application from it? I have a laptop with a solid state drive of 30GB memory. Microsoft Office has installed on the system, taking considerable disk space. I am wondering if it could be uninstalled from the laptop and installed on an external hard drive.'

Assuming that there are two situations in which users would request an Office copy, move or transfer to a portable drive, one is when to choose an external drive for download and install, and the other one is to change the location of an existing installation from a PC to an external drive.

Are both scenarios working in the same way? Not necessarily.

A: 'When you install software it will create registry items within the Windows folders, which are on the main drive, usually the C drive. So, if you want to be able to run Office on different computers via the external hard drive, it may fail due to the lack of essential registry contents, unless using a professional PC transfer software for help.'

'What's more, Microsoft would have to provide a portable version, which we don't think they have.'

How to Transfer Microsoft Office to an External Hard Drive or a USB Drive

So, if you wish to save disk space by installing the large-size Microsoft Office 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and Office 365, to somewhere else other than the local drive, and be able to run an application from an external drive, make it happen in the other way.

• Use the normal way to completely download and install the desired Office version on your computer.
• Transfer the whole installation from the PC storage to the wanted place via EaseUS Todo PCTrans.
• Uninstall the Office from your computer in the control panel > programs > uninstall a program.
• In the end, open and run the Office application whenever you need by connecting the external drive to your computer.

Here is how to start the Office transfer from a PC to an external hard drive/USB drive:

First, download and install EaseUS Todo PCTrans. (Click the download button on your PC, where the Microsoft Office is installed. EaseUS transfer software is very light and small. You can quickly install it in a few seconds.)

Can You Run Microsoft Office On A Mac Laptop

Then, move your MS Office to the external storage device:

Step 1. Connect the external device and select the transfer mode.

• Connect your external storage device (external hard drive, USB, SD card, and more) to your PC.
• Launch EaseUS Todo PCTrans and go to 'App Migration' > 'Start'.

Step 2. Select Microsoft Office and set the storage path.

• Select the drive where you have installed Microsoft Office on and select Microsoft Office.
• Click 'Browse' and choose to transfer the application to your external storage device.
• Click 'Transfer' to start transferring Microsoft Office to an external storage medium.

Step 3. Wait for the transfer process to finish.

• Wait patiently for the process to complete.
• Click 'OK' when it has done.

Additional help for you to manage the Microsoft installation location:

Anyway, don't take the Office transfer too easy to copy the download files to a portable drive. It doesn't work because you cannot move the registry components.

EaseUS Todo PCTrans can do more in transferring applications, files and folders, and even user accounts between multiple computers using the network connection and an image file. Click for more tutorials if you're interested in other possible ways to place the Office to anywhere you want.

Moving from your PC to your new Mac? Consider it done.

With macOS, you can move all the information from your old PC to your new Mac. Built-in Windows-to-Mac migration in macOS automatically transfers your documents, music, contacts, calendars, and email accounts (Outlook and Windows Live Mail), and puts them in the appropriate folders and applications on your new Mac. Just like that.

Can You Run Microsoft Office On A Mac Download

If you buy your Mac at an Apple Store, Personal Setup can help you get off to a great start.

Work with anyone.

Every Mac comes with Pages, Numbers, and Keynote — powerful productivity apps from Apple that help you create stunning documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. You can collaborate with one person or many people to create and edit Pages, Keynote, and Numbers files. And everyone can work on the same document at the same time — from across town or across the globe. You can also open, edit, and save Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files with these apps, so you can easily work with others, regardless of whether they’re on a Mac or PC.

Use Microsoft Office for Mac. Connect to Microsoft Exchange Server.

Fun fact: There’s a version of Microsoft Office written just for Mac. So you can use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on a Mac just like on a PC.

Microsoft Office Online

macOS also provides built-in support for the latest version of Microsoft Exchange Server. So you can use all the apps you love on your Mac, and have access to your mail, contacts, and calendar from the office, all at the same time.

Access your files from anywhere with iCloud.

Your Mac comes with iCloud Drive, which lets you safely store all your presentations, spreadsheets, PDFs, images, and any other kinds of files in iCloud. Then you can access them from any device, including your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or PC.¹

Industry standard‑bearer.

Thanks to its support for industry standards, macOS works with virtually all email providers and websites. It also lets you view the most common file types, including Office documents, PDFs, images, text files, MP3s, videos, ZIP files, and more.

So if you’re moving files from a PC or if your friends and colleagues send you files, you can rest assured they’ll work beautifully on your Mac.

Relax. Your camera, printer, and mouse work, too.

Almost any device that connects to a computer via USB, audio cable, or Bluetooth will work with a Mac. That includes digital cameras, external hard drives, printers, keyboards, speakers, and even your right-click mouse. And with technologies like AirPrint and the array of class drivers included with macOS, you can start using these devices as soon as you plug them in — no need to manually download additional software.

A Mac can even run Windows.

Have a Windows application you need to use once in a while? No problem. Every new Mac lets you install and run Windows at native speeds, using a built-in utility called Boot Camp.

Setup is simple and safe for your Mac files. After you’ve completed the installation, you can boot up your Mac using either macOS or Windows. (That’s why it’s called Boot Camp.) Or if you want to run Windows and Mac applications at the same time — without rebooting — you can install Windows using VMware or Parallels software.²

Connect to PCs over a network.

Can You Run Microsoft Office On A Mac Drive

The Finder not only lets you browse files on your Mac, it also makes it easy to find files on other computers — both Mac and PC — on your home network. Computers that allow file sharing automatically show up in the Shared section of the Finder sidebar, allowing you to browse files and folders you have permission to view.

Works on macOS

• Microsoft Office for Mac and Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents created on a Mac or PC
• Windows using Boot Camp or third-party software
• Access to Microsoft Exchange Server in Mail, Contacts, and Calendar
• Virtually all email services and providers

• Popular file types such as PDF, JPG, ZIP, MP3, PSD, and more
• Digital cameras, printers, hard drives, mice, and keyboards with USB connections
• Wi‑Fi hotspots and Windows networks
• Text messaging with Skype, Facebook, WeChat, LINE, and more