This year, Microsoft did finally put the Microsoft Office suite in the Mac App Store for the first time ever. It is something that Apple said was coming at WWDC 2018, and it came in the early part of 2019.
Now, when it comes to the design of the app, it looks the way it should. I will say that in some ways, it feels like it is cluttered with other features and buttons to click. There have been times when I have clicked the wrong button. Still, it’s not too bad for a Mac email app.
When it comes to actually writing the emails, it does a good job, but the one issue that I do have with it is that some of the emails have a white background when responding to emails, despite me having Dark Mode enabled on my MacBook Pro.
I do like that the app does try to make calendar dates for the Outlook Calendar and that you can sync it to other calendar apps such as the default Apple calendar or third-party apps like Fantastical for Mac. Simplicity is key here.
There are a couple things that I do not like about the app, though.
The first thing is that it gives you this prompt about asking for your password for what I would assume to be iCloud Keychain (it’s some sort of keychain thing). What bothers me about this is that no matter how many times you type in your password to approve of Outlook using your keychain, it keeps giving you the same prompt over and over again. It is something that has deterred me from the app in the past.
However, the good thing is that the last couple of recent updates have been able to fix this issue for the most part or at least not make it happen as much. It still persists in the app sometimes, though.
Another issue is that I have to keep resigning into my Wayne State College student email account that goes through Outlook even though I have already signed into it before when I first downloaded the app. This is annoying since once you sign into an email app, it should automatically sign you back in when you open the app again.
Again, there have been software patches to address this issue but I have still experienced it as an Outlook user, so it has not been completely fixed.
Overall, I’m giving Outlook for Mac 2019 2.5/4 stars. It’s good for those who have their Outlook accounts situated and nearly bug-free. The app still has some bugs that it needs to fix in order for it to be something that I recommend to people and readers.
If you do not want to deal with the bugs that this app has right now, then I would suggest using third-party apps such as Spark or Airmail, as well as the default Apple mail app.
In order to use the new Microsoft Office for Mac 2019 through the Mac App Store, you must have an Office 365 subscription. Those prices are the following:
- Office 365 Personal: $69.99
- Office 365 Home: $99.99
- Office 365 Solo: $119.99
Outlook is also available on the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Apple Watch. In addition to Outlook can be used for other email providers such as Gmail and Yahoo.
Rating: 2.5/4 stars
Obviously written by a mac fan boy and very anti-Microsoft. Too many buttons? Really? The new outlook is 100 times better than the awful apple mail. My only issue is that the calendar doesn’t support caldav. Not sure how you got yours to sync, like you claim.