Office stack
Documents, spreadsheets, presentations and PDFs, without friction with people who use Windows and Microsoft Office.
A stack for documents, spreadsheets and presentations — especially when the people you work with send you Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.
Which suite to pick
- If your documents stay on Apple devices, Pages, Numbers and Keynote are free and come with every new Mac.
- If you swap files with Windows users all day, Microsoft 365 is the safest choice for compatibility. Before paying, check whether the free web versions are enough for you.
- LibreOffice is the free alternative that works the same way on Mac, Windows and Linux.
Built in, before you install anything
Preview signs and merges PDFs, the Passwords app keeps your work logins, and text replacements type your email signature for you. The related tips below explain each one.
Apps in this stack
- Pages, Numbers and Keynote · office suite Free
Apple's word processor, spreadsheet and presentation apps. Free on the App Store and included with every new Mac; the optional Apple Creator Studio subscription adds premium templates and intelligence features.
- Microsoft 365 · office suite Paid
Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook for Mac. Creating and editing documents needs a Microsoft 365 subscription, but the web versions at microsoft365.com are free. It supports the three most recent versions of macOS.
- LibreOffice · office suite Free
Free, open-source office suite for documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Needs macOS 11 or later and runs on Apple silicon and Intel.
- PDF Expert · PDF Freemium
For editing the text of a PDF, running OCR or converting it to Word or Excel, with a subscription or a lifetime licence. For signing and merging PDFs, Preview is enough.
- Keka · archiver Free
Extracts the RAR files and other formats that arrive from Windows, and creates zip and 7z. Free from its website; the App Store version is the same app, paid.
Installation
The apps available on Homebrew install with a single Terminal command. If you do not have Homebrew yet, start at brew.sh.
brew install --cask microsoft-office libreoffice pdf-expert kekaRelated tips
Fill in and sign a PDF with Preview
No printer, no scanner and no paid PDF app: Preview types into forms and adds your signature.
Combine PDFs and reorder their pages in Preview
Merging documents, moving pages and deleting the ones you do not need all happen in the sidebar.
Keep passwords, passkeys and codes in the Passwords app
Since macOS Sequoia, what Safari and iCloud Keychain save has its own app.
Expand abbreviations into full text
Type a few letters and macOS writes your email address, your postal address or a phrase you repeat all day.
Copy on the iPhone and paste on the Mac
Universal Clipboard moves text, images and files between your devices with the usual copy and paste.
Take screenshots and record the screen
Three shortcuts cover the whole screen, a selection and a single window, and the third one also records video.