Better Apple Silicon Support Is Coming With The January Mac Office Preview Build

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by Alexandru Poloboc 

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Key notes

  • January 2022 is a great moment to start fresh and Microsoft thought about that.
  • It now released an important brand new Office Insider preview for Mac devices.
  • The good news is that we will soon use Power Query natively on Apple Silicon.
  • You can read the full changelog for all of these upcoming changes in this article.
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Excellent news for the Mac users that rely on the Microsoft suite of apps office apps for their daily workloads, as the Redmond-tech giant is about to offer them better support.

Yes, you guessed it, Microsoft just released a new Office Insider Preview, which is Build 16.57.22010502, addressed to Mac users that registered in the Current Channel of the Office Insider program.

This brand new 2022 Office update adds, among other things, improved support for Apple Silicon Macs. 

Mac Office users can run Excel natively on their devices

Just as we mentioned above, the beginning of 2022 means that Mac Office insiders will have some new features to test.

We’re now going to talk about the important changes coming to the suite of apps, and you will surely be pleased to find out that you will no longer have to use third-party apps to run Excell.

Microsoft updated the Mac Current Channel (formerly Preview) of Office for Mac yesterday, in order to allow Insider members to run Power Query natively on Apple Silicon.

The Redmond tech giant has had native support for Intel and Apple Silicon Mac in Universal Binary since December 2020 but has now started to offer some of the functionalities as well.

It seems that Power Query can be used even if it is removed, so if you are an Insider member, you can give it a try and tell us what you think about it.

You can read the full changelog below:

Excel

Power Query runs natively on Apple Silicon processors

Power Query is now natively supported on Apple Silicon processors. If you previously used the Rosetta emulator to run Excel, you may now disable it and run Excel natively on your devices. To do so, close Excel and open Finder > Applications on your computer. Select the Excel app, then go to File > Get Info (or press Command+I) and uncheck the Open using Rosetta box.

Keep in mind that these changes aren’t rolling out to the general public just yet, only Office Insiders get to test them, for the time being.

Have you installed the latest Mac Office preview build on your device? Share your experience with us in the comments section below.

Alexandru Poloboc

Alexandru Poloboc Shield

Tech Journalist

With an overpowering desire to always get to the bottom of things and uncover the truth, Alex spent most of his time working as a news reporter, anchor, as well as TV and radio entertainment show host. A certified gadget freak, he always feels the need to surround himself with next-generation electronics. When he is not working, he splits his free time between making music, gaming, playing football, basketball and taking his dogs on adventures.