Cannot seamlessly tie 365 in to my existing office suite such as Excel. Word, Outlook, Teams etc.

Peter Tydeman 20 Reputation points
2026-07-06T15:37:08.0033333+00:00

I purchased Microsoft 365 because my WORD app. was no longer being supported (Office 2019). When I opened it I could not type anything. I could also not check things out (like "is my text on No colour because the icons were all greyed out) . I have been speaking to your Bots for over 5 hours and losing the will to live. I believe I have downloaded Microsoft 365. The app. in my launch Pad says Microsoft 365 Copilot. However, I was told once I had downloaded the app. it would seamlessly tie-in and work with my existing Office Suite. Seems that is not true. I am not a techie but I fear that this should have been so much easier. It is most probably my fault. Also, when speaking to your bots and getting information on the process to get where I wanted to be, what they said I needed to click on was never what they said I would see. Very confusing. I just want to click on any or all of my Office Suite Icons (Word, Outlook, Teams, Excel etc.) and they work to create and edit anything I want to create and and edit any historical files. Come someone please ring me and talk me through it?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | For home | MacOS
Answer accepted by question author
John Jefferson Doyon 87,730 Reputation points Independent Advisor
2026-07-06T16:22:10.58+00:00

Hi, I'm John! I will help you with this.

The best next step is to uninstall all Office apps from the Mac first. This includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and Microsoft 365/Copilot if listed. Then restart the Mac and reinstall Microsoft 365 from the Microsoft account that owns the subscription.

Do not worry about your Word, Excel, or other saved files. Uninstalling Office apps does not delete your documents. Your files should remain where they are saved, such as Documents, Desktop, Downloads, or OneDrive.

If you haven't already, I’d suggest is to uninstall any existing Office apps on your Mac to avoid conflict:

Then, to reinstall Microsoft Office:

  • Go to https://account.microsoft.com/services
  • Sign in using the same Microsoft account linked to your license.
  • Find your Microsoft 365 Subscription and click the "Install".
  • That will download the installer for the Office apps, just run it and follow the steps.

If anything’s unclear or the "Install" option still doesn’t show, feel free to let me know. I’ll be happy to walk you through it!

If all is resolved, feel free to mark the answer for this thread. Otherwise, please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.

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  1. Peter Tydeman 20 Reputation points
    2026-07-18T13:30:28.8766667+00:00

    Apologies for not coming back sooner. Life just took over. However, what you suggested worked. Thank you John

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