Office 2016 For Mac Serializer
Both Office 2016 and Office 2019 for Mac are available for installation and updating via Jamf Pro. The default for DEP imaged machines and EPM's third-party patching system is still 2016, but you are free to install or upgrade to 2019 with the instructions below.
Basically, just a fair warning to anyone who is planning on deploying Office 2019 for Mac as an update to Office 2016. TL;DR - Installing Office 2019 VL Serializer on Macs with Office 2016 will de-activate 2016 until the 2019 (16.17) updates are installed. Sep 28, 2016 - On one of your machines that has a broken license run. If you already use Office on a PC or iPad, you will find yourself right at home in Office 2016 for Mac. It works the way you expect, with the familiar ribbon interface and powerful task panes. Mac users will appreciate the modernized Office experience and the integration of Mac capabilities like Full Screen view and Multi-TouchTM gestures.
Version numbering and names
Microsoft's application versions for 2016 and 2019 are very similar, so it's important to verify that you are installing the correct version. Version numbers up through 16.16.x are Office 2016, while 16.17 and higher are Office 2019. The licensing for these two are mutually exclusive, so be sure to install the matching serializer and application packages. See below for the two sets of packages.
Note that Microsoft's naming scheme for packages has also changed to use underscores instead of spaces for the 2019 packaging. This naming scheme is reflected in our Jamf Pro package names, which means that 2019 packages will appear separately from 2016 packages when sorting them by name.
Deploying the latest Office 2016 with EPM's custom triggers.
You can install the entire Office 2016 suite in one step by calling the epm-thirdparty-office trigger. You can do this either manually on a computer from Terminal by entering `sudo jamf policy -event epm-thirdparty-office` or execute it via Jamf policy by entering that same command into 'Execute Command' field under the 'File and Processes' payload.
If you want only individual applications rather than the entire suite, you can call the following custom triggers. Note that these will install only the application, not the license or Microsoft AutoUpdate. See the next section for the additional packages you will need to install for those components.
epm-thirdparty-excel
epm-thirdparty-onenote
epm-thirdparty-outlook
epm-thirdparty-powerpoint
epm-thirdparty-word
Deploying Office 2016 with custom policy setup
If you prefer to build out deployment policies yourself rather than use the custom trigger outlined above, you can install the 7 component packages yourself. You will want to deploy the serializer, the AutoUpdate, and any or all of the individual applications (like Word and Excel):
- Microsoft Office 2016 Serializer 2.0.pkg
- Microsoft AutoUpdate_3.11.17101000_Updater.pkg (or latest number)
- Microsoft Excel-16.16.18111001.pkg
- Microsoft OneNote-16.16.18111001.pkg
- Microsoft Outlook-16.16.18111001.pkg
- Microsoft PowerPoint-16.16.18111001.pkg
- Microsoft Word-16.16.18111001.pkg
| The version numbers here are examples, and the latest as of 12/01/2018. New versions of Office 2016 are released periodically. It's best to install the latest version of 16.16 that you see available. |
Follow the steps in the below link for software deployment for more details on setting up policies to deploy packages.
Deploying the latest Office 2019 with EPM's custom triggers.
You can install the entire Office 2019 suite in one step by calling the epm-thirdparty-office-2019 trigger. You can do this either manually on a computer from Terminal by entering `sudo jamf policy -event epm-thirdparty-office-2019` or execute it via Jamf policy by entering that same command into 'Execute Command' field under the 'File and Processes' payload.
If you want only individual applications rather than the entire suite, you can call the following custom triggers. Note that these will install only the application, not the license or Microsoft AutoUpdate. See the next section for the additional packages you will need to install for those components.
epm-thirdparty-excel-2019
epm-thirdparty-onenote-2019
epm-thirdparty-outlook-2019
epm-thirdparty-powerpoint-2019
epm-thirdparty-word-2019
Office 2016 Mac Serializer Not Working
Deploying Office 2019 with custom policies
If you'd like to install Office 2019 with your own policies, the process is similar to 2016; you need to install the newer Serializer package, the newer 2019 application packages, and AutoUpdate.
Microsoft Office 2016 Vl Serializer
- Microsoft_Office_2019_VL_Serializer.pkg
- Microsoft_AutoUpdate_4.5.18110402_Updater.pkg
- Microsoft_Excel_16.19.18110915.pkg
- Microsoft_OneNote_16.19.18110915.pkg
- Microsoft_Outlook_16.19.18110915.pkg
- Microsoft_PowerPoint_16.19.18110915.pkg
- Microsoft_Word_16.19.18110915.pkg
| The version numbers here are examples, and the latest as of 12/01/2018. New versions of Office 2016 are released periodically. It's best to install the latest version that you see available. |
Follow the steps in the below link for software deployment for more details on setting up policies to deploy packages.
Deploying updates
If you want to just deploy the latest updates, you can deploy just the individual application packages listed above. Alternatively, you can execute the custom trigger epm-thirdparty to update any outdated packages of Office 2016 and 2019. For details on using the epm-thirdparty trigger, see [Jamf Pro - epm-thirdparty patching]
If you need assistance creating policies for the installation packages please contact the Endpoint Management team at endpointmanagement@mit.edu.
Related articles
See Jamf Pro - Software Deployment for more information on how to create deployment policies.
See [Jamf Pro - Third-party software patching] for information on deploying new updates as they are released.
See [Jamf Pro - epm-thirdparty patching] for more information on using EPM's custom triggers for patching and installing.