Mac users aren’t at all shy about making their requests for applications known:
How about Visio for Mac?
When will IE return to Mac?
Will we ever see a Microsoft Project for Mac?
Microsoft visio free download - Visio Converter, Microsoft Office 2016 Preview, Microsoft Silverlight, and many more programs.
- Visio Standard 2019 and Visio Professional 2019 are the latest perpetual versions of Visio. Each is a one-time purchase that does not receive updates. Previous perpetual versions include Visio 2016, Visio 2013, Visio 2010, and Visio 2007. Visio 2019 is compatible with Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7.
- Microsoft visio mac free download - Microsoft Virtual PC for Mac 7.0.3 Update, Parallels Desktop for Mac, Microsoft Virtual PC for Mac Update, and many more programs.
Where can I get Access for Mac?
When will (insert name of hot new game here) be available for Mac?
Most of these requests are for well-known Microsoft applications on Windows, and Mac users want them. Let me address a few of these in some detail.
Microsoft Visio
It’s unwise to say “never” with regard to future development efforts by a company as large as Microsoft, so I will predict this about Visio for Mac: it’s very, very unlikely to ever happen.
I, and many others, believe the development costs to produce a Mac Visio that would faithfully render any existing Visio drawing (and have almost all the functionality of Visio for Windows) would never be recouped by Microsoft.
For any Mac software company, a software product that brought in $50 million per year would be viewed as a fantastic success. But in the rarified world of the Microsoft Office team, such a product would be considered a dismal failure.
For any Mac software company, a software product that brought in $50 million per year would be viewed as a fantastic success. But in the rarified world of the Microsoft Office team, such a product would be considered a dismal failure.
Microsoft Access
Exactly the same as Visio: very, very unlikely to ever happen, and for exactly the same reason.
Internet Explorer
Never going to happen.
There was a version of IE for Mac about 15 years ago. Microsoft ceased development of IE for Mac in July 2003. Given that there is no new development for IE for Windows (because of the release of Microsoft Edge in 2015), there is no chance at all for a future release of IE for Mac.
Any Hot New Game by Microsoft
Never going to happen.
The graphics foundations on Mac and Windows diverge sufficiently that porting any hot new Windows game over to the Mac is a major undertaking. It would be unlikely to recoup development costs, for the same reasons as the Office applications. You can read more details about DirectX and OpenGL.
What’s a Mac User to Do?
There are a couple of options for a Mac user:
- Use a viewer application. In some cases, a viewer application that faithfully renders a document that you could not otherwise open will suffice. In the case of Visio, Microsoft has released a Visio Viewer for iOS, as shown in Figure 1.
- Use a competing application. Search for “Visio for Mac” on Google, and many of the results will be for third-party applications for Mac that open Visio drawings and provide much of the same functionality.
- Run the real Windows application on your Mac. If you need the real Visio with all its functionality, then use Parallels Desktop® for Mac to run Windows 10 on your Mac and purchase Visio from Microsoft. You lose no functionality or visual fidelity, since you are running the real Visio in the environment it expects: Windows 10.
(Already own Visio? No problem. Just use the Migration feature in Parallels Desktop to move everything on your PC—including Visio—into a virtual machine on your Mac.)
Figure 2 shows Visio running on my MacBook Pro®.
Figure 2_Visio 2016 running in Windows10 on a Mac with Parallels Desktop
Figures 3 and 4 show Access, and Figure 5 shows IE—all running on my MacBook Pro.
Figure 3_Access 2016 in Windows 10 running on a Mac with Parallels Desktop
Figure 4_Access 2016 in Windows 10 running on a Mac with Parallels Desktop
Figure 5_IE in Windows10 running on a Mac with Parallels Desktop
While you may not be able to get the Mac applications you desire, you can get the Windows versions and run them right alongside your Mac applications.
As the product manager for Parallels Desktop, you might consider my opinions to be a bit biased. (They aren’t, but you might think that.) So, here is a quote from a Network World review (emphasis mine):
Microsoft Visio Online For Mac
“I’ve been a Mac user for many years, and like with most Mac users, there are occasions when I have core business apps that require me to run Internet Explorer for a browser, or run Visual Studio for app development work, or even run Microsoft Project and Visio that just aren’t available on a Mac. And while Apple provides BootCamp where I can switch between booting from a Mac to booting as a Windows system, that means I have to constantly reboot my system to switch between operating platforms. So I’ve been a happy user of Parallels for years where I can run Windows and Mac applications side by side at the same time.” –Rand Morimoto, Network World
Try Parallels Desktop for free for 14 days!
Are you starting to receive Visio 2010 files from colleagues that you can’t seem to open? Chances are that you don’t have Visio installed or the viewer you are using does not support the latest version of Visio. Fortunately for you, Microsoft just released the latest version of Visio viewer that will allow you to open and view all Visio files on your computer. The viewer works as an ActiveX control that loads and renders Visio drawings within the Internet Explorer browser window.
Once installed all you have to do is double-click on the drawing files stored on your computer and Internet Explorer should automatically open. With the viewer you have the ability to pan, zoom, print (limited to window), and even view the properties on the shapes in the drawings.
Brief Description from Microsoft Website
Microsoft Visio 2010 Viewer allows anyone to view Visio drawings and diagrams (created with Visio 5.0 through Visio 2010) inside their Microsoft Internet Explorer (versions 5 through 8 ) Web browser.
Download the Viewer from Microsoft.com
File formats supported – .vsd, .vss, .vst, .vdx, .vsx, or .vtx extensions.
Note: When opening a file for the first time, you may encounter an error. If this is the case, just follow the steps below to allow the ActiveX control to run.
1. Click on the yellow bar and Add-on Disabled
2. Click on Run Add-on
3. Click Run.
Visio Viewer Running on Internet Explorer 8
Network diagram I created in Visio 2007. Notice that you can view other Pages (bottom of the screen).
Visio Viewer Toolbar provides you with the following tools:
Visio For Mac Free
- Zoom Tools
- Open in Microsoft Visio button (if you have Visio installed).
- Properties and Settings – See properties and Settings for a selected shape..
- Layer Settings – Set drawing-layer visibility and colors.
- Markup Settings – Set annotation visibility and colors.
- Help
Microsoft Visio For Mac Download
Properties and Settings window for a particular object.
If you have Visio installed you can always use the viewer to open a drawing quickly in Internet Explorer, specially if you are just viewing the drawing. Overall the Visio viewer looks like a great Internet Explorer add-in that will help users with and without Visio work more efficiently.