Microsoft Office for Mac 16.38
Microsoft has issued its monthly update of Office for Mac, bringing the new Data from Picture feature to Excel (requires Office 365 subscription). Data from Picture enables you to take a screenshot or an image file from your computer or iPhone and turn it into editable table data. Version 16.38 also adds dictation to Outlook for composing email and enables PowerPoint to synchronize changes even when a presentation is in slide show mode. ($149.99 for a one-time purchase, $99.99/$69.99 annual subscription options, free update through Microsoft AutoUpdate, release notes, macOS 10.10+)
I have tried several times to make the update, and always get the same behaviour: the update downloads and installation begins. When showing three seconds remaining on the update, the installer stalls, and after a couple of minutes stops with the message “Update error…” Clicking on the information icon gives “The update could not be installed at this time. Please try again later.”
This happened to me on a High Sierra machine that I hadn’t used in six months. I ended up downloading Office 365 and installing it again. It’s been fine since then (though I don’t think that there has been an update yet.)
I just updated on my High Sierra MBP and it went smoothly. Also updated on my new iMac running Catalina. Both cases I have Office 365. No problems. Don’t know if that helps but it was smooth in both cases.
I was able to update my Office apps using the individual updater packages available at this link: