I installed the new version of Microsoft Office for Mac on Saturday and spent a bit of time with it on my flight to Boston on Sunday. (Check out the official CNET review here.) While I like the cleaner interface and some of the new fonts, overall I feel like the applications are much slower. I also found out the hard way that the default save state of .docx screws you pretty much immediately if you aren't careful. (To Microsoft's credit, you can easily change this in the preferences.)
I mainly used Word as I was afraid that Excel would jack me up. One positive for Word is that creating themes for documents has become much easier. One negative is that my documents would occasionally disappear between Expose windows and show up in the "window" menu but not on screen. Having spent a fair amount of time on a doc, I was pretty shocked when it all of the sudden disappeared.
The big thing to note is that the Mac version of Word and Powerpoint are significantly more user-friendly than the new Office for Windows. And while we all expect Mac software to be easier to use, it doesn't make a lot of sense that Microsoft wouldn't have applied the cleaner interface to the Windows product.
I bought Microsoft's newest version of Office for Mac (2008) on Tuesday and have been using it nonstop ever since. (Check out the CNET review here.) It is snappy, intuitive, and even innovative in some ways. (MyDay, seen at right, is a blessing.) In short, Microsoft has done something very, very right with this product. I recommend it to everyone who needs it.
Entourage is the biggest area where I see improvements. It is soooo fast compared with Office 2004 for Mac. The UI is gorgeous. My favorite improvement, however, is My Day. It's a floating window that shows my upcoming appointments, "To Do" items, and e-mails that I've flagged for action. It's such a simple addition, but I'm already wholly reliant on it.
The product does have some downsides.
... Read moreCorrection 2:10 p.m. PDT: This blog initially misstated the savings for buyers of Office 2004 for Mac Student and Teacher edition if they choose to upgrade to the 2008 Special Media Edition. The savings would be $350.
Microsoft has improved on an earlier offer to those who buy Office 2004 for Mac before the new version of Office is released in January.
In September, the company said it would offer buyers of Office 2004 an upgrade to the comparable version of Office 2008 for the cost of shipping and handling.
Now, those who purchase Office 2004 for Mac Student and Teacher edition ($149), the Standard version ($399), or the Standard upgrade ($239) are eligible to receive the new Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition for $6.99, the cost of shipping and handling. The Special Media Edition will retail for $499.
The Standard flavor includes a single license, while three licenses are included with the less expensive Student and Teacher edition. Microsoft does not verify whether those who buy this education edition really attend or work at a school or university. However, consumers must pledge in the End User License Agreement that they bought the edition for use in a school.
The Special Media Edition includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Expression Media, an image file management application.
The discount offer lasts until January 14. Office 2008 for Mac is set to ship the next day. Customers' licenses from the 2004 and 2008 versions will remain valid.
The potential savings would be $350 for buying Office 2004 for Mac Student and Teacher and receiving the 2008 Special Media Edition for free.
Office 2008 for Mac is also available in other flavors. For $399, the Standard edition swaps Expression Media for the Entourage scheduling application. Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student, equivalent to 2004 Student and Teacher, includes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for $149.
Microsoft provided an early look at the Office 2008 for Mac 11 months ago, and has been gradually rolling out details about other new features, such as a bigger selection of templates and enhanced Exchange support, and the capability to configure out-of-office settings in Exchange. No public beta tests have been made available.
At full price, Office 2008 for Mac costs at least twice as much as its competitors. Other Mac productivity software options include the $79 Apple iWork, the free OpenOffice, and the $49 ThinkFree desktop and online bundle. Additional free competitors to Office include browser-based suites such as Google Docs & Spreadsheets and Zoho Office. All options offer a word processor, and presentations and spreadsheet programs that can read Microsoft Office documents.
Mac users must wait until next year for fresh versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint: Microsoft has moved its intended launch of Office for Mac 2008 to January from the second half of this year.
"We had hoped to hit the Christmas selling season, but now we hope to target Macworld" in January, said Craig Eisler, who became general manager of the Mac business unit at Microsoft six weeks ago. "We, as a group, were not satisfied with product quality."
Details about any software development snags, as well as final pricing, were unavailable. Office for Mac 2004 is sold in three versions for $150 to $500.
The company demonstrated early previews of Office for Mac 2008 at the Macworld 2007 convention in January.
Microsoft will not open beta testing to the public as it did for more than six months while building Office 2007 for Windows.
The 2008 release will be the first built for Intel-based Macs. The features and visual style of Office for Mac software differ from their Windows counterparts. Microsoft is introducing XML-based file formats, which require a converter to be opened in older Office software. A time-management, task-launching widget joins Office for Mac 2008 in addition to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the Entourage e-mail application.
Among the controversial anticipated changes is the removal of Visual Basic scripting, which enables macros that automate commonly used software functions.
Microsoft also postponed its initial shipment deadlines for Windows Vista and Office 2007, which arrived in stores on January 30 amid a marketing blitz following the holiday shopping season.
Microsoft aims to unveil its next operating system, internally code named "Windows 7," within three years.
Meanwhile, Apple remains mum about the timing and features of its next iWork office suite, a competitor to Microsoft Office. The MacRumors blog speculates that Apple may skip a 2007 version, instead releasing iWork '08 in October in tandem with the Leopard Mac OS X operating system.
Further competition to Microsoft Office and iWork looms in the form of free, Web-based productivity software, such as Google Docs & Spreadsheets.
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