Microsoft Office Update, and Visual Basic for Applications to Return

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com)

Microsoft announced (http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/may08/05-13MacBU2008PR.mspx) today record sales of Mac Office 2008 which was launched at Macworld San Francisco:"The response has been amazing; since we launched in January, the velocity of sales for Office 2008 is nearly three times what we saw after the launch of Office 2004," said Craig Eisler, general manager of the Mac BU at Microsoft. "As we set our course for future versions, we are working closely with customers and will also expand our staff to ensure that Office for Mac remains the most powerful and compatible productivity suite for Mac customers."
Microsoft also released the first Service Pack (SP1) for Mac Office 2008 which provides stability, security and performance enhancements. The update will be available at at Microsoft.com (http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx) or via your Office software update. A list of fixes are provided in the press release (http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/may08/05-13MacBU2008PR.mspx?rss_fdn=Press%20Releases).

Also notable is that Microsoft has announced that they will be bringing back Visual Basic for Applications in the next version of Mac Office:...the team recognizes that VBA-language support is important to a select group of customers who rely on sharing macros across platforms. The Mac BU is always working to meet customers' needs and already is hard at work on the next version of Office for Mac.

Article Link (http://www.macrumors.com/2008/05/13/microsoft-office-update-and-visual-basic-for-applications-to-return/)

[longofest]

so, i guess i'm just skipping a version until the next version of Office. 2004 will do for now.

Glad they're bringing back VBA support.

[DMann]

Keep the updates coming - Office 2008 ought to be more optimized for Leopard than it is.
Would like to see snappier performance overall.

[Str8edgepunker]

Oh thank goodness they're bringing back VBA. Now I might be able to run Solver again! :D

[ctachme]

I think Office 2008 is a pretty decent product (for coming from microsoft :) ), but I'm glad that they're releasing somewhat frequent updates, AND are listening to users about what features to add in and work on. They're not ALL evil...

[daneoni]

I dont get it, both MR and Macworld are reporting that the SP1 update is now available via MS's site or SU but i've been checking both mediums for the last 5 hrs and still cant find the update.

Where is it? :confused:

[anthonyjr]

I dont get it, both MR and Macworld are reporting that the SP1 update is now available via MS's site or SU but i've been checking both mediums for the last 5 hrs and still cant find the update.

I noticed that also. Someone needs to get their facts straight.

[baleensavage]

Putting visual basic back in is a very good move. I never could figure out why they removed it. There are many businesses and people who have extensive amounts of macros that they use on a day-to-day basis and suddenly dropping this feature was a really bad move IMHO. Too bad they aren't adding it back in a service pack. Instead we have to wait until Office 2012 :rolleyes:

[dr_lha]

Microsoft should be congratulated for doing the write thing with regards to VBA scripting, which was a massive error. I wish that the fix will come soon and not in Office 2012 though.

[BornAgainMac]

So this probably means that VBA will stay in future versions of Office on the Windows platform. Microsoft realizes that VBA isn't just for developing viruses.

[geniusj]

I like their business plan.

1) Remove critical feature as if it's never coming back
2) Get people to upgrade for some other feature
3) Announce that users can get critical feature back in a year or two for only $200 (or whatever)!
4) ???
5) profit?
6) repeat

[lazyrighteye]

What is MR's record for new Threads in one day?
Today is one after another...

Thanks.

[MacsRgr8]

Next version of Office....

Will that be Office 2011?

[Shasterball]

Good news. I was about to buy a copy before I saw the terrible, terrible reviews. I'd be curious to hear if this helps the overall performance/stability.

[ejbenjamin]

I'm using Office 2008 with Leopard and there's a bug in Word that intermittently displays the cursor one line above or one line below where it "actually" is. It's unbelievably annoying, and that one thing makes the program almost unusable. I really hope this update fixes it.

[FriarTuck]

I wonder to what extent the Office 2008 launch numbers are "juiced" by the great deals they had going. They had a $100 rebate on Office 2004, and a "free" upgrade from 2004 to 2008 (pay only $6.99 shipping), which made my effective cost for Office 2008 only $32 (plus two stamps), which is less than half the cost of iWork.

[Achiever]

Can I install both Office 2004 & Office 2008 on my Mac or must I uninstall one in order to install/run the other? If I can have & use both concurrently, is anybody doing this? Have you experienced any interoperability problems?

[xUKHCx]

Can I install both Office 2004 & Office 2008 on my Mac or must I uninstall one in order to install/run the other? If I can have & use both concurrently, is anybody doing this? Have you experienced any interoperability problems?

You can have both installed at once no problems. I have been running that way ever since I got Office 2008 although to be honest I have been using 2004 90% of the time as 2008 is a nightmare.

[macridah]

glad vba is coming back. didn't want to port all of my financial macros to applescript because i have so much. I guess when the next version of office for mac comes out, I could also stop using vmware. I only use vmware to work on excel ... that's it!

[J@ffa]

I think I read somewhere that the SP1 update will be available at 12pm... PST, EST, WTF, I'm not sure. It would be nice if it didn't take longer than Photoshop CS3 to open cold, that's for sure.

[Lershac]

so, i guess i'm just skipping a version until the next version of Office. 2004 will do for now.

Glad they're bringing back VBA support.

Unless you need to open some of those .xlsx or .docx files.

Anyone know of any update for mso2004 for this?

[admadan]

@ ejbenjamin. I thought I was going crazy. Everyone I asked running office 2008 hadn't had that happen to them and when I looked online a while a go I couldn't find any other reports of the same problem, although I haven't seen it reoccur for a few weeks now.

[bdkennedy1]

Well, I guess it's great that they're bring it back, but I have to wonder... why are they realizing this now?

[flamejob]

I have one thing to say...

NeoOffice

[yeroen]

When they say 'next version of Office' do they mean Office 2009 or 2010 (or 2012), or do they mean a revision number of 2008?

[Omek]

I tried running Word '08, and it is slower than snot. Seriously... I could have launched the entire CS3 suite and Word would still be loading. I trashed it immediately. If that's the way they're headed, I don't want anything to do with Office...

[zirngast99]

WOW - how to come?

M$ is seeing the big picture and obviously business costumers again, after they were after beginners@home trying to design a full feature website in say: word! What a thing!

I read a blog from a guy at MS Mac BU, arguing why VBA is so hard to port to 10.5 and how easy it was to bring some annoying helpers in... By now he must be really mad at us advanced users, who use VBA frequently :p

So MS keep going and bring us VBA today, or tomorrow, or the day after that, but bring it back fast!

[GQB]

So this probably means that VBA will stay in future versions of Office on the Windows platform. Microsoft realizes that VBA isn't just for developing viruses.

It isn't?

[DMann]

Can I install both Office 2004 & Office 2008 on my Mac or must I uninstall one in order to install/run the other? If I can have & use both concurrently, is anybody doing this? Have you experienced any interoperability problems?

Yes, you can run both side by side. However, one has to be aware that preferences may become corrupt more easily running both versions.

When they say 'next version of Office' do they mean Office 2009 or 2010 (or 2012), or do they mean a revision number of 2008?


Next verion - MS Office 2016

[bigandy]

Thank god they realised their idiotic move, but this should NOT be a paid update.

[Ade-iMac-177]

I don't understand why everyone is being so calm about this! office 2008, especially Word, is a terrible set. i need this update now and it should have appeared before. :mad:

for god sake give me the update and let me have what i payed for! :mad:

hopefully the next office will be better - glad to hear VBA is back! :o

[Stridder44]

I know how fanboys love to hate "teh evil Micro$oft" but Office 2008 is awesome and beats the ever-living snot out of iWork and OpenOffice (which is a joke).

But then again, this is the same blind hate used against Vista too.

[MattyP30]

okay good and ba news

Custom Error Bars. Restored formatting option on the Error Bars panel for data series

THANK GOD! why did they remove this in the 1st place

The VBA thing is good, but this means that third party reference managers aren't gonna bend over backwards to update their software to be compatible if VBA is just going to come back in the next version.

[EagerDragon]

Yea no VBA means no office for me.

OpenOffice works good and iWorks works good too.

Whose brain was it to eliminate VBA. The whole idea was to provide a way to use/edit documents in either platform. Without VBA some documents do not work, therefore why buy the product when other products like OpenOffice and iWorks provide similar capabilities?


Next verion - MS Office 2016

Well that will give them a little time to fix some of the bugs and get VBA right. Mean time I will use iWorks and OpenOffice. Not spending money in the current version or any version until I see VBA and make sure there are no major issues.

[Achiever]

Yes, you can run both side by side. However, one has to be aware that preferences may become corrupt more easily running both versions.

Forgive the continued ignorance, but when you state "preferences may become corrupt more easily", what do you mean? Specifically, how will/could this effect the performance and how can it be fixed? When I indicated running the programs side-by-side, I actually meant "on the same machine", not necessarily at the same moment. Would that change anything? Many thanks.

[Eraserhead]

Well, I guess it's great that they're bring it back, but I have to wonder... why are they realizing this now?

Because they've decided not to essentially abandon Office for Mac. Ballmer is going and Gates is retaking over Microsoft, he's the one who's made two recent press releases for the company: http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2008/05/12/gates-windows-7-will-take-less-memory-be-more-efficient and http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2008/05/12/gates-windows-7-will-take-less-memory-be-more-efficient.

[DMann]

I think I read somewhere that the SP1 update will be available at 12pm... PST, EST, WTF, I'm not sure. It would be nice if it didn't take longer than Photoshop CS3 to open cold, that's for sure.

Yes, optimization for 10.5 would be very much welcome - 2004 opens and responds faster under universal code - this is sad.

I noticed that also. Someone needs to get their facts straight.

The announcement stated that the update "will" be available. Hopefully by 12:00 PM PST, or sometime today.

[Laco]

Yay...i love Office....When I first got a mac a year ago I ran NeoOffice which I think is pretty good then I switched to IWorks which I hated and now I'm using Office 2008 and its great, especially Word 2008 which I love.

haha the funny thing is I thought I already download the first service pack a few months ago...i guess it was just some update.

[3587]

Well, it does sound like Microsoft is paying attention to it's Mac customers... I think they spend time reading these forums, as I have caught a few of them replying to comments made... Keep up the good work!

With that being said however, it still lacks the performance... Big time! Like another user posted, it takes 45-60 seconds to completely load the program, to where you can actually use it. Mine still opens quickly, but then the cursor doesn't blink, because the program is still loading. I NEVER shut Word down on my computer for this very reason... Sometimes I will be on the phone, when asked questions, sometimes I need to open a document or spreadsheet quickly... I have no time to wait! In the Windows world, Word is so snappy, that you can actually close down the whole program, select a new document, and open it back up like the program was running the whole time, when actually it was closed. I don't get it.

Congrats on this VBA that I will NEVER use... I do need my documents to open fast... I need it to be snappy once its open... That is all I really want!

I'm sure Microsoft will get there... But by that time, they will come out with a completely new version that will need to be reworked as well! Upgrades are supposed to be steps forward... NOT backward! FYI.

[Westside guy]

I bought Office 2008; but as an experiment of sorts I've been exclusively using iWork '08 (motivated in part by the molasses-like launch speeds of Office 2008). I haven't yet found a need for Office at all.

Since I don't use Entourage, and won't need VBA... I am probably done with Office. I would guess the reason VBA is coming back is Microsoft realizes there's no particular need for most people to buy Office without it, thanks to the rapidly maturing alternatives (iWork, NeoOffice/StarOffice, AbiWord). I would also hazard a guess that their "Live!" components are going to find their way to the Mac side for the next iteration - they're probably scared as heck about Google Docs.

BTW let me put in a plug for AbiWord if you only need a word processor and not a spreadsheet program. It's lightweight, fast, and free. It did a darn good job even four-five years ago, back when I was a Linux-head and Office-compatibility options were few and far between.

[Moe]

"The response has been amazing; since we launched in January, the velocity of sales for Office 2008 is nearly three times what we saw after the launch of Office 2004,"

That's Vista-speak for "acceptance of this new product has been disappointing and we're hoping to do better in the next release."

[DMann]

That's Vista-speak for "acceptance of this new product has been disappointing and we're hoping to do better in the next release."

Vista speak has roots in Zune speak: "Overwhelming demand for the Zune has rocketed sales to hit the 2 Million mark, since it was released in 2006."

[Raid]

...the team recognizes that VBA-language support is important to a select group of customers who rely on sharing macros across platforms. The Mac BU is always working to meet customers' needs and already is hard at work on the next version of Office for Mac.

One complaint down! :D I'm actually happy that Microsoft is adding back VBA support. Now if they can add:
1. an option to enable the one-letter short cuts (a la Windows Excel 2003)
2. Fix hyper links from disappearing when going from Windows to Mac
3. Speed up load time.

I'd be a very happy camper.

[tmelvin]

If I could only get a copy of Entourage. Other than that, iWorks '08 works extremely well. Fast, easy to use...

[superleccy]

so, i guess i'm just skipping a version until the next version of Office. 2004 will do for now.

Glad they're bringing back VBA support.

My thoughts exactly. I wonder now how many other Office 2004 users who were on the fence have now decided to wait for office 201x. :rolleyes:

Although, I bet you'll have to shell out for the "premium edition" or whatever to get VBA support. :(

SL

[SimonTheSoundMa]

Anyone know where you can download SP1 from? Does not appear on AutoUpdate or Microsoft Mactopia site.

[Zadillo]

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx if anyone is looking for the actual link.

[Zadillo]

Well, it does sound like Microsoft is paying attention to it's Mac customers... I think they spend time reading these forums, as I have caught a few of them replying to comments made... Keep up the good work!

With that being said however, it still lacks the performance... Big time! Like another user posted, it takes 45-60 seconds to completely load the program, to where you can actually use it. Mine still opens quickly, but then the cursor doesn't blink, because the program is still loading. I NEVER shut Word down on my computer for this very reason... Sometimes I will be on the phone, when asked questions, sometimes I need to open a document or spreadsheet quickly... I have no time to wait! In the Windows world, Word is so snappy, that you can actually close down the whole program, select a new document, and open it back up like the program was running the whole time, when actually it was closed. I don't get it.

Congrats on this VBA that I will NEVER use... I do need my documents to open fast... I need it to be snappy once its open... That is all I really want!

I'm sure Microsoft will get there... But by that time, they will come out with a completely new version that will need to be reworked as well! Upgrades are supposed to be steps forward... NOT backward! FYI.

Is that on PPC or Intel? I'm on a 2.6GHz MBP and from clicking the Word icon in the dock to being able to type is about 5-6 seconds.

-Zadillo

[Izzy]

I prefer iWork to Office but Apple has to make Numbers more powerful to allow me to completely abandon Excel. As it stands now, I would never use Word or PowerPoint again except that I often have to share documents with Windows users and the conversion back and forth just isn't accurate enough.

This has me using Office on a daily basis. The upgrade to 2008 has been a disappointment because it takes forever to load, Word and Excel crash frequently, and having no VBA creates its own set of problems. Hopefully, the SP will fix the first two issues. Otherwise, I would recommend that anyone thinking about upgrading to 2008 should skip it and wait for the next version. Office 2004 may lack the new features but at least it will allow you to reliably get your work done.

[skinbubble]

I like the new Microsoft Office for Mac. Except the fact that Office for Mac does not have histograms in Excel. I use Excel a lot and would love to have that feature!

[dwman]

It was said the reason VBA support was initially removed is because it would have taken a couple of more years to port it over to Office 2008. Guess they were right - now it will take a few more years before they get it into Office 20xx.

[bdkennedy1]

I tried running Word '08, and it is slower than snot. Seriously... I could have launched the entire CS3 suite and Word would still be loading. I trashed it immediately. If that's the way they're headed, I don't want anything to do with Office...

I have a 2.4ghz iMac and the launch time for Word is almost as ridiculous as it is for version 2004.

You see, Word has to go through and check every font installed on your Mac to make sure none are corrupted and to load them into cache.

When I launch Word, I see nothing but a bouncing dock icon for over a minute. I have over 1000 fonts installed on my system, like many graphic designers do.

Adobe doesn't do this, so why Microsoft? Poorly written software. This problem goes back to the days where Word would crash if you unknowingly tried to use a corrupted font. So the geniuses at Microsoft decided to correct the problem by checking every font first. Yay!

[RichardI]

the velocity of sales for Office 2008
Ha ha.:D Did he really use the word "velocity"? :D
Hope he didn't write the grammar checker.:rolleyes:

Rich :cool:

[needsomecoffee]

Thanks to Google + Zoho we get VB macros back.

It is absurd for MSFT to suggest they are bringing VB back after learning of the need for it from a supposedly small segment of users. Just absurd. They knew it would screw nearly every business user of Excel, but in previously-typical MSFT fashion they just did not care.

What we are seeing if the affect of competition. How stupid is it that Zoho can provide VB for macros, yet mighty MSFT cannot find the resources to covert at least some of the key VB elements for Leopard. That tells you all you need to know about it.

This is a true sign that MSFT is really under some strategic pressure. Good for Mac users, and ultimately good for MSFT shareholders. They really have some great talent at the company (know a good number myself), but must get past their misanthropic management decisions.

needSomeCoffee?

[yudilks]

Have anyone installed this update? I'm currently installing it right now.. Any noticeable improvement in the performance?

[dwsolberg]

I bought the Office 2008 and subsequently reverted back to 2004, which has actually become a pretty good suite of programs. I was stunned at how slow and buggy 2008 was. I've actually never before revert to an earlier program, but the compatibility with the PC Office 2003 is much worse than in Office 2004 (particularly with formulas, which I use all the time). My hope is that someday the Office 2008 will be fast and stable enough to use. At first I thought that Microsoft was just trying to hurt Mac users, but given Vista's reviews, I think they just have a lot of trouble writing software.

[HLdan]

I know how fanboys love to hate "teh evil Micro$oft" but Office 2008 is awesome and beats the ever-living snot out of iWork and OpenOffice (which is a joke).

But then again, this is the same blind hate used against Vista too.

Well you are welcome to sit around and do name calling all you want (example, Fanboy comments) (you don't look like prince doing that BTW) but the truth of the matter is Microsoft gives the Mac community very good reasons to hate them.

Firstly they come out with Office 2008 and for most people who don't read these forums they just go into the Apple store and buy MS Office thinking it's as good or better than the last. They have no idea MS screwed them on the VBA thing. Once they get home and open it and find out later they are stuck with it.

MS Office 2008 is very slow to load (especially against the Windows version) despite the claims by MS it's designed for the Intel Macs.
Now MS makes an announcement that they are bringing VBA back to Mac Office and unfortunately not until the next version???
Hmm, that means you will have to buy another copy of Office and it won't be available until 2012.
This is a ploy to get force the Intel Mac community to buy the Windows version, that was Microsoft's plan all along.
Tell me why the Mac community doesn't have a reason to hate Microsoft. :(

There nothing blind about the Mac communities reaction and BTW as far as Vista is concerned, you need to visit more Windows forums, they will tell you how much Vista sucks, you don't need Mac users for that.

[jabooth]

Available at the Microsoft website now - downloading.

Hope this speeds up Office - it's definitely sluggish at the mo compared to the lightening-fast iWork. :rolleyes:

[Mitch1984]

I used checked my updater, It's not showing up, I installed all my other updates, is this just a combo then?

[jabooth]

The installer says it will take up 474MB - surely that cannot be right! :eek:

[jabooth]

I used checked my updater, It's not showing up, I installed all my other updates, is this just a combo then?

It's not on Microsoft Auto Update yet - you have to go to the Microsoft website to download.

[nigrunze]

Two things I noticed.

1) Microsoft also released an update for Office 2004.
2) What's up with Microsoft's version scheme? Office 2004 went from 11.x.0 -> 11.x.2 -> 11.x.3, etc. . Office 2008 is going from 12.0.0 -> 12.0.1 -> 12.1.0 . Guess they're changing it to go along with major updates.

[capoeirista]

Coincidentally, I uninstalled Office 2008 last night. I had both 2004 and 2008 on my Macbook, and I didn't mind 2008 too much as it didn't cause my fans to go into jet engine mode. It is full of bugs however (spaces anyone?), and MOST importantly (for me) it doesn't work with Endnote (bibliography software). It also stopped my copy of Word 2004 working with Endnote too. It had to go. I use iWork most of the time now, and use Word 2004 to insert references.

I think when it is finished it'll be a good suite (as others have said excel>numbers), but until it is fixed, no thanks...

[sushi]

so, i guess i'm just skipping a version until the next version of Office. 2004 will do for now.

Glad they're bringing back VBA support.
Likewise.

This answers my question about getting Office 2008. Like you, I'm going to wait for the next version with VBA support. Office 2004 will have to work until then for me.

Good news! :)

[Mitch1984]

It's not on Microsoft Auto Update yet - you have to go to the Microsoft website to download.

Thanks. Downloading now.

[DMann]

Anyone know where you can download SP1 from? Does not appear on AutoUpdate or Microsoft Mactopia site.

Update ought to appear later in the day. (Vista Speak: any minute now)

When downloading from the Mactopia site: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx?pid=Mactopia_Office2008&fid=395D1487-A3A6-4106-A0F8-4D6E1D6D89D2#viewer
be sure to scroll down in 'Details' to select appropriate download link.

[ltldrummerboy]

The OpenOffice.org Aqua beta was finally released a few days ago. I haven't tried Office '08 and I can't tell if it's a really terrible set of programs or the fanboys are just louder than everyone else.

[mdntcallr]

this is a good continuation for mac compatibility for product lines.

BUT... Microsoft ought to create better Windows Media Player DRM compatibility. By allowing Flip4Mac to playback DRM encoded WMP files.

This is a big issue as many providers use microsoft DRM, until msft allows for better DRM compatibility, macs users are being given second class status!

[Zoboomafoo]

Hmm..

Users 1, Microsoft 0.

[kbmb]

The installer says it will take up 474MB - surely that cannot be right! :eek:

No, it's not right at all. Mine says it's going to take up 521MB :eek::eek::eek:

And my first Time Machine backup afterwards is backing up 833MB of data, granted 180MB is the .dmg...but still!

How come I feel so 'dirty' using a Microsoft product on my Mac?! :D

-Kevin

[decimortis]

So I just updated and Word seems to have opened faster.
I dunno, that's fine I guess...

I'm an upgrade junkie...just ask my 4th wife.

[daneoni]

Just installed the update and cold launches are still slow but subsequent launches seems to be reasonably faster.

[telecomm]

The Equation Editor bug (fuzzy equations in reopened docs) seems to be fixed. It's just a shame this update is nearly the size of iWork...

Edit: Just to clarify, formerly fuzzy images are still fuzzy, but if you double-click one to fix the way it displays the change seems to stick.

[pwygant]

So I just updated and Word seems to have opened faster.
I dunno, that's fine I guess...

I'm an upgrade junkie...just ask my 4th wife.

Well, I just updated the application as well and it broke the installation. Every time i click on either of the bundled apps it goes into the customer experience program, click continue, then auto update, then the application never opens? Am I missing something here?

//Cheers

[TAV]

Well, I just updated the application as well and it broke the installation. Every time i click on either of the bundled apps it goes into the customer experience program, click continue, then auto update, then the application never opens? Am I missing something here?

//Cheers

I am experiencing the same after the installation of SP1.

[airjuggernaut]

I am experiencing the same after the installation of SP1.
Pirates Ahoy!

Yeah...I experienced the same thing...

[LaDirection]

so, i guess i'm just skipping a version until the next version of Office. 2004 will do for now.

Glad they're bringing back VBA support.

Right on, and barefeats benchmarks showed that Office 2004 under Rosetta is FASTER than the US 2008 on MacTel machines. Ô_ô

[FoxyKaye]

...the team recognizes that VBA-language support is important to a select group of customers who rely on sharing macros across platforms. The Mac BU is always working to meet customers' needs and already is hard at work on the next version of Office for Mac.
Rubbish. They're acting like this is a fracking surprise? They knew in 2006 this would be an issue. I love the "select group of customers" notion... Maybe M$ will find the missing WMDs in Iraq, too.

[telecomm]

Details on the update are now available here (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952331/en-us).

[phytonix]

Sure. Let's welcome VB in Office 2012.
No, thanks.

[johnnyjibbs]

This is great. Custom error bars are back. Hope this brings performance gains!

Overall I'm really happy with Office 2008 - it's such a big step up from the previous versions (for once). I skipped 2004, as the free trial added nothing new over v.X (which I had) but I'm glad everything has been overhauled so as to look much better. It's nice to see that Microsoft is making an effort, especially with increased competition from iWork.

[bbyrdhouse]

Adding VB support is great! Although I agree that it should have already been there. Oh well, at least it will be there in the next update.

[Darkroom]

Right on, and barefeats benchmarks showed that Office 2004 under Rosetta is FASTER than the US 2008 on MacTel machines. Ô_ô

tell me about it... in january when i launched Office 2008 for the first time i wasn't impressed... to see that it takes MICROSOFT WORD longer to launch than ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS3 was enough for me to pawn that junk off on craigslist, and write "Mac Business Unit" (or whoev) a nasty email...

their service pack 1 for office08 HAS to make it faster... there's no way anything can slow it down even more...

[treichert]

Well, I just updated the application as well and it broke the installation. Every time i click on either of the bundled apps it goes into the customer experience program, click continue, then auto update, then the application never opens? Am I missing something here?

//Cheers

Yep, same here. Now Word/Excel/PowerPoint/Entourage just don't open unbearably slow, they don't open at all.

Thanks, Microsoft

Sometimes I'm wondering why I even put up with this crap.....

[jonharris200]

Surely most of Microsoft's increased Office sales is due to the fact that Mac sales are going through the roof right now?

[dagamer34]

Yep, same here. Now Word/Excel/PowerPoint/Entourage just don't open unbearably slow, they don't open at all.

Thanks, Microsoft

Sometimes I'm wondering why I even put up with this crap.....

Also the same here! Thank god for QuickLook. I can still see my Word docs.

[jons]

tell me about it... in january when i launched Office 2008 for the first time i wasn't impressed... to see that it takes MICROSOFT WORD longer to launch than ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS3 was enough for me to pawn that junk off on craigslist, and write "Mac Business Unit" (or whoev) a nasty email...

their service pack 1 for office08 HAS to make it faster... there's no way anything can slow it down even more...

Never say never... :D

[MSD401]

Any word on if it works better with spaces and expose cause Im tired of word documents getting stuck in the background!!!!:mad:

[DMann]

I am experiencing the same after the installation of SP1.

Surely, a registration workaround will be distributed sometime during the week. Until then,
revert, revert, revert.

[kbmb]

Still hasn't fixed the Invalid Context errors in the console!

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=423449

-Kevin

[telecomm]

Any word on if it works better with spaces and expose cause Im tired of word documents getting stuck in the background!!!!:mad:

Not fixed. Hopefully with 10.5.3, since apparently there are other apps affected as well.

[heehee]

I installed the update and the CPU process "mdworker" is going crazy. I'm going back to 2004. :mad:

[MShock]

I do a lot of work with macros, being a student shortcuts for word templates and legal excel docs are a necessity to get anything done on time. Thank God VBA will be back.

I actually wish microsoft would bring windows media player back. I know the quicktime plugin is ok, but it has slow load times for internet only content. VLC is a good alternative, but still doesn't play the latest microsoft media formats. Either bring it back, or axe all microsoft media formats would be nice...

[TAV]

Surely, a registration workaround will be distributed sometime during the week. Until then,
revert, revert, revert.

Yep ;)

[megfilmworks]

The tide has changed. Vista is a flop and Apple drives their Office success.
It's about time that the people with vision lead the bean counters.

[liberty4all]

What about MS Project, and making THIS version of Office faster on PowerPCs?!

Project has been missing for even longer, and would be nice to see back on the Mac.

[brian6504]

Available at the Microsoft website now - downloading.

Hope this speeds up Office - it's definitely sluggish at the mo compared to the lightening-fast iWork. :rolleyes:

Have you used any remotely complex formulas with inter-cell and sheet dependencies in Numbers? On my MBP 2.4 GHz with 2 GB RAM, the lag time can be measured in seconds. Excel handles these things so much more efficiently and doesn't prevent you from working in this regard.

[Shadow]

Also the same here! Thank god for QuickLook. I can still see my Word docs.

I'm having the same also :mad:
Luckily iWork 08 can open the new files. I have work which is absolutely _critical_ due in this week too. Bad show Microsoft.

[MikeAnd]

No problems with the update. Not sure about changes yet.

[Kar98]

Well, I just updated the application as well and it broke the installation. Every time i click on either of the bundled apps it goes into the customer experience program, click continue, then auto update, then the application never opens? Am I missing something here?

//Cheers

Well, that worked well.

[iPoodOverZune]

Coincidentally, I uninstalled Office 2008 last night. I had both 2004 and 2008 on my Macbook, and I didn't mind 2008 too much as it didn't cause my fans to go into jet engine mode. It is full of bugs however (spaces anyone?), and MOST importantly (for me) it doesn't work with Endnote (bibliography software). It also stopped my copy of Word 2004 working with Endnote too. It had to go. I use iWork most of the time now, and use Word 2004 to insert references.

I think when it is finished it'll be a good suite (as others have said excel>numbers), but until it is fixed, no thanks...

If you insert references at later stage, then try Papers from mekentosj people. Papers is an excellent or shall I say gold standard app. It like itunes for pdf. Now they have implemented (although not direct as endnote) inserting references. It still uses endnote to create library but it does pretty much you do right now with the added benefit of whole pdf library in one place. Endnote sucks when it comes to reading through articles.

[realgenius]

Also notable is that Microsoft has announced that they will be bringing back Visual Basic for Applications in the next version of Mac Office:

...the team recognizes that VBA-language support is important to a select group of customers who rely on sharing macros across platforms. The Mac BU is always working to meet customers' needs and already is hard at work on the next version of Office for Mac.

Does it say VBA will be returning?

Doesn't it just say that some people use VBA and that Microsoft works hard to please customers? It seems to be missing something like "...the next version of Office for Mac, which will include VBA-language support."

[brian6504]

Well you are welcome to sit around and do name calling all you want (example, Fanboy comments) (you don't look like prince doing that BTW) but the truth of the matter is Microsoft gives the Mac community very good reasons to hate them.

Firstly they come out with Office 2008 and for most people who don't read these forums they just go into the Apple store and buy MS Office thinking it's as good or better than the last. They have no idea MS screwed them on the VBA thing. Once they get home and open it and find out later they are stuck with it.

MS Office 2008 is very slow to load (especially against the Windows version) despite the claims by MS it's designed for the Intel Macs.
Now MS makes an announcement that they are bringing VBA back to Mac Office and unfortunately not until the next version???
Hmm, that means you will have to buy another copy of Office and it won't be available until 2012.
This is a ploy to get force the Intel Mac community to buy the Windows version, that was Microsoft's plan all along.
Tell me why the Mac community doesn't have a reason to hate Microsoft. :(

There nothing blind about the Mac communities reaction and BTW as far as Vista is concerned, you need to visit more Windows forums, they will tell you how much Vista sucks, you don't need Mac users for that.

Microsoft was been very open about the missing the VBA support almost since they decided they had to cut the feature. It's not something they took lightly. If you (as in one) knows anything about software development it wouldn't be hard to see why. Not only did Microsoft have to move their entire build system to Xcode from Code Warrior (which is no small feat), they had to update all their code to compile with gcc. After that they had to pour over the code base to account for subtle difference on the x86 and ppc.

That's a lot of work. Then consider the fact that the VBA code was largely written in PPC assembly. There is no conversion to x86 assembly, so they have to essentially rewrite the entire VBA compiler for the x86, ignoring the fact they're moving from CFM to Mach-O. The complexity of this is enormous and no firm could pull this off in the way everyone expected.

And Office 2008 is actually built for Intel Macs. It does actually contain x86 binaries. Stop all the conspiracy theories and learn a little bit about software and sympathize with the huge burden placed on Microsoft's Mac developers.

[louden]

I dont get it, both MR and Macworld are reporting that the SP1 update is now available via MS's site or SU but i've been checking both mediums for the last 5 hrs and still cant find the update.

Where is it? :confused:

I'd bet they're rolling it out slowly and only making it visible to certain users or serial numbers. Either that or they "RTM'd" it and haven't released it yet. I'm sure it will be here soon enough. I don't think it will change Office very much.

I sure wish they'd bring One Note to the mac side....

[iPoodOverZune]

"Reliability is improved for pictures that used to display a QuickTime-related error message.
This update fixes an issue that causes some pictures to display the following error messages:
• QuickTime™ and a decompressor are needed to see this picture.
• QuickTime™ and a TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.
This issue might occur when you open or copy pictures from Office documents that were created in an earlier version of Office for Mac or of a Windows-based version of Office. "

This was one major headache for me in terms of windows compatibility as all my research collaborators use windows. It sucked whenever I would send them a powerpoint and then the figures would be blank with those errors. Hopefully, that scenario is improved now.

[Eraserhead]

^^ Thats been a bug since at least 1995, I'm impressed they've fixed it.

[mogrefy]

Not fixed. Hopefully with 10.5.3, since apparently there are other apps affected as well.

Please say it is so, I'm so sick and tired of having Office Applications getting stuck in the background or bouncing out of their "assigned space"!!!!


:mad::eek::mad::eek::mad:

[xUKHCx]

• QuickTime™ and a decompressor are needed to see this picture.
• QuickTime™ and a TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture..

^^ Thats been a bug since at least 1995, I'm impressed they've fixed it.

It was a simple enough problem to work around though rather than draggin/dropping or copy/pasting you choose Insert instead. Once I learned that I never had the problem ever again.

[onestream]

Hah, VBA was predicted to return in the next Office for Mac version by the guys over at microsoftrumors.com in early April...

[NAG]

Neat, Excel isn't completely worthless for scientific graphing anymore.

[jacg]

Microsoft was been very open about the missing the VBA support almost since they decided they had to cut the feature. It's not something they took lightly. If you (as in one) knows anything about software development it wouldn't be hard to see why. Not only did Microsoft have to move their entire build system to Xcode from Code Warrior (which is no small feat), they had to update all their code to compile with gcc. After that they had to pour over the code base to account for subtle difference on the x86 and ppc.

That's a lot of work. Then consider the fact that the VBA code was largely written in PPC assembly. There is no conversion to x86 assembly, so they have to essentially rewrite the entire VBA compiler for the x86, ignoring the fact they're moving from CFM to Mach-O. The complexity of this is enormous and no firm could pull this off in the way everyone expected.

And Office 2008 is actually built for Intel Macs. It does actually contain x86 binaries. Stop all the conspiracy theories and learn a little bit about software and sympathize with the huge burden placed on Microsoft's Mac developers.

Why does it feel like the same ancient software with an attempted gloss on top? It does so many common things in such a clunky way compared to regular OS X software, and with 2008 the interface just gets worse. Can we get rid of the irritating buttons below the menubar yet? (why would you copy OS X's most ineffective interface element - the dashboard widget bar?)

[ArtOfWarfare]

really?

I would think 2008 would be one of their worse selling ever.

I mean, Pages, Keynote, iChat, and Mail easily beat their Office counterparts and come at a fraction of the price.

And Numbers isn't too bad. As far as ease of use and how good it looks... Numbers wins. Unfortunately, it is missing numerous features. (Line of best fit ... multipart graphs... just to name the ones I've repetitively found disappointing to find absent... so I'm still being force to use Excel 2004 from time to time. Hopefully Numbers 2 will be much better.)

[fabian9]

I really hope this updates fixes the microsoft equation editor bug which leaves equations horribly pixelated when saving a word document in the new docx file format... it's really annoying!

Also I hope I won't get an error message telling me that I've run out of disk space when I always had 70+GB available on my hard drive. It then wouldn't let me save my work anymore! lol because that was also very, very annoying!

Seriously I've had sooo many issues with office '08 since it's come out. I used to like it but then I had to do my final year project on it and it turned out to be a nightmare. really do hope it's more than a good beta now..........

Fabian

[Eraserhead]

It was a simple enough problem to work around though rather than draggin/dropping or copy/pasting you choose Insert instead. Once I learned that I never had the problem ever again.

True, but you shouldn't have to use that work-around ;).

[twoodcc]

sounds nice. i'll go download this now

[mstur]

Keep the updates coming - Office 2008 ought to be more optimized for Leopard than it is.
Would like to see snappier performance overall.

What you need is pure and raw RAM !!
I use Office 2008 on my iMac (4 GB RAM) and my Mac Pro (8 GB RAM) just with 10.4.11, and it screams !

Powerpoint was never that fast, reliable, intuitive, and: STABLE !!

I also have Office 2008 on my Macbook Air (2 GB, SSD), and it is the first Office version I almost never see the beachball...

[CptnJustc]

I really hope this updates fixes the microsoft equation editor bug which leaves equations horribly pixelated when saving a word document in the new docx file format... it's really annoying!


Aye, it does seem to fix this. Annoying when I noticed this was happening on reload toward the tail end of a 30-page document filled with equations.

Also I hope I won't get an error message telling me that I've run out of disk space when I always had 70+GB available on my hard drive. It then wouldn't let me save my work anymore! lol because that was also very, very annoying!


I've run into this one, too. When this error hit, it also converted my equations into pictures rather than equations, making them uneditable and trashing my document. Hasn't happened since that once, though, despite having occasionally less disk space. Bizarre.

So far, I haven't run into any of the Expose problems since the update. At least those weren't fatal errors, but they were hugely annoying.

[boobooq88]

I have one thing to say...

NeoOffice

Or OpenOffice 3 cuz it has the Aqua interface now ;)

[spinko]

what is MSO-08 compatible with ? .. I had to buy this sh** because it supports dotx which is used on the PC platform.. that's why.. definitely not because it is the most compatible version... it's not even officially compatible with all my fonts... and besides it will certainly introduce another flux of incompatibilities over the months and years to come..

Plus the fact that Powerpoint is generating a huge load of mediocre presentations.. polluting the visual sphere with the most horrendous slide shows and lowering peoples visual quality threshold in the process.. you could add Word to this too. At least Apple makes an effort in this respect.

The only decent program in this suite is Excel..


thank's M$
:apple:

[Matthew Yohe]

It looks like Entourage is silently rebuilding the spotlight database for my Entourage database... Microsoft's database daemon and mds are trading off in hogging the CPU and quick large disk writes.

[dr_lha]

really?

I would think 2008 would be one of their worse selling ever.

I mean, Pages, Keynote, iChat, and Mail easily beat their Office counterparts and come at a fraction of the price.

And Numbers isn't too bad. As far as ease of use and how good it looks... Numbers wins. Unfortunately, it is missing numerous features. (Line of best fit ... multipart graphs... just to name the ones I've repetitively found disappointing to find absent... so I'm still being force to use Excel 2004 from time to time. Hopefully Numbers 2 will be much better.)
I'll agree, Keynote beats Powerpoint, but Pages will never Beat Word all the time that publishers and journals expect you to submit Word documents based on their templates. Pages just isn't compatible with Word enough yet.

Numbers has a long way to go before it gets to Excel's level, but it is a fun app to use for non-work stuff, I'll admit.

[c073186]

Is this update available yet or not? Some people say they've installed it but I cannot find where to download it and software update says there are no new updates available. This is SP1 for Office '08, right?

[dr_lha]

So far, I haven't run into any of the Expose problems since the update. At least those weren't fatal errors, but they were hugely annoying.
Right now I have an SP1 Excel window stuck below everything else, and another which keeps changes with Space its on as I switch. Its safe to say that SP1 did not fix the Expose issue, but hopefully 10.5.3 will.

[jasoncps]

After updating to SP1, my Office 2008 never starts.

The Office assistant asking me to join the Customer Experience program just keeps coming up and never goes away. None of my Office apps ever launch!! Thanks Microsoft for yet another garbage product for the Mac.

Apple please make an Office alternative so I never have to run any garbage Microsoft software again.

By the way anyone know how to fix this problem without erasing and reinstalling?

[tomcattmatt]

I really hope they fixed some of the bugs in Word 08'. I was considering going back to 04' before the SP1. Has anyone tested it out to see if it works any better?

[LittleJ09]

After updating to SP1, my Office 2008 never starts.

The Office assistant asking me to join the Customer Experience program just keeps coming up and never goes away. None of my Office apps ever launch!!

Ditto, install with caution. :mad:

[brian6504]

Why does it feel like the same ancient software with an attempted gloss on top? It does so many common things in such a clunky way compared to regular OS X software, and with 2008 the interface just gets worse. Can we get rid of the irritating buttons below the menubar yet? (why would you copy OS X's most ineffective interface element - the dashboard widget bar?)

That's because it is the same ancient software with UI enhancements. The Office code base has a long and unflattering history. Apple's transition from Classic to OS X and PPC to x86 didn't help out the team any. Hopefully things from Apple's end will stable out and Office will greatly improve in the next few releases.

And as for your UI questions, I ask when have we ever seen any UI innovation or consistency from Microsoft? Pretty much never. Sure 2007 introduce the ribbon in some apps, but they still use the same old dialogs for everything else.

[Zadillo]

It seems like SP1 has fixed the Excel 2008 error ""File error: data may have been lost."" that I got when opening a lot of spreadsheets from Excel 2007. This is definitely nice, as some of the multisheet spreadsheets I had would require clicking "OK" on like 10 or 12 of those errors.

[-hh]

Rubbish. They're acting like this is a fracking surprise? They knew in 2006 this would be an issue. I love the "select group of customers" notion... Maybe M$ will find the missing WMDs in Iraq, too.

To a large degree, I see this as 'Vaporware' annoucement from the Microsoft camp.

They know that there's a lot of Mac adoption on the consumer side ... and sales of Office 2008 indicates a lot of White Collar types that can influence the adoption of Macs into the Enterprise.

To prevent more wholesale defections away from Office into the different options (NeoOffice, iWork, etc), all MS had to do was to deliver a message that stopped these potential "lost sales" from being motivated to actively go out to look for alternatives.

Thus, their promise is to "Bring Back" VBA gives their discontent consumers a warm fuzzy that they don't need to bother look for alternatives, but merely sit back (fat dumb happy) and wait for MS to deliver...eventually.

Adding VB support is great! Although I agree that it should have already been there. Oh well, at least it will be there in the next update.

Update that you pay for, you mean.

The clincher here is that this isn't being promised as a FREE upgrade to existing (eg, "screwed") Office 2008 customers, but as something that will come about ... um ... "eventually" in a MS Office product whose name (2010? 2012?) and shipping date haven't been even announced.

Gosh, its not like we've ever seen this sort of pattern ever before!

Microsoft was been very open about the missing the VBA support almost since they decided they had to cut the feature. It's not something they took lightly. If you (as in one) knows anything about software development it wouldn't be hard to see why. Not only did Microsoft have to move their entire build system to Xcode from Code Warrior (which is no small feat), they had to update all their code to compile with gcc. After that they had to pour over the code base to account for subtle difference on the x86 and ppc.

That's a lot of work.

And they've had utterly no warning whatsoever for years, just like Adobe, right?

I might buy it...some...but that still doesn't reconcile with their business decision to not provide this as a free upgrade to existing 2008 buyers.

Overall, what I suspect is a tad more likely is that MS saw that a lot of people bought 2004 and got 2008 for $20. Personally, I routinely "skip upgrade" in this fashion on Microsoft products.



Then consider the fact that the VBA code was largely written in PPC assembly. There is no conversion to x86 assembly, so they have to essentially rewrite the entire VBA compiler for the x86, ignoring the fact they're moving from CFM to Mach-O. The complexity of this is enormous and no firm could pull this off in the way everyone expected.

I'm a bit puzzled here: if a complete rewrite was necessary, then why would they repeat the mistake by writing in assembler again? Why not do the rewrite in a higher-level language so that the original code (at least) is hardware-insensitive portable?

And it still doesn't wash with the idea of "making good" to existing Office 2008 customers. It doesn't matter if the project takes another year or another 3 years: MS could - - if they wanted to - - alternatively announced that VBA will be a free upgrade to Office 2008. Given that the MBU is reportedly tehir most profitable division, its hard to rationalize soaking your good custoemrs while giving away cute freebies in the White Elephant-of-a-Zune division. Or even charging nothing for XP rollbacks on Vista purchases.

My overall assessment = "thumbs down", for this announcement simply illustrates that MS has the intellectual capacity of the southern end of a north-bound horse.


-hh

[cervaro]

At the risk of sounding dumb here, but why couldn't Microsoft have ported the Windows version of Office 2007 that obviously runs on Intel hardware to the Mac, which also runs on Intel hardware now?

[brian6504]

And they've had utterly no warning whatsoever for years, just like Adobe, right?

You can't just transition millions of lines of code instantly. I described all that was involved in the transition earlier. I'm sure not many people appreciate how hard software is to build (i.e. going from code to an executable), but trust me, it's hard. Mac OS X had lived a double life since the start. That's why it appeared easy from Apple's side.

I'm a bit puzzled here: if a complete rewrite was necessary, then why would they repeat the mistake by writing in assembler again? Why not do the rewrite in a higher-level language so that the original code (at least) is hardware-insensitive portable?

I don't know that they're rewriting it in assembly. It may be in C. However, they still need code emitters for PCC and x86. And if they want to go 64-bit, PPC64 and x86-64. It is by no means trivial. Or they may be going with an software interpreter. I have no clue. The point is it had to be entirely rewritten. Keep in mind this feature's scale is larger than some other titles you use every day.

[dr_lha]

At the risk of sounding dumb here, but why couldn't Microsoft have ported the Windows version of Office 2007 that obviously runs on Intel hardware to the Mac, which also runs on Intel hardware now?
Because the operating system is a bigger issue than the CPU type. Mac OS X has a completely different API to Windows, so porting the Windows Office 2007 would be a significant job. The fact that Mac is on Intel would not make that job any easier.

Of course if you want to run Office 2007 on a Mac, you can do so. You simply have to use either VMWare, Parallels, Bootcamp or Crossover Office.

[Ade-iMac-177]

At the risk of sounding dumb here, but why couldn't Microsoft have ported the Windows version of Office 2007 that obviously runs on Intel hardware to the Mac, which also runs on Intel hardware now?

There is a few core and UI obstacles to overcome but i really like the idea. i have found that office 2007 is easily the best version i have used and 2008 is easily the worst. I so wish i could run 2007 without VMware Fusion native on OS X. i reckon Microsoft are just getting revenge for the PC vs. Mac adverts. the next version of office better be better!

[adr1974]

update worked fine for me, which is strange. also fixed the excel issue whereby system would freeze (requiring reboot) after maximizing spreadsheet.

[liberty4all]

What's Mac MS Office' 64-bit transition schedule -- next version?

[dzhiurgis]

I'm having this issue:
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/7621/picture2wm3.th.png (http://img187.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture2wm3.png)
I'm using home & student version. The Microsoft autoupdate finds nothing.

[jacg]

It seems like SP1 has fixed the Excel 2008 error ""File error: data may have been lost."" that I got when opening a lot of spreadsheets from Excel 2007. This is definitely nice, as some of the multisheet spreadsheets I had would require clicking "OK" on like 10 or 12 of those errors.

Yeah, I'm down to two clicks now - one for some xml code that has flipped out over something and added underscores to formulas, and one telling me my macros are history.

Sticking with 2004 for now.

[notjustjay]

Does it say VBA will be returning?

Doesn't it just say that some people use VBA and that Microsoft works hard to please customers? It seems to be missing something like "...the next version of Office for Mac, which will include VBA-language support."

Hah! I noticed that too, but I dismissed it as me being far too cynical.

Here's hoping, anyway.

[brian6504]

What's Mac MS Office' 64-bit transition schedule -- next version?

I would doubt that. They have to move to Cocoa before it can be fully 64-bit. I know Adobe has this on their roadmap but I, and I'm sure Microsoft, believes its customers will be better served with the reintroduction of VBA. Then, of course, they'll have to make VBA 64-bit!

[SirROM]

guidowenzl over on VersionTracker had this solution and it works!


try this:
delete ˜/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008/Microsoft Office 2008 Settings.plist
delete /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Office/OfficePID.plist

then start an app - put in serial number.
after that it starts the MS update again and then it should work - at least it did it for me !
Hope you all have luck too !

[jacg]

The point is it had to be entirely rewritten. Keep in mind this feature's scale is larger than some other titles you use every day.

I don't understand why it was entirely rewritten yet they failed to make it any better from the bottom up. Why are so many things unchanged from Office 98 (or whatever the OS 9 version was)? Software has moved on. Use any piece of Apple software (except DVD Studio - I hate that) and you can do simple or complicated things quickly. Use some half decent 3rd party software and it's just as easy to achieve things quickly. Using Word and Excel 2004 under Leopard is like working in a timewarp. Why after being "entirely rewritten" are the 2008 apps no different, except for more pointless eye candy slapped on the top of the old tosh?

I have little understanding of programming so what would I know. In my mind, however, Office 2008 seems to have been transcoded for Intel, not re-written.

I am delighted to hear that VBA will return (when though and for how much £?) but it seems unlikely that the core code will ever lead to productive and satisfying versions of the applications. After all they are hardly likely to re-write all that entirely rewritten code again.

[yojitani]

guidowenzl over on VersionTracker had this solution and it works!


try this:
delete ˜/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008/Microsoft Office 2008 Settings.plist
delete /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Office/OfficePID.plist

then start an app - put in serial number.
after that it starts the MS update again and then it should work - at least it did it for me !
Hope you all have luck too !

Thank you. That worked.

Damn you MS!:mad: That took 1 hour and 45 mins to sort out!

[MagicBoy]

After updating to SP1, my Office 2008 never starts.

The Office assistant asking me to join the Customer Experience program just keeps coming up and never goes away. None of my Office apps ever launch!! Thanks Microsoft for yet another garbage product for the Mac.

Apple please make an Office alternative so I never have to run any garbage Microsoft software again.

By the way anyone know how to fix this problem without erasing and reinstalling?

Same here.

At least I now know Time Machine works!

[jmmo20]

Pirates Ahoy!

Yeah...I experienced the same thing...

my copy of Office 2008 is very legal, thank you very much.
Still... SP1 rendered my LEGAL office copy totally unusable for the reason mentioned above.

Had to recover 12.0.1 from time machine.

Way to go Microsoft. Every time you do anything you cover yourself with glory (.. or ****.. that's what the spanish saying is :D)

[brian6504]

I don't understand why it was entirely rewritten yet they failed to make it any better from the bottom up. Why are so many things unchanged from Office 98 (or whatever the OS 9 version was)? Software has moved on. Use any piece of Apple software (except DVD Studio - I hate that) and you can do simple or complicated things quickly. Use some half decent 3rd party software and it's just as easy to achieve things quickly. Using Word and Excel 2004 under Leopard is like working in a timewarp. Why after being "entirely rewritten" are the 2008 apps no different, except for more pointless eye candy slapped on the top of the old tosh?

I have little understanding of programming so what would I know. In my mind, however, Office 2008 seems to have been transcoded for Intel, not re-written.

I am delighted to hear that VBA will return (when though and for how much £?) but it seems unlikely that the core code will ever lead to productive and satisfying versions of the applications. After all they are hardly likely to re-write all that entirely rewritten code again.

Sorry, the had should have been has. Only VBA has to be entirely rewritten because it was written specifically and only for PPC. I suppose a lot of things remain unchanged from Office 98, in part, because the Mac BU is busy keeping up with all of Apple's transitions. Undoubtedly these have had a significant impact on major 3rd party products and developers (i.e. Microsoft and Adobe). Office 2008 has started transitioning to more of a Mac UI. There have also been numerous other improvements but working a code base that large is hard.

Office 2008 was not rewritten. I'm sure some portions were rewritten for the transition and others just as part of a normal development cycle. However, for the most part, it is the same code base as Office 2004. Hopefully, in the future, Microsoft will be able to optimize the Office core so we can see much needed performance improvements, and hopefully they'll transition to Cocoa so it plays better in Mac OS X.

[Roderick Usher]

I actually wish microsoft would bring windows media player back.
Agreed - it seems like a logical thing for the MacBU to take under its wing, and the alternatives just aren't up to par. They're either missing certain features, or they cost money.

Granted, it's not as much of an issue now since any sensible website streams media in platform-agnostic Flash, but there are still outliers... C-SPAN, I'm looking in your direction. Yeah, they stream RealVideo as well but that's just one poison for another, arguably worse one.

[Tom B.]

It looks like Entourage is silently rebuilding the spotlight database for my Entourage database... Microsoft's database daemon and mds are trading off in hogging the CPU and quick large disk writes.

Yeah, it was doing that for me too. 'mds' was taking between 50 and 141% of the processor for about 10 minutes.

[caspartheghost]

Shut down any open Office apps.
Run a Spotlight search for fontcachetool
Open the search. Make a note of the path to where it is in case you decide to move it back.
Move FontCacheTool into a folder somewhere else (maybe in Utilities?) called 'Moved from Office'.
Restart an Office 2008 app.
Check out the speed increase.


You might lose WYSIWYG font menus, if I remember right, but now Word boots about 3x faster.

[kaiwai]

Am I the only one who finds this kind of funny given that OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta has been released for Mac - with basic VBA support (which will be improved over time)? Is it the fact that OpenOffice.org has finally stretched the great divide between Windows, *NIX and Mac OS X, that Microsoft finally woke up and realise that they'll have to provide a level of uniform compatibility?

[minik]

Good to hear that Office 2008 is doing well. As an iWork '08 user, I'm happy with what Apple is offering.

[laurencenoton]

At the weekend I ended up with a knackered partition on my 2.33 macbook pro. So I rebuilt the whole thing with a fresh install of Leopard. I previously did an upgrade from Tiger on it.

I have always been a bit annoyed by the speed of Office 2008, and the bugs! I did notice a small improvement once I'd done a clean install of the OS. I use Office 2008 everyday day in day out. The difference was enough for me to blat my 24" imac and do a reinstall on that too, as again I just did an upgrade from Tiger (not an erase and install). Same sort of improvement in speed.

However, with this update (SP1) the whole experience is different in my opinion, load times have easily halved from cold, and warm loads are basically instant now. Warm starts are all that matter too, as I never reboot my computers...because you rarely have to. Reboots are for those other people that use some other OS.

I personally feel Office is great, windows or mac version. Yes it has its oddities and plain damn idiotic ways of doing things...but if you use it enough you learn to ignore and get round them. I've tried Neo Office (been a tester) tried the new Open Office etc...to be honest if I was to use a non-ms product I would just shell out for Apples version...as these (while free and very good) just dont cut it in the world of work - I've tried and have wasted time before - and time is money. At least with Word your guaranteed if you have a problem someone will be able to help and 5min there and another 10min there all add up.

Just get that VBA support in there so I can run my accountancy spreadsheet I spent weeks perfecting for my business (when I use to use Windoze)! As for Office 2004 - good riddance!

[NAG]

I'll agree, Keynote beats Powerpoint, but Pages will never Beat Word all the time that publishers and journals expect you to submit Word documents based on their templates. Pages just isn't compatible with Word enough yet.

Numbers has a long way to go before it gets to Excel's level, but it is a fun app to use for non-work stuff, I'll admit.

Most I've seen want pdfs, not word.

[skinbubble]

After installing.... working just fine for me.
I would use iWork 08, however most people use Office at my school and my work. Bummer.:p

[jasonklee]

The insertion point still lags when I type. Anyone else experiencing the same thing with WORD?

[timothyjay2004]

The insertion point still lags when I type. Anyone else experiencing the same thing with WORD?

Same here, and spell check seems to lag more with 12.1.0 than the previous version. AND I too, had the damn endless not starting up, asking about user experience participation, then starting up the updater app. What crap, mine is also a legal version and I had to delete those two files a person posted as a solution and reenter my product id. How stupid. And they wonder why people are reluctant to buy their crap. That is a very obvious error that should have never made it out of the door.

[Heil68]

I have had nothing but a great experience with Office 2008. I'm sorry to see so many others haven't.

[laurencenoton]

I have had nothing but a great experience with Office 2008. I'm sorry to see so many others haven't.

Me too! I do not know why people have had a bad time, although most people have problems with the windows version too....

I think its a great word processor.

[Chrysaor]

Shut down any open Office apps.
Run a Spotlight search for fontcachetool
Open the search. Make a note of the path to where it is in case you decide to move it back.
Move FontCacheTool into a folder somewhere else (maybe in Utilities?) called 'Moved from Office'.
Restart an Office 2008 app.
Check out the speed increase.


You might lose WYSIWYG font menus, if I remember right, but now Word boots about 3x faster.

Instead of doing that, you can just turn off WYSIWYG menus in Preferences.

[ecbtln818]

after updating to SP1, I have a major problem after closing any window in word. The entire program will crash and close and I will be prompted with this:
http://eric.lubin.us/word.png

anyone else experiencing the same problem or have a solution?

[appletowns]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned that this influx of Office 2008 for Mac is likely due to the Super Suite Office 2008 rebate + Black Friday deal (http://blogs.msdn.com/macmojo/archive/2007/11/21/office-2008-for-mac-bfd.aspx)! I'm certain that is the reason for the larger number of sales ... They were basically giving it away to anyone who bought Office 2004 at that time!

[FoxyKaye]

To a large degree, I see this as 'Vaporware' annoucement from the Microsoft camp.

They know that there's a lot of Mac adoption on the consumer side ... and sales of Office 2008 indicates a lot of White Collar types that can influence the adoption of Macs into the Enterprise.

To prevent more wholesale defections away from Office into the different options (NeoOffice, iWork, etc), all MS had to do was to deliver a message that stopped these potential "lost sales" from being motivated to actively go out to look for alternatives.

Thus, their promise is to "Bring Back" VBA gives their discontent consumers a warm fuzzy that they don't need to bother look for alternatives, but merely sit back (fat dumb happy) and wait for MS to deliver...eventually.

...

Update that you pay for, you mean.

The clincher here is that this isn't being promised as a FREE upgrade to existing (eg, "screwed") Office 2008 customers, but as something that will come about ... um ... "eventually" in a MS Office product whose name (2010? 2012?) and shipping date haven't been even announced.

Gosh, its not like we've ever seen this sort of pattern ever before!

...

And they've had utterly no warning whatsoever for years, just like Adobe, right?

I might buy it...some...but that still doesn't reconcile with their business decision to not provide this as a free upgrade to existing 2008 buyers.

Overall, what I suspect is a tad more likely is that MS saw that a lot of people bought 2004 and got 2008 for $20. Personally, I routinely "skip upgrade" in this fashion on Microsoft products.

...

I'm a bit puzzled here: if a complete rewrite was necessary, then why would they repeat the mistake by writing in assembler again? Why not do the rewrite in a higher-level language so that the original code (at least) is hardware-insensitive portable?

And it still doesn't wash with the idea of "making good" to existing Office 2008 customers. It doesn't matter if the project takes another year or another 3 years: MS could - - if they wanted to - - alternatively announced that VBA will be a free upgrade to Office 2008. Given that the MBU is reportedly tehir most profitable division, its hard to rationalize soaking your good custoemrs while giving away cute freebies in the White Elephant-of-a-Zune division. Or even charging nothing for XP rollbacks on Vista purchases.

My overall assessment = "thumbs down", for this announcement simply illustrates that MS has the intellectual capacity of the southern end of a north-bound horse.

-hh
Huh - I can't say I disagree on any point here. I really wish I could. I wish that VBA returns in Office 2008 SP2. I really wish Office 2008 wasn't such bloatware, too, because in another year all of my users at work are going to start getting a steady supply of docx files emailed to them and M$ is intentionally dragging on the reader for Office 2004 users to bolster sales of Office 2008. I really hope that the licenses we just bought for Office 2008 are the last M$ licenses we have to purchase and that OpenOffice/NeoOffice become viable alternatives as they develop over the next few years.

But yeah, when you lay it out like that, it will be a paid upgrade and not ready until 2010 at the very least. I'm so sick of M$ - that they've dominated the computer world for so long riding the same one-trick ponies really galls me.

Well, there's my bowl of pessimism and glass of despair for today.

[TAV]

my copy of Office 2008 is very legal, thank you very much.
Still... SP1 rendered my LEGAL office copy totally unusable for the reason mentioned above.

Had to recover 12.0.1 from time machine.

Way to go Microsoft. Every time you do anything you cover yourself with glory (.. or ****.. that's what the spanish saying is :D)

If you revert back to the previous Office 08, then run the MS updater again, the SP1 update appears - running it from there (versus an external) link solved the problem for me.

The insertion point still lags when I type. Anyone else experiencing the same thing with WORD?

Ditto.

[macornomac]

Shut down any open Office apps.
Run a Spotlight search for fontcachetool
Open the search. Make a note of the path to where it is in case you decide to move it back.
Move FontCacheTool into a folder somewhere else (maybe in Utilities?) called 'Moved from Office'.
Restart an Office 2008 app.
Check out the speed increase.


You might lose WYSIWYG font menus, if I remember right, but now Word boots about 3x faster.

Anyone try this yet???? Is this true???? How much faster is it now????

[Consultant]

Went on the page. Took longer than needed to figure out where is the download.

How does MS waste all that screen real estate?

Why is the update for the latest product in a low priority area BELOW the visible part of browser on a 1680x1050 screen? Typical MS design and organization.... Jeez...

[Virgil-TB2]

Putting visual basic back in is a very good move. I never could figure out why they removed it. ... Maybe because it doubles the size and the complexity of an already enormous buggy product and only a tiny fraction of users actually need or want it? (just a wild guess) ;)

Seriously, I'm not trying to be mean, but as "important" VB support is to cross-platform office set-ups, the number of Mac users that implement or need to use VB *anything* is incredibly tiny overall.

On the plus side, this update seems to make Office actually work passably on my machine. Up until now I had to wait five or six seconds for anything to happen after I clicked the button.

So, after five years of development and a massive update pack, Office has finally struggled up to the "mediocre" level.

Wow. :eek:

[dvince2]

I have had nothing but a great experience with Office 2008. I'm sorry to see so many others haven't.

Of course they haven't. It's made by Microsoft.
It's funny how MS listening to customer feed back to reinstate previous features is bad, but Apple listening to customer feedback (list view on stacks and opaque menubar) is why they're awesome.
*sigh*

[NAG]

Anyone try this yet???? Is this true???? How much faster is it now????

It went from 14 to 2 bounces and the startup window was only up for 3 seconds instead of 15.

Of course they haven't. It's made by Microsoft.
It's funny how MS listening to customer feed back to reinstate previous features is bad, but Apple listening to customer feedback (list view on stacks and opaque menubar) is why they're awesome.
*sigh*

I think you're misunderstanding. It was implied that VBA is coming in a pay for office update, unlike the changes to the menu bar and stacks in 10.5.2. If they're going to give us VBA in SP2 or SP3 or whatever then sure, thats nice. If they make us buy the update then that isn't so nice.

[rychencop]

i am very pleased with office 08. iworks 08 and open office did not do what i needed, so i had to purchase office. i will say this is the only ms product i use though. :D

[dagamer34]

SP1 still fails with Spaces and window highlight looks weird with Expose. Are they not aware that us Mac users actually USE these features?

[itsallinurhead]

Weird, my autoupdate says there is no new updates... :o

[rychencop]

It went from 14 to 2 bounces and the startup window was only up for 3 seconds instead of 15.

still 11-13 on the 1st load. then 2-3 after that. once it's in memory it's always faster. just like everything.

[rychencop]

SP1 still fails with Spaces and window highlight looks weird with Expose. Are they not aware that us Mac users actually USE these features?
mine works fine with spaces.

[skillwill]

I have installed both Office 2008 SP1 and Messenger 7, both are running fine and feeling better than the previous versions. However for some reason my Microsoft Autoupdate didn't pick up either of them and I didn't know about either update until I checked macrumors today

[kgarr]

Apps don't launch after update. Only loads Setup Assistant.

[luminol74]

This must be some kind of joke... SP1 hasn't addressed the expose issues at all and now since installing SP1 my MacBook runs at 100% fan/CPU. Activity Monitor can't even identify the problem, just tells me both processors are maxed out - have to close all m$ apps and put the little black laptop to sleep. Good job microsoft for flips sake.

They have at least addressed some of the scrolling and windowing issues, but when the install takes 500MBs i expect more for my hard drive space. On top of that the apps are still really sluggish...

It's just embarrassing really...

[widowmaker]

Apps don't launch after update. Only loads Setup Assistant.

I am having the same problem. What's the deal?

[JPJones]

I am having the same problem. What's the deal?

Ditto...nice job MS!

[jasonklee]

Well, in a way, I'm glad there are people who are equally as miserable as I am with Office.

I had problems with the apps not launching after quitting the stupid customer service thing, and did what someone suggested about deleting two files:

Microsoft Office 2008 Settings.plist
Office PID.plist

...and it worked.

Also, disabling WYSIWYG makes Word launch MUCH faster. Two bounces and it's open. So, thanks to you, guy.

[kgarr]

Ditto...nice job MS!

maybe they took down a certain key :(

[kbmb]

Shut down any open Office apps.
Run a Spotlight search for fontcachetool
Open the search. Make a note of the path to where it is in case you decide to move it back.
Move FontCacheTool into a folder somewhere else (maybe in Utilities?) called 'Moved from Office'.
Restart an Office 2008 app.
Check out the speed increase.


You might lose WYSIWYG font menus, if I remember right, but now Word boots about 3x faster.

Can't you just turn this option off in the Office Preferences? It's under General in Word.

-Kevin

[rychencop]

you people do realize something is only considered a "bug" when it can be reproduced over and over. MS can't fix something that occurs only on a few systems. i am having 0 problems with office since the update. so what does that mean?

[rychencop]

This must be some kind of joke... SP1 hasn't addressed the expose issues at all and now since installing SP1 my MacBook runs at 100% fan/CPU. Activity Monitor can't even identify the problem, just tells me both processors are maxed out - have to close all m$ apps and put the little black laptop to sleep. Good job microsoft for flips sake.

They have at least addressed some of the scrolling and windowing issues, but when the install takes 500MBs i expect more for my hard drive space. On top of that the apps are still really sluggish...

It's just embarrassing really...

hmmm....sounds like a system problem, not an office issue.

[tedhogan]

Word seems a little more stable when I run it, but it still takes 20-30 seconds to load the first time on my early 2008 Mac Pro 3.0Ghz 10GB RAM machine.

I really like Office 2008 except for the load time (and general flakiness). This issue kills me because I often find myself having to open up documents and make quick edits at random times.

I am disappointed. I really believed that the MBU would fix the performance issue in this release.

Oh well... at least I don't have to live in Windows most of the time where EVERYTHING is slow! Heck, I used to think that Parallels was slow until I tried Fusion and then realized that it's just Windows. Oh if only Visual Studio was a native Mac app... <grin>

[j0nt]

I had the same issue and this seemed to do the trick:

1. Delete the preference file ˜/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008/Microsoft Office 2008 Settings.plist

2. Delete /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Office/OfficePID.plist

3. Launch an Office program

4. Enter your name, company and product key

Enjoy! :)

[luminol74]

you people do realize something is only considered a "bug" when it can be reproduced over and over. MS can't fix something that occurs only on a few systems. i am having 0 problems with office since the update. so what does that mean?

Well yes i agree but i've not seen a mac running office 2008 without the expose bug. Mind you most people don't notice those types of things unless they're pointed out to them. It ain't a serious issue but it does reflect badly when low-budget developers are capable of getting the simple things right that microsoft don't.

[majordude]

Strange. I went to autoupdate and it says that there isn't any update. I go to Microsoft's site and there IS one.

Mine installed fine.

Started up Entourage and it upgrade my profile and my mail. No sweat.

Started up Word and Excel and both seem to load faster (especially Word). Oddly, Entourage takes longer than either of those two memory hogs (but it did before the upgrade too).

All in all... cool! :cool:

[younker]

Thank you. That worked.

Damn you MS!:mad: That took 1 hour and 45 mins to sort out!

After doing the change, my entourage doesn't work at all.

[Stridder44]

I had the same issue and this seemed to do the trick:

1. Delete the preference file ˜/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008/Microsoft Office 2008 Settings.plist

2. Launch an Office program

3. Enter your name, company and product key

Enjoy! :)

Hm. I did this and it seems to be working, but when I enter in my info & product key, then click continue, nothing happens. I've clicked continue like 60 times. Nothing. No error messages, beeps, anything! It's like I never clicked continue in the first place. It just keeps flashing. If I change a number it says I have an invalid key (naturally), so I'm confused. Everything was working fine before this update.

[Schwieb]

Hm. I did this and it seems to be working, but when I enter in my info & product key, then click continue, nothing happens. I've clicked continue like 60 times. Nothing. No error messages, beeps, anything! It's like I never clicked continue in the first place. It just keeps flashing. If I change a number it says I have an invalid key (naturally), so I'm confused.

A number of people have reported a problem after updating to Office 2008 SP1 where the Setup Assistant launches each time and refuses to let you continue to the main app. If you are running into this problem, please help me collect some information:

a) Did you ever install the Office 2008 beta?
b) What version of Office 2008 did you have installed (12.0 or 12.0.1)?
c) Please send me the following files:
/Users/<USERNAME>/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008/Microsoft Office 2008 settings.plist
/Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Office/OfficePID.plist
d) Please send me your product key from your DVD.

PLEASE NOTE that the above files and product key contain information that can be used to identify your user registration, so if you are uncomfortable sending it you can indeed choose to not do so. If you do send it, rest assured that I'll use it only to help verify that the problem is indeed what we think it is. I do not have access to user registration information and do not need it, so I won't go looking for it.

You can send these file and information directly to me at 'erik at schwieb dot com'.

Having done so, you can then reset your product key. To do so, quit all Office 2008 apps and move both of the files from item C above to the trash. Then, launch any one Office 2008 app and you should be prompted to enter the product key (which should be either on the DVD sleeve or on the back of the Install Guide). For additional assistance, visit the Help and How-To <http://www.microsoft.com/mac/help.mspx> section of the Microsoft Web site.

Thanks,
Schwieb
MacBU Dev Lead
http://www.schwieb.com/blog

[ffkly]

Hm. I did this and it seems to be working, but when I enter in my info & product key, then click continue, nothing happens. I've clicked continue like 60 times. Nothing. No error messages, beeps, anything! It's like I never clicked continue in the first place. It just keeps flashing. If I change a number it says I have an invalid key (naturally), so I'm confused. Everything was working fine before this update.

same thing here, confused

[HLdan]

Microsoft was been very open about the missing the VBA support almost since they decided they had to cut the feature. It's not something they took lightly. If you (as in one) knows anything about software development it wouldn't be hard to see why. Not only did Microsoft have to move their entire build system to Xcode from Code Warrior (which is no small feat), they had to update all their code to compile with gcc. After that they had to pour over the code base to account for subtle difference on the x86 and ppc.

That's a lot of work. Then consider the fact that the VBA code was largely written in PPC assembly. There is no conversion to x86 assembly, so they have to essentially rewrite the entire VBA compiler for the x86, ignoring the fact they're moving from CFM to Mach-O. The complexity of this is enormous and no firm could pull this off in the way everyone expected.

And Office 2008 is actually built for Intel Macs. It does actually contain x86 binaries. Stop all the conspiracy theories and learn a little bit about software and sympathize with the huge burden placed on Microsoft's Mac developers.

Wow, if anyone in the Mac community defended Apple this way they would be called a Fanboy.....:cool: Remember your sympathy is placed towards a multi-billion dollar company who's business model consists mostly of "software" development. Yeah, poor Microsoft, no I should say RICH Microsoft, even though they skimped on features on the Mac version of Office they still charged the customer the same $500 U.S. as they charge for the full featured Windows version. :rolleyes:

[Stridder44]

A number of people have reported a problem after updating to Office 2008 SP1 where the Setup Assistant launches each time and refuses to let you continue to the main app. If you are running into this problem, please help me collect some information:

a) Did you ever install the Office 2008 beta?
b) What version of Office 2008 did you have installed (12.0 or 12.0.1)?
c) Please send me the following files:
/Users/<USERNAME>/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008/Microsoft Office 2008 settings.plist
/Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Office/OfficePID.plist
d) Please send me your product key from your DVD.

PLEASE NOTE that the above files and product key contain information that can be used to identify your user registration, so if you are uncomfortable sending it you can indeed choose to not do so. If you do send it, rest assured that I'll use it only to help verify that the problem is indeed what we think it is. I do not have access to user registration information and do not need it, so I won't go looking for it.

You can send these file and information directly to me at 'erik at schwieb dot com'.

Having done so, you can then reset your product key. To do so, quit all Office 2008 apps and move both of the files from item C above to the trash. Then, launch any one Office 2008 app and you should be prompted to enter the product key (which should be either on the DVD sleeve or on the back of the Install Guide). For additional assistance, visit the Help and How-To <http://www.microsoft.com/mac/help.mspx> section of the Microsoft Web site.

Thanks,
Schwieb
MacBU Dev Lead
http://www.schwieb.com/blog

1) No.
2) I was running 12.0.1.
3) In an effort to get things working again, I deleted both those files as many have suggested. Naturally, the files aren't there anymore. Please don't get me wrong, but I don't feel comfortable sending that info anyway.

While I am peeved about this, I'm also very glad to see you guys are working quickly and diligently to get things in order. Hope to see the update fixed soon.

[JPJones]

I had the same issue and this seemed to do the trick:

1. Delete the preference file ˜/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008/Microsoft Office 2008 Settings.plist

2. Delete /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Office/OfficePID.plist

3. Launch an Office program

4. Enter your name, company and product key

Enjoy! :)

Up and running! Thanks!

[widowmaker]

Well, in a way, I'm glad there are people who are equally as miserable as I am with Office.

I had problems with the apps not launching after quitting the stupid customer service thing, and did what someone suggested about deleting two files:

Microsoft Office 2008 Settings.plist
Office PID.plist

...and it worked again.

Also, disabling WYSIWYG makes Word launch MUCH faster. Two bounces and it's open. So, thanks to you, guy.

Deleting those two files worked great for me. THANKS!

[Barret Oliver]

What a piece of **** Microsoft Word is!

I want to open ten files in a window, files named 01, 02, 03, etc. You would think Word would open them in order? Hell no! It opens them randomly. I call up Microsoft Support (hahahhaha, what a joke) and they keep me on hold for 30 minutes before telling me that Microsoft Word can't open multiple files in order.

They actually had the nerve to say that they had "never come across this problem before."

I guess MS Word for Mac is meant for 5 year olds working on book reports.

And oh yeah, 80 of all the people here can't get their updates. What a surprise. How pathetic!

[kirk26]

SP1 for Office 2008 Mac has been on their website for days now.

[majordude]

Apps don't launch after update. Only loads Setup Assistant.

I started a thread for you: Crappiest Mac Software Publisher? (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=483864) :D

[Freyqq]

with word 2008, spaces continues to not work, expose continues to be weird, and dual displays doesn't work right - if you have a document on the second display, it snaps it to the first display every time you try opening another program. Really..these are the big issues..but none have been resolved

[Quillz]

The tide has changed. Vista is a flop and Apple drives their Office success.
It's about time that the people with vision lead the bean counters.
You wish. The tide hasn't changed at all. Vista is not a flop and Windows continues to dominate the market with 90%+ market share.

[tliszt]

"The response to MS-Office Mac 2008 has been overwhelming!"

Are you kidding?! They have been GIVING Office/Mac 2008 away for *FREE* for gosh sake! (only had to pay the shipping charge)

Microsoft was nervous because a) it hadn't been released to support the newest Intel processors and current Mac OSX release, b) Apple's iWork '08 was gaining ground -and- is an excellent alternative to MS-Office, and finally c) unless they started giving it away, people were abandoning Word and other core apps for such viable contenders as the excellent NeoOffice and iWork (Pages/Numbers/Keynote) options.

How can everyone be missing this small little detail?!

[Stridder44]

"The response to MS-Office Mac 2008 has been overwhelming!"

Are you kidding?! They have been GIVING Office/Mac 2008 away for *FREE* for gosh sake! (only had to pay the shipping charge)

Microsoft was nervous because a) it hadn't been released to support the newest Intel processors and current Mac OSX release, b) Apple's iWork '08 was gaining ground -and- is an excellent alternative to MS-Office, and finally c) unless they started giving it away, people were abandoning Word and other core apps for such viable contenders as the excellent NeoOffice and iWork (Pages/Numbers/Keynote) options.

How can everyone be missing this small little detail?!

Whoa calm down, it's just software. No need to get worked up. And I mean come on, you think Apple is innocent and never lies about statistics? Bahahahaha. Of course, they're the good guys. Totally not in it for money. :rolleyes:

Don't get me wrong though; I'm still not happy about Office '08 SP1.

[stownsend3]

Random 08 question, but ever since I installed '08 whenever I download a .doc, .xls, .ppt, .docx, .xlsx, etc... file for school or some other site it always adds .dot to the end of it. Is there anyway to turn off this preference? It gets annoying fast when I want to use Quick Look, which doesn't support .dot.

After I ran SP1 word / excel were all opening VERY slowly (use Keynote instead of Powerpoint), but instead of deleting any files in the General Preferences for word I unchecked "WYSIWYG font and style menu" and this seems to have fixed the problem of taking around 1 minute to start up.

[Chaywa]

Yay a service pack on a Mac...woohoo?

[DavidPelton]

Some users who have installed Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1 are reporting an issue that occurs after installation. The issue causes the Office Setup Assistant to open when they try to open an Office application. This situation occurs when the Office Setup Assistant detects that an invalid Product Key was used to install Office 2008.

To resolve this issue, please move the following files to the Trash:

· /Users/username/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008/Microsoft Office 2008 settings.plist

· /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Office/OfficePID.plist


After you complete these steps, open any Office application, and then use the product key that is included with your original installation disk to complete the installation. The product key is located on the back of the Office 2008 for Mac DVD sleeve or on the back of the Install Guide. For additional assistance, visit the Help and How-To <http://www.microsoft.com/mac/help.mspx> section of the Microsoft Web site.

If this helps you, please contact me through the private posts, I would like to get some files from you to help track down this issue.

I am sorry you if experienced this issue, and I hope with your help we can determine why some folks are getting into this issue.

David Pelton
Microsoft MacBU

[rexamafex]

Some users who have installed Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1 are reporting an issue that occurs after installation. The issue causes the Office Setup Assistant to open when they try to open an Office application. This situation occurs when the Office Setup Assistant detects that an invalid Product Key was used to install Office 2008.

To resolve this issue, please move the following files to the Trash:

· /Users/username/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008/Microsoft Office 2008 settings.plist

· /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Office/OfficePID.plist


After you complete these steps, open any Office application, and then use the product key that is included with your original installation disk to complete the installation. The product key is located on the back of the Office 2008 for Mac DVD sleeve or on the back of the Install Guide. For additional assistance, visit the Help and How-To <http://www.microsoft.com/mac/help.mspx> section of the Microsoft Web site.

If this helps you, please contact me through the private posts, I would like to get some files from you to help track down this issue.

I am sorry you if experienced this issue, and I hope with your help we can determine why some folks are getting into this issue.

David Pelton
Microsoft MacBU

I experienced this problem. Deleted all the files described above. When prompted for the CD Key i entered it but when i click Continue it doesnt do anything.:(

[Schwieb]

I experienced this problem. Deleted all the files described above. When prompted for the CD Key i entered it but when i click Continue it doesnt do anything.:(Hmmm. The key on the back of your DVD sleeve should be the right one. You might try calling Microsoft Product Support to see if they can verify the key?

Schwieb
MacBU Dev Lead

[twoodcc]

i didn't see this update thru autoupdate, but i am downloading from the website

[ffkly]

I experienced this problem. Deleted all the files described above. When prompted for the CD Key i entered it but when i click Continue it doesnt do anything.:(

because your CD key is blocked by MS, if you purchased it , call customer service, or try to find another key some where

[rexamafex]

ok ill give them a ring tomorrow.

[slevit1]

Why is it so difficult for Microsoft to get anything right? This update (which auto update couldn't even find) totally destroyed office...it wouldn't open at all. Good to see that there's a work around, but the point is that there shouldn't have to be a work around to get a service pack to work! Fortunately, I just used Time Machine to revert back to the old version of office.

This was a product designed by the MAC business unit, specifically for MAC's...so why does it have such a difficult time playing nice with them? All this time that office 2008's been out, and they still haven't found a way to make it work with spaces. Every other program I use works perfectly, except Office. I guess you can always count on Microsoft to screw things up. Can you guys please get it together.

[slevit1]

Did someone say pay for Microsoft products? No thank you...not for that garbage.

[Rhumgod]

I ain't buyin. Screw them. Remember, Outlook 2001 had full feature support, but they decided to screw the Mac community with that piece of crap Entourage. It still only gives you 80% feature support.

As far as Vista, Microsoft has even acknowledged the fact that they blew it and will be focusing on Windows 7, which ought to be a real joy.

Vista Born Broken (http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/Vista-Born-Broken/)

or

Microsoft Gives Up On Vista (http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/Microsoft-gives-up-on-Vista/)

Happy reading, Vista worshippers.

[adisor19]

I ain't buyin. Screw them. Remember, Outlook 2001 had full feature support, but they decided to screw the Mac community with that piece of crap Entourage. It still only gives you 80% feature support.

As far as Vista, Microsoft has even acknowledged the fact that they blew it and will be focusing on Windows 7, which ought to be a real joy.

Vista Born Broken (http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/Vista-Born-Broken/)

or

Microsoft Gives Up On Vista (http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/Microsoft-gives-up-on-Vista/)

Happy reading, Vista worshippers.

Seriously, WHY AREN'T OUTLOOK FORMS SUPPORTED ?! Why Mac BU, WHY ?

Bah.. Entourage is still a joke compared to Outlook :(

Adi

[matperk]

I'd just like to say thanks to the MacBU guys on here. That's pretty cool of them for poking around forums and helping users. +1 for Microsoft's MacBU. :cool:

[dkessler]

I dont get it, both MR and Macworld are reporting that the SP1 update is now available via MS's site or SU but i've been checking both mediums for the last 5 hrs and still cant find the update.

Where is it? :confused:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=395D1487-A3A6-4106-A0F8-4D6E1D6D89D2&displaylang=en

[orpheus1120]

The SP1 pack installer works smoothly for me and I didn't need to delete any preference list at all.

http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg177/orpheus1120/Picture1-4.jpg

[musicmasteroz]

nice to see Microsoft doing a sp1 so quickly... don't usually +ve Microsoft but nice one guys :)

[treichert]

I experienced this problem. Deleted all the files described above. When prompted for the CD Key i entered it but when i click Continue it doesnt do anything.:(

I also deleted the files above, reentered my product key and it's now working again.

Word actually does load a lot faster, so I'm now actually considering to use Office 2008.

[orpheus1120]

I also deleted the files above, reentered my product key and it's now working again.

Word actually does load a lot faster, so I'm now actually considering to use Office 2008.

I can also confirm all office apps load faster after the update.

[Macmanus]

After downloading it at a surprisingly fast speed (in 4 minutes), in France (it's 6.50 AM), the installation went fine. :)

And I'm glad to see that Word is much, much, more snappier (on a cold launch, it still takes a few seconds, which is longer than Pages or any other soft like Mellel or Scrivener ; considering i have a MBP 2,4 with 4GB RAM, there's still some progress to do, but we're on the right track). Which was the main point of criticism. After all that Microsoft-bashing, I'm glad to say to the guys from the company : thank you. You've heard us and done the right thing. Now as long as VBA goes, I see no problem. I'm using Bookends, which is better than Endnote, for bibliography. The main problem concerns a text correction program, Antidote RX, but it can be used in a separate window after all. :cool:

And I think also that there is nothing wrong to get back to VBA in a next version. Microsoft got our message and comes back on its mistake - that's good. Keep on the good work, but I suggest, to keep the customers happy, to do the next upgrade at a VERY reasonable price. ;)

And if I need a soft specially designed for academics, I'm using Mellel and Scrivener. Pages is not interesting (no french quotation marks, a deal-breaker), and Neo/Openoffice are just not professionnal looking enough. :p

[Wild-Bill]

Whew....

Reading all this makes me glad I'm still using Office 2004. :apple:

[mwp98223]

i didn't see this update thru autoupdate, but i am downloading from the website

I didn't get the update in auto update and I have not been able to download it from the Microsoft page. I suppose I'm happy there is an update, but can't say that I'm all that surprised it is not possible to install. Way to go Microsoft, you always serve as a great reminder why I'm so happy to be a Switcher.

[luminol74]

I could write pages on the number of stupid bugs Word alone has (get the pun - pages... anyway). Just yesterday my housemate was using Word and the equation editor to write up a whole bunch of long wounded equations for his dissertation report. He must have spent hours doing them and when he finished Word came up with an error "run out of filespace to save autosave file" despite the GBs of free space on his MacBook Pro. Word then kindly turned all of his equations into picture format (to save memory maybe?) rendering them mostly useless (without anyway of recovering the original objects). Just to cap it off he went to drag the now pictures of his equations onto his desktop and Word copied every picture embedded with the little click and drag frame used for resizing the image!

I did feel sorry for him but could not stop laughing. I'd love to see some of the code that this "software" giant comes up with. Monkeys on a typewriter.

[Veri]

Just yesterday my housemate was using Word and the equation editor to write up a whole bunch of long wounded equations for his dissertation report.

Agonising case of wrong tool for job. Why was he not using LaTeX (http://www.tug.org/mactex/)?

[luminol74]

Agonising case of wrong tool for job. Why was he not using LaTeX (http://www.tug.org/mactex/)?

Because it's in on friday and he is several thousand words short of the minimal requirement and can't be bothered to learn LaTeX formatting etc.

Lastminute.com :P

[eXan]

I was going to install the SP1 after seeing the news, but after reading through this thread I've decided not to. They didn't fix the Spaces/Expose issues anyway so why risk having Word not opening at all?

Great job M$, yet again :mad: Thank God I have iWork 08 to get the job done.

[cgdotcom]

I didn't get the update in auto update and I have not been able to download it from the Microsoft page. I suppose I'm happy there is an update, but can't say that I'm all that surprised it is not possible to install. Way to go Microsoft, you always serve as a great reminder why I'm so happy to be a Switcher.

Look, I'm no great fan of Microsoft, although I do think Office 2008 is pretty decent. However, I'd have to say that this kind of criticism seems unfair.

I'm sure lots of users have a genuine Product Key and are still unable to install SP1, which is clearly a problem that MS will have to resolve. However, if we're being honest, a lot of people in this thread -- including myself -- are using dodgy keys. Microsoft aren't obliged to support these.

It's a shame, because I buy a lot of software, even that for which I know cracks are available. I purchased NaviCat (http://www.navicat.com/), for example, because I like the software and I use it every day. £349.95 for the full version of Office feels extortionate, though, and it's not an amount I'm personally prepared to pay.

The thing is, I'm not going to start moaning about that either; Microsoft can set the price of their software at anything they want. If I don't like it, I don't have to pay it -- but neither can I expect MS to allow me to use it without attempting to impose some restrictions.

As I say, I'm a long-time Apple user and I can't stand Windows. I'm not a Microsoft apologist. I just think that criticising them for not updating cracked software is harsh.

Apologies to the OP if he or she has a genuine copy of Office, by the way, but I do think a lot of people in this thread aren't telling the whole truth.

[Stridder44]

I experienced this problem. Deleted all the files described above. When prompted for the CD Key i entered it but when i click Continue it doesnt do anything.:(

Yes! This is the exact problem I'm having too. Clicking "continue" after entering in all your info/key does nothing. I mean literally, nothing happens. The continue button just keeps flashing. I've clicked it like 40 times now. No errors or beeps or anything.

[tibi08]

Yes! This is the exact problem I'm having too. Clicking "continue" after entering in all your info/key does nothing. I mean literally, nothing happens. The continue button just keeps flashing. I've clicked it like 40 times now. No errors or beeps or anything.

Piracy is theft....

[peterdevries]

Agonising case of wrong tool for job. Why was he not using LaTeX (http://www.tug.org/mactex/)?

Why? if Word offers the functionality to do this, then it should work..

Of course there are probably better tools, but the layman user cannot know all alternatives for disfunctional Microsoft tools.

I agree with you that LaTeX is definitely better though.

[knightlie]

I know how fanboys love to hate "teh evil Micro$oft" but Office 2008 is awesome and beats the ever-living snot out of iWork and OpenOffice (which is a joke).

But then again, this is the same blind hate used against Vista too.

I love it when people tell us all what our motives are. I haven't used Office for Mac, so I can only go by anecdotal "evidence," but I'm unimpressed by what I've seem. As for Vista, my own direct experience proves to me it's a pile of junk - that doesn't make me a "fanboy." Are we allowed to call you an MS fanboy, perchance?

[daneoni]

Having used Office for SP1 for a few hours i can definitely say there have been performance improvements and things are quicker but then again things could only go quicker after all.

Its still not as zippy as iWork or even Office 2004 but its palatable.

However a key issue yet to be fixed...at least for me is compatibility with previous versions of office

Any time i set word compatibility to '2000 - 2004 and X' i always get the compatibility issue word '9.0/95' compatibility options are set and then things get screwed up if you 'save anyway'

This is pretty much why i wont be using office 2008 and will be going back to 2004. My work flow requires me to have documents that are compatible with office 2003 on windows and 2004 and mac

[thirdeg]

Can anyone tell me if after installing the SP1 update the problem when downloading any office file in safari on 10.5 has been solved? Safari currently appends .dot for .doc files to the end of the file. This also happens with .ppt files appending .pot so they become filename.ppt.pot.

[Eski]

Anyone else having this problem now? Double click on a Word document and Word opens with a blank document, not the one I've just double clicked on!

Cheers
Richard

[Shivetya]

knowing that Microsoft was coming out with a version of Office for the Mac (new intel versions) was one of the major deciding factors in even buying one.

Regardless of what people think about the company their products work just fine and in many cases are the best solution.

I looked at iWork but even Mac zealot friend said to spend forty more and get office.

[izibo]

In the last 24 hours I've installed Office 2008 SP1 on an old PowerBook, a first generation MacBook, a MacBook Air, and a Mac Pro. I haven't seen any problems AT ALL with this assistant issue and things are working great.

I suspect that most of you are probably using some sort of pirated key, just as the rep from Microsoft BU mentioned. How on Earth do some of you have the guts to use illegally obtained software and then COMPLAIN when the company takes action to try and prevent piracy?

To be honest, I don't really care what you do with your life. Your ethics are just that. But come on! Don't sit there and bitch just because they aren't supporting the SN you downloaded off of bittorrent!

Thought of another way, if someone robbed your apartment night after night, don't you think that you would change the locks?

[spunkybart]

Anyone else having this problem now? Double click on a Word document and Word opens with a blank document, not the one I've just double clicked on!

Cheers
Richard

Confirm that. Word opens a blank doc when you double click a doc file from Finder. But Excel seems to be working correctly.



On a different note -- my opinion of the software --

Overall, I'm impressed with the look and feel of Office 2008 for the Mac. I don't use the products as intensively as other people on here, so I have not run into the bugs they are posting about.

So far, the software does what I want it to do. I didn't really like Numbers (although I could have used it for my purposes), so that's why I bought Office.

[peterdevries]

Microsoft was been very open about the missing the VBA support almost since they decided they had to cut the feature. It's not something they took lightly. If you (as in one) knows anything about software development it wouldn't be hard to see why. Not only did Microsoft have to move their entire build system to Xcode from Code Warrior (which is no small feat), they had to update all their code to compile with gcc. After that they had to pour over the code base to account for subtle difference on the x86 and ppc.

That's a lot of work. Then consider the fact that the VBA code was largely written in PPC assembly. There is no conversion to x86 assembly, so they have to essentially rewrite the entire VBA compiler for the x86, ignoring the fact they're moving from CFM to Mach-O. The complexity of this is enormous and no firm could pull this off in the way everyone expected.

And Office 2008 is actually built for Intel Macs. It does actually contain x86 binaries. Stop all the conspiracy theories and learn a little bit about software and sympathize with the huge burden placed on Microsoft's Mac developers.

Good point, however considering the fact that many people will refrain from upgrading to 2008 just because of this, it might have been a good strategy to hire some more developers and implementing it anyway. They lost business because of bad strategy and you see the result.

Complexity etc is all fine, but it is nothing that you can't solve with some extra money and people coding. They lost sight of what many customers want, and this is the worst mistake you can make if you sell a product.

[bluefido]

This is great. Custom error bars are back. Hope this brings performance gains!

Overall I'm really happy with Office 2008 - it's such a big step up from the previous versions (for once). I skipped 2004, as the free trial added nothing new over v.X (which I had) but I'm glad everything has been overhauled so as to look much better. It's nice to see that Microsoft is making an effort, especially with increased competition from iWork.

I've also skipped 2004 because I didn't see the material improvement over v.X. I have now changed computers a few times now, and v.X though annoying at times, still works well overall. Is 2008 worth it for someone that is not a power user?

[radian23]

Anyone else having this problem now? Double click on a Word document and Word opens with a blank document, not the one I've just double clicked on!

Cheers
Richard

I'm having this exact same problem. Thought I was alone on this. I found that you can go into word click file, open and then browse for the file you want to open. It will open the file this way but you can't double click it. Very annoying.

[kemck]

I go to install this update and I am told that I do not have a valid version of the software installed?

Come on.

And now you want me to do this stuipd "fix"????

Do you guys test anything before you release it?

get it right then I'll install this update. Until then I'll use my Apple apps to do my work.

Some users who have installed Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1 are reporting an issue that occurs after installation. The issue causes the Office Setup Assistant to open when they try to open an Office application. This situation occurs when the Office Setup Assistant detects that an invalid Product Key was used to install Office 2008.

To resolve this issue, please move the following files to the Trash:

· /Users/username/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008/Microsoft Office 2008 settings.plist

· /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Office/OfficePID.plist


After you complete these steps, open any Office application, and then use the product key that is included with your original installation disk to complete the installation. The product key is located on the back of the Office 2008 for Mac DVD sleeve or on the back of the Install Guide. For additional assistance, visit the Help and How-To <http://www.microsoft.com/mac/help.mspx> section of the Microsoft Web site.

If this helps you, please contact me through the private posts, I would like to get some files from you to help track down this issue.

I am sorry you if experienced this issue, and I hope with your help we can determine why some folks are getting into this issue.

David Pelton
Microsoft MacBU

[-hh]

You can't just transition millions of lines of code instantly. I described all that was involved in the transition earlier. I'm sure not many people appreciate how hard software is to build (i.e. going from code to an executable), but trust me, it's hard. Mac OS X had lived a double life since the start. That's why it appeared easy from Apple's side.

I agree and understand. However, my point is that Apple's roadmap for software developer environment hasn't been a complete mystery.

As such, why is it that MS is getting a "buy" here, whereas Adobe was just so recently ripped a new one in regards to 64 bit in CS4? Particularly since Adobe had a much better excuse (Apple's change in 64b plans).


I don't know that they're rewriting it in assembly. It may be in C. However, they still need code emitters for PCC and x86. And if they want to go 64-bit, PPC64 and x86-64. It is by no means trivial. Or they may be going with an software interpreter. I have no clue. The point is it had to be entirely rewritten. Keep in mind this feature's scale is larger than some other titles you use every day.

Sure, the point remains that they've hardly not known about the need for this transition for years.

And given how much slower Office 2008 is on a MacIntel than Office 2004 running under Rosetta ... despite all of this VBA code having been deleted ... I have a hard time believing that MS has spent ANY time whatsoever working on the current 2008 version to get its code optimized.

Plus my main point here really had more to do with the "Who Pays?" question: there wasn't any promise of: "will be delievered in 2 years for free to existing Office 2008 owners" , but was instead announced as (my paraphrasing): "you'll only get this feature back if you're willing to wait 3-4 years and oough up the bucks for buying our next update".

No matter how we try to spin-doctor things, this factor has utterly nothing to do with the technical details - it is purely a business decision on how MS is choosing to support their paying Customers.

FWIW, if I were really cynical, I'd be also predicting today that MS will have a consumer-wallet-unfriendly upgrade policy for "Mac Office 2012" that will financially punish those consumers who chose to skip Office 2008.

-hh

[AnthonyKinyon]

Some users who have installed Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1 are reporting an issue that occurs after installation. The issue causes the Office Setup Assistant to open when they try to open an Office application. This situation occurs when the Office Setup Assistant detects that an invalid Product Key was used to install Office 2008.

To resolve this issue, please move the following files to the Trash:

· /Users/username/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008/Microsoft Office 2008 settings.plist

· /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Office/OfficePID.plist


After you complete these steps, open any Office application, and then use the product key that is included with your original installation disk to complete the installation. The product key is located on the back of the Office 2008 for Mac DVD sleeve or on the back of the Install Guide. For additional assistance, visit the Help and How-To <http://www.microsoft.com/mac/help.mspx> section of the Microsoft Web site.

If this helps you, please contact me through the private posts, I would like to get some files from you to help track down this issue.

I am sorry you if experienced this issue, and I hope with your help we can determine why some folks are getting into this issue.

David Pelton
Microsoft MacBU

Thankfully, I did not run into this problem. I appreciate you sharing the info and your willingness to help. I am not a Microsoft hater, nor a Microsoft fan. Some things I like and others I dislike. Some I agree with, others I do not. I have noticed some of the postings within this thread were rather harsh. I can understand people's frustration if they legitimately paid for Office 2008 and the update has broken it. Perhaps in future updates, prior to installing, the Service Pack (SP2 for instance, if it comes out someday) could warn the user first and say "Warning, an invalid product key was detected, if you continue, Office 2008 will stop working until a valid key is input." At that point, the legitimate users could contact MS and say "Hey, I have a problem here, please help" before their Office suite stops working without warning. Or another idea, the SP would simply refuse to install until a valid key was input, but if Office was already installed and had been working, it wouldn't stop working. I realize the need for anti-piracy, but sometimes it is a bit much. For instance, the day Product Activation comes to Office for Mac is the day I stop using/buying the product, which is one of the main reasons I stopped buying Windows once XP and later came out. It isn't that I am a pirate, it is the principle of being suspected / treated like a criminal until you prove that you aren't one, in some cases repeatedly (one per software package or OS, per install). And with Vista, as I understand it, it goes out and periodically re-checks the activation status automatically. This uses more disk space, more memory, and happens without many users' consent or knowledge (who honestly reads the whole EULA? 99.999% of customers just skip it and hit "I accept").

I have found Office 2008 in general a pretty good improvement over Office 2004. However, both before the SP1 install and after, it still seems a bit slow. My machine has 2 GB of RAM and a Core Duo 1.66 GHz Intel CPU. I realize this isn't the fastest machine, but it should be able to fire up a word processor fairly quickly. It took 20 seconds to launch Word 2008 after installing the SP 1 update and doing a reboot. I think 10 seconds is pushing it, but that's just my opinion. I'd even settle for 15 since the CPU isn't the fastest anymore. :)

[Ade-iMac-177]

FFS!!!@£@£$
what are the MacBU playing at?!?!
yes it may be slightly faster, and it may crash slightly less, i don't know i have not had much time to test it extensively but WHY DOES IT STILL NOT WORK WITH SPACES OR EXPOSE!!

i am seriously fed up of this!!!

i have resorted to using Office2007 over vmware - it's ridiculous! the only way i can get a good mac experience with Word is to boot up windows and use the windows version!

macBU better pull their act together pretty damn quick!

I never thought i would have to describe such a big piece of software as i am but Word 2008 is crippled to point of being near unusable!! :mad: This product has brought me close to tears

[burgen]

after sp1 installation, everything seems fine,
Excel is a lot faster than before,
Word is a little faster than before,

however,

powerpoint now takes forever to start, after the splash screen, it takes a 45 second-beachballing for the program to start,

does anybody have the same problem?

[hajime]

Confirm that. Word opens a blank doc when you double click a doc file from Finder. But Excel seems to be working correctly.



On a different note -- my opinion of the software --

Overall, I'm impressed with the look and feel of Office 2008 for the Mac. I don't use the products as intensively as other people on here, so I have not run into the bugs they are posting about.

So far, the software does what I want it to do. I didn't really like Numbers (although I could have used it for my purposes), so that's why I bought Office.


I have no problem. I double clicked a few Word files located on the desktop. they were all opened correctly. I also have no installation problem. It does take a long time to launch Word though...

[-hh]

Whew....

Reading all this makes me glad I'm still using Office 2004. :apple:


Since I'm still on PPC, I'm ...adequately satisified... with vX ... although I still have several of the older versions around too. For example, I keep Word 5.1 around because Word 6 eliminated support for EPS (encapsulated postscript) files.

I did buy Office 2004 last fall, specifically because the 2008 version had been announced and thus was 'free ($20 shipping): its insurance for when some lame Vista adopter sends me a .docx file. However, both of these versions of Office (2004, 2008) will remain in their unopened box until I'm effectively FORCED to install them.


And for the MacBU to take note of: while I'm sympathetic to Piracy concerns, I have been finding it to be an increasing PITA to get my old (pre-OS X) licences of Office physically installed onto my newer Mac so that it is present so that it can be detected by an upgrade licence, and thus permit itself to install & register.

This obstruction is making it harder and harder to keep my licences legit, and I really don't want to be cornered into having to download an unlocked pirated copy just to be able to actually install my legally purchased upgrade licence.

I have a simple/cheap suggestion that would resolve this problem, but due to it being my IP, won't discuss it here. Contact me offline.


-hh

[Achiever]

I've also skipped 2004 because I didn't see the material improvement over v.X. I have now changed computers a few times now, and v.X though annoying at times, still works well overall. Is 2008 worth it for someone that is not a power user?

It's tough to say for sure, since I don't know your actual uses for the Office apps, but I would speculate that if v.X has suited your needs just fine, you could certainly more than get by with NeoOffice or OpenOffice. But that's your call.

[guzhogi]

I installed a beta version of CUPS 1.4 on my MBP and every time I tried to use MS software update, it would download the update & immediately crash. Every single time I did that. So I downloaded SP1 from the web site & it installed successfully. Now I'll have to wait & see if the software update app works now.

[daneoni]

Anyone else having this problem now? Double click on a Word document and Word opens with a blank document, not the one I've just double clicked on!

Cheers
Richard

Confirm that. Word opens a blank doc when you double click a doc file from Finder. But Excel seems to be working correctly...

I'm having this exact same problem. Thought I was alone on this. I found that you can go into word click file, open and then browse for the file you want to open. It will open the file this way but you can't double click it. Very annoying.

+1 for this issue although mine seems intermittent. Sometimes it'll display the correct document and sometimes it gives me a blank look