Poll: Are you going to buy Mac Office 2004?

[MacRumors]

Vote: Poll: Are you going to buy Mac Office 2004? (http://www.macpolls.com/?poll_id=396)

[MattG]

They'll probably get it at work eventually...I'll just wait for that.

[KershMan]

I already pre-ordered. My office is 99% Windows so MS Office is a necessity. Nothing else compares. I have Keynote and have used OpenOffice extensively in the past. You will always run into clip art, font, bullet, and graphics combatability errors with anything but Office.

And the Mac version of Office is pretty nice to begin with. It is not a bad product at all.

[KC9AIC]

Never will I buy it! AppleWorks is so much more modern and standard. :p

[Rooey]

I have office X... Other than to gain transparency on a window or two, I see no reason to upgrade!

The only thing I need is for M$ to get their act together and re-release MS project for OSX... We haven't had an update on that one since Project 95!!!

[michaelrjohnson]

I will buy it for the sake of having the most current version (sometime). With my student discount, it is only $70US +/- some... not sure. Anyhow, I like to use it because with my apple laptop, people ask me what i can do with it... (grrr) so i can show them office and they gasp... whatever... i like to be current ;)

[designaw]

I switched to AppleWorks before Microsoft introduced Office v.X and to be honest, it does everything I need for my business. I use PowerPoint and Word v.X occasionally for client presentations, but as with all Microsoft software on the Mac it is fat and buggy.

The recent 'outing' of Microsoft's business dealings and they're bashing of the Mac and standards with proprietary formats have done the most damage to my view of a company whose products I wish to subscribe to and hand over my money too.

I don't buy Esso (ExxonMobil) and I won't be buying from Microsoft.

[G4scott]

I'll be getting it, mainly because I can get it for around $8 because of Microsoft's deal with our university. I occasionally use office, but it's so slow, buggy, and such a pain in the ass to use, I hate it. I don't like AppleWorks much better, though. It's interface needs to be updated. These days, when I have to type a paper, it's Text Edit all the way. It does what I need it to, and it's not bloatware that takes forever to load, and crashes every 10 minutes.

I'm actually looking forward to this new note taking app with office. Assuming it'll run faster than word, and be more stable, I'll probably stick with it. Of course, Microsoft has to make it not slow, and not buggy, and that's kinda hard for them to do. That's what I hate about Office for Mac. You need a G5 for it to run smoothly at all. It brings my system to a crawl just when it auto-saves. I mean, it couldn't take that many resources to write around 30k worth of data to a disk.

Oh well, I guess I'll have to pray that this next release is worth it.

[slowtreme]

I will be upgrading. With the exception of Keynote, there are no other individual apps or app suites that come close to the features of the MS Office package.

That said, most of the others are either free or way cheaper than MS Office and if I was just typing a letter, report, school presentation, or other basic stuff that can easily be done in AppleWorks or Open Office I would not spend the money. But I commonly use many tools that only MS supplies that just don't exist elsewhere or are horrible implementations. But for an Office tool doing Office work, MS Office is the best application MacOS X has, and could be the single most useful application/suite for all of Mac.

For the person that thinks Office is buggy, just try to use some of the graphing tools, or triple nested lookups in a spreadsheet with another tool. You'll find out just what is buggy and what's not. :)

[Powerbook G5]

I only bought Office v.X recently, so I rather not spend another couple hundred dollars to get a new version that adds only minor updates.

[aus_dave]

I'm thinking about it, if only for the long file name support. I'd be interested in seeing if Entourage is any better too.

After shelling out about 600 AUD for Office v.X late last year I'm not overly keen to upgrade straight away unless the reviews are excellent or VPC improves a lot.

[wdlove]

I'm going to send in my purchase order to Microsoft today. I get a free upgrade, because of a recent upgrade.

I thought there was a lot of problems with AppleWorks. Is it fully compatable with Office?

[jkojima]

I'm undecided at the moment, but I will probably wait to see what my future holds. In all probability I'll have to adopt an all PC workflow in my upcoming job (tech consulting with a major MS-allied firm), resulting in my Mac use being relegated to the home, where Office is probably overkill. Then again, I'll boot up Photoshop even if just to crop a photo, so overkill is my middle name.

[Wuddel]

Hum, donno. PowerPoint seems to be really nice (Presenter Tools). I don't use Word (LaTeX instead), but Excel.

I really liked Entourage, but since I switched from POP to IMAP Entourage is unusable (extremly unstable). I think it would disturb the folder structure on the server anyway (like Mail.app does). I am perfectly fine with Thunderbird, which you can configure the use non-standard folders (which are set by my service provider). Check out the new nightlies.

[dukemeiser]

I've lived without it for this long, I'm sure it won't hurt me now. I'm holding out for a new Appleworks anyway.

[dcollierp]

I will probably upgrade to the "pro" version to get virtual pc for what it's worth.

[helmsc]

I will download it first and give it a few weeks to prove itself before I throw too much money into it. I personally like Appleworks 6 which I bought about 6 months ago but like others have stated there are a few incompatibilities between the two at the moment.

[wrldwzrd89]

I would have voted "no", but the poll site wrongly tells me that I've already voted (this is on a Windows machine that is not mine). I have no real need for MS Office - I'd much rather use OpenOffice and send PDFs out instead.

[Zaty]

I already pre-ordered my free upgrade. I bought Office v. X along with my little AlBook in January. I wouldn't upgrade if I had to pay full price but it's a steal for €15.

[Stewie]

define 'buy' ?

[Stewie]

I'm undecided at the moment, but I will probably wait to see what my future holds. In all probability I'll have to adopt an all PC workflow in my upcoming job (tech consulting with a major MS-allied firm), resulting in my Mac use being relegated to the home, where Office is probably overkill. Then again, I'll boot up Photoshop even if just to crop a photo, so overkill is my middle name.

Hey don't think like that. My last 2 jobs have been all MS based, but I have found a way to use my Powerbook on a daily basis. Other then having to fire up Virtual PC for the occasional Visio or MS Project I can do it all on my Jaguar Ti.

[Dahl]

I've lived without it for this long, I'm sure it won't hurt me now. I'm holding out for a new Appleworks anyway.
Yeah, Apple need to update Appleworks for the people who doesn't need the whole MS package.
I might just get Office, not that I want it. But I find the need for it now and then.

[Doctor Q]

Undecided. Love Excel, hate Word, have no use for the other components.

[wordmunger]

No. I think I can hold out until 2005 when Open Office gets ported to Mac OS X.

[Les Kern]

Two weeks ago I ordered 600 copies... with 3 year auto-upgrade.... Better work.

[pimentoLoaf]

I only bought Office v.X recently, so I rather not spend another couple hundred dollars to get a new version that adds only minor updates.

You might qualify for a free upgrade. Have you checked the MS Mactopia (http://www.mactopia.com) site?

[ZildjianKX]

I only bought Office v.X recently, so I rather not spend another couple hundred dollars to get a new version that adds only minor updates.

When did you buy it? You may qualify for a free upgrade...

Edit - Oops, I guess I posted that a bit late.

[applemacdude]

imma get it by other means... ;)

[Sailfish]

Are you going to buy Mac Office 2004?

Hell NO!

Reasons:

1: Don't like being sucked into Microsoft only land, don't like search feature using MSN exclusively and other lock in's.

2: Don't like giving money to the world's evilest monopoly and control freaks on the side of big business and government snoops and who treat their customers like cattle. Moo.

3: Appleworks is only $79 and loads faster, reads and writes M$ word and excel files (does need a facelift.)

4: Like supporting Apple software and the company. Like supporting alternatives. Steve Jobs has always been on the side of the consumer.

5: Hate morons in butterfly outfits following me around like I'm some sort of helpless idiot.

6: Hate most large corporations and their dominating behavior crushing people's human spirit, creativity, freedom and ingenuity and turning them into a robot object to be pigeon holed.

7: "Powerpoint makes you dumb" search Slashdot, NASA reports it made the shuttle crash because it doesn't allow information to be accurately communicated.


To those who say "If there wasn't a M$ Office Mac, there wouldn't be any Mac's in our office"

I say get a education and learn how to use software that communicates with universal file formats, you'll be a better person with more experience. Because you can use any tool to get the job done, instead of relying upon M$, like a crutch.

Get M$ off your Mac and keep it off.

We will never win if you keep succumbing to the enemy and let them program you and weaken your resolve.

If enough people cry out for a iOffice from Apple, Apple will respond! People drive the market with their $$$ and their purchasing decisions.

Quit letting M$ push us around!!

Tell Apple today you will buy a iOffice package. We can turn the tide, one voice at a time.

Defeatists be quiet they already have lost the war in their minds.

</rant> :)

[LinuxGigolo]

No.. I get it free of charge. I love University licensing.

[gwuMACaddict]

imma get it by other means... ;)

:eek: :rolleyes: :D

http://www.cripplefight.com/smileys/signmuahaha.gifhttp://www.cripplefight.com/smileys/funmeter2.gif

[Awimoway]

Nope. I'm poor right now. I have v.X. I only use Word, Excel and Virtual PC (which I bought separately, of course), and they work just fine as-is. I don't see the updates as being worth the $$$.

[deejemon]

Like some others, I said "no" simply because we'll be getting it at work (and we can also install at home under our license).

It looks like a good upgrade, although kind of lighter on new features than I expected/hoped.

[ikoiko]

...I am involved in a prerelease evaluation of Office 2004. It is great! there are some nice bells and whistles, eye candy and features. Entourage is the best of the lot.
I have found it very stable (no crashes in about 100 uses), each of the modules are improved.
It is easier to use and all connected, which some will feel is a negative.
If you have an earlier version of office, I'd look at upgrading!

[-hh]

Yeah, I know that there's alternatives, but working with less-savvy people and the like, it is one of the paths of lesser resistance.


2: Don't like giving money to the world's evilest monopoly..

3: Appleworks is only $79 ...

4: ... Like supporting alternatives...

5: Hate morons in butterfly outfits ...

We will never win if you keep succumbing to the enemy ...

If enough people cry out for a iOffice from Apple, Apple will respond! People drive the market with their $$$ and their purchasing decisions.

</rant> :)

Fair points all, although the reality is that the Stranglehold needs to be broken on the Windows platform first. Think Apple will introduce iOffice-Windows?


FWIW, my general M$-Office strategy has been to hold off buying for as long as possible, and one approach that has worked OK is to buy an EDU licence of Version N after its already been announced that buyers of (N) get a free upgrade to (N+1). It seems to be the least painful way I've found so far.

FWIW, I did notice that MacTopia only allows upgrades of v98 or newer...anyone want a couple spare copies of 4.2.1 on floppy? :-)

-hh

[wdlove]

Apple should offer iOffice or something that is fully compatible and easy to use. It should offer what is available in the Professional edition. I would happily purchase the product.

[bluedalmatian]

I wont be buying it. For 2 years of work it offers very little in the way of improvements.

[Urdam]

Downloading it for free :D