Office 2004 vs. v.X - Worth the upgrade?

[FelixDerKater]

Of those of you who have already upgraded from Office v.X to Office 2004, what are some features that stand out as really useful and worthy of the upgrade cost? How is performance of Office 2004 as compared to v.X? Any other comments would be greatly appreciated. Since I know some smartarse will respond, "Download the demo." I am going to go ahead and say that I have already done that. Still, just like any app, there are features and such that you don't discover until someone happens to mention them.

[JFreak]

i downloaded the demo and decided that i will not need the upgrade. office still handles fonts in its own way (which is not the way all other apps in osx do), and the performance sucks. sometimes the demo apps didn't even load when there were too much fonts apparently. i will not tolerate a word processor that says what fonts i can use and how many, so no upgrade for me, thank you.

word v.X version 10.1.5 is much faster than the new demo version, in my setup at least. i will continue using that when i have to, and indesign when i can choose ;)

[theimacguy]

Anything from M$ is not worth it.

Keynote + AppleWorks = :)

[jaw04005]

Anything from M$ is not worth it.

Keynote + AppleWorks = :)

Who even recommends AppleWorks anymore? Wasn't the last update like 4 years ago? Keynote is okay, although I have had problems with it quitting with large Powerpoint files.

If you currently own Office X, I would not recommend updating to the latest version. There is just not enough new features. If you don't own X, and you need Office compatibility... I would say go for 2004. Its nice but not worth the upgrade price.

[titaniumducky]

Keynote is awesome - it completely mutilates PowerPoint anyday!!!

However, the rest of the Office Suite is still much better than AppleWorks in everything except speed (which both lack but AppleWorks has a little more of).

[marano]

How 'bout OpenOffice

[iShater]

How is UNICODE support in Office 2004?

[superbovine]

considering if you are in the business world, you are bound to get an email with some type of microsoft office document. not all the office clones will able to read all the officedocuments perfectly. it is always handy to have a copy of office installed. especially if its your customer who uses office.

[virividox]

v.x suits myneeds dont tink i will upgrade. but if ur starting from nothing just get the newer one

[Kwyjibo]

i've tried both and the difference isn't that great.

[dswoodley]

The new layout views are cool, but other than that 2004 has been buggy as hell with me. Word won't play nicely with my Photosmart printer - app always shuts down when I try to print, same thing when I try to cut and paste from Excel into something running on a Citrix client. Entourage takes forever to sync with Exchange server too. In several ways, Office 2004 lost ground. I do like the new stuff, but the upgrade actually made it harder for me to do work.

[boomtopper]

In word.x there is a problem with it that annoys me. The problem is that the page setup is always set to US letter. Has this been fixed in the new word or is there a workaround?

[stoid]

I've noticed that when idle in the background, v.X still consumes about 5-10 percent of my CPU cycles, while 2004 holds steady at 0% as you would expect an background app to use.

[Calvinatir]

i got my v.X for $6.34 from school..so if they still have the same deal next semi then I'll upgrade..otherwise..bah

[AmigoMac]

I've noticed that when idle in the background, v.X still consumes about 5-10 percent of my CPU cycles, while 2004 holds steady at 0% as you would expect an background app to use.

I haven't closed Word 2004 since 2 days and without using it it uses 9% my CPU :mad: ... I'll check with v.X at home... But I doubt it...as far as I've read... I find Appleworks pretty cool and simple if you want to do a document and give it as PDF ...Database feature for home-use, still cool... What I need is word and excel, there is no even 80% excel compatible program outthere... I've tried everything from Appleworks to Koffice , going trhough OOo

[Bigheadache]

Appleworks..... are you serious????

OpenOffice could be a realistic alternative, but they need people to help make it Aqua native. (I read somewhere there is only 2 guys working on the mac version)

[AmigoMac]

Appleworks..... are you serious????

OpenOffice could be a realistic alternative, but they need people to help make it Aqua native. (I read somewhere there is only 2 guys working on the mac version)

Seriously, is pretty fast and the word processor is nice for doing brochures and documents which only go PDF, ok, for me, I haven't found the first one with AW to read my files... either the first one who says, "But only AW files" :), would be nice, but truely, AW is fast, I have OO as well, and between the 3 apps, I like doing databases in appleworks and taking notes of my research...

I heard IBM came with a new Office suite that will be available to the end of the year for the mac world... but Appleworks needs a big update and I doubt it comes as Steve said when talking of iLife : "is like MS Office for the rest of your life" .... that statement says to me that it will take a long time before apple takes again the office suit program way... I hope to be wrong, want to see Appleworks 7 in WWDC ... is that much Steve? bring multiple spreadsheets... and better compability...

[Bigheadache]

Seriously, is pretty fast and the word processor is nice for doing brochures and documents which only go PDF, ok, for me, I haven't found the first one with AW to read my files... either the first one who says, "But only AW files" :), would be nice, but truely, AW is fast, I have OO as well, and between the 3 apps, I like doing databases in appleworks and taking notes of my research...

I heard IBM came with a new Office suite that will be available to the end of the year for the mac world... but Appleworks needs a big update and I doubt it comes as Steve said when talking of iLife : "is like MS Office for the rest of your life" .... that statement says to me that it will take a long time before apple takes again the office suit program way... I hope to be wrong, want to see Appleworks 7 in WWDC ... is that much Steve? bring multiple spreadsheets... and better compability...

I thinks its safe to say that most people consider Appleworks a toy rather than a tool. The best solution would be what they did with Safari, that is, get something from the open source community and do it up.

And why would IBM come up with something for the mac world? I thought they were fully committed to the linux bandwagon (in terms of software). The upside i see from Appleworks is that it comes for free if you buy an ibook.

[nesbitt_a]

Office 2004 seems quite power-hungry on my powerbook. Editing a simple word document, and running top reveals:

794 Microsoft 59.6% 3:31.06 2 103 488 91.2M- 46.4M 93.9M- 454M

Not pretty really. Maybe they need to release a service update.

Andrew

[Savage Henry]

I'd say it was only worth the upgrade if you come from pre-v.X version of Office, say 2001. But other than that I really don't think it's worth the extra money.

As for OpenOffice, Appleworks, ThinkFree etc, they are so insignificant it's not funny anymore. But Keynote is getting my juices flowing and I can't wait for the next release.

[nesbitt_a]

I'd say it was only worth the upgrade if you come from pre-v.X version of Office, say 2001. But other than that I really don't think it's worth the extra money.

As for OpenOffice, Appleworks, ThinkFree etc, they are so insignificant it's not funny anymore. But Keynote is getting my juices flowing and I can't wait for the next release.

What are the chances Apple has a set of office applications waiting for the WWDC?

[Le Big Mac]

Office 2004 seems quite power-hungry on my powerbook. Editing a simple word document, and running top reveals:

794 Microsoft 59.6% 3:31.06 2 103 488 91.2M- 46.4M 93.9M- 454M

Not pretty really. Maybe they need to release a service update.

Andrew

Somewhere I recall reading that if you turn off teh "auto word count" or whatever the feature is, performance improves a lot and processor use decreases greatly.

[AmigoMac]

What are the chances Apple has a set of office applications waiting for the WWDC?

I'd say, wait, if not, order asap, because the next release will be in mwsf 05... I hope they come with AW 7 this summer...

[Tonini]

Of those of you who have already upgraded from Office v.X to Office 2004, what are some features that stand out as really useful and worthy of the upgrade cost? How is performance of Office 2004 as compared to v.X? Any other comments would be greatly appreciated. Since I know some smartarse will respond, "Download the demo." I am going to go ahead and say that I have already done that. Still, just like any app, there are features and such that you don't discover until someone happens to mention them.

i can display chinese both on pc and mac without any changes!

[FoxyKaye]

Somewhere I recall reading that if you turn off the "auto word count" or whatever the feature is, performance improves a lot and processor use decreases greatly.

Thanks - this is a good tip. I installed Office 2004 on my upgraded Beige G3 (now a G4/500, 768RAM) and immediately noticed a performance decrease. Office 2004 seems to me to be a bloated Office X, much in the same way WinXP is a bloated Win2000 - I remember the folks from M$ presenting at MW in January. They were all like, "ooh, and check out this new feature no-one asked for, and wow, look at this bizarre notepage thing." The silence from the audience was deafening. :D

Seriously, Office 2004 seems to be more of a way to keep the line fresh than an actual improvement over Office X. I mean, how many ways can you overtick a word processor before you encounter the law of diminishing returns? :rolleyes:

I tend to concur with others - if you own Office 2001 or earlier, I'd say Office 2004 is worth the upgrade if only for native OS X support. Otherwise, Office X will be fine until the next revision, and probably even thereafter.

[papersushi]

Office 2004 may not be a big deal to English spoken world. It has complete Unicode support now. If your word files contain any Chinese, Japanese, Korean characters, it will show up correctly without installing any tird party unicode support patch, which is somethig you have to do on Offic V. X

[busasa]

interesting, so that's why i can't view any chinese characters in office v. x. Can you tell me where can i dl those unicode patches for the office v. x??

[markie]

I'm going to go against the crowd and say it's worth it for PowerPoint Presenter Tools if you use PowerPoint and have a PowerBook or PowerMac (dual monitor support needed to make it worthwhile) and also for the compatibility reports and improved PowerPoint graphics. I like it a lot better personally. PowerPoint is much improved, IMHO.

[ejb190]

Thanks markie!

PowerPoint is my main MS Office Application. I have found a lot of things I can do in XP that don't exist in Office X like motion paths and animation features that really make my life a bit easier. I was hoping that 2004 would bring the Mac version up to par with the PC version.

I haven't figured out why they made Word so darn bloated. It is like they are trying to combine all the features of Excel, Publisher, and FrontPage into one application and not doing any of it justice. Afterall, who seriously uses the web publication tools in Word?

[rendezvouscp]

As a student, I decided to update to Office 2004 because I saw the features and price to be worthwhile. The newest features that I use most frequently are the compatibility reports, the (what seems new) thesaurus (really helps for papers), the project center is nice, Unicode support, and a little bit more support for fractions (and that's just in Word). I don't know how fast your PB is, but it does seem a little bit smoother on G4's (at least at CompUSA on their iMacs). I haven't used Excel or PowerPoint extensively, but they seem to be nicer too as far as features goes. The whole suite seems a little bit more "complete." Depending on how much you use Office, I would suggest upgrading or not. If you use it every day, I would upgrade, but if you use it once in a while, I would suggest staying with v.X unless you have the extra cash and/or see the new features to be worth it.
–Chase

[discoforce]

For those considering an upgrade to 2004, if you bought v.X b/w Jan 6 & June 30 this year (only in US and Canada) you can upgrade for the price of shipping ($10 US), which was cheap enough for me to send away for it.

You'll need your receipt and box top. Hmm... sounds like I'm ordering a decoder ring :rolleyes:

Now whether I install it or not depends on what I read and whether I need it to remain compatible with the PC folks I work with.

So the real question for me is should I "upgrade" to the professional version which includes Virtual PC ($129 US). I could theoretically use it to run my stats programs that only work on PCs... What do y'all think?