Microsoft Declares Office 2008 Ready for Snow Leopard, Most 'Spaces' Issues Fixed

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/08/28/microsoft-declares-office-2008-ready-for-snow-leopard-most-spaces-issues-fixed/)

In a blog post (http://www.officeformac.com/blog/Ready-for-Snow-Leopard) today, Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit senior product manager Mike Tedesco announces that Office 2008 has been tested with Mac OS X Snow Leopard and declared ready for use. Importantly, Tedesco also notes that most of the issues related to Office 2008's interaction (http://www.microsoft.com/mac/help.mspx?target=c3f299e3-aa15-40f4-b3cc-1a6e9eb38cf81033&clr=99-4-0&ep=11&CTT=Category&MODE=pv&locale=en-US&usid=f8fe942c-263e-4cb1-8191-af6730146953) with Apple's "Spaces" feature have been fixed in Snow Leopard through the combined efforts of Apple and Microsoft.Q. Are there any differences with Office 2008 for Mac running on Snow Leopard vs. Leopard?
A. Office 2008 for Mac is Snow Leopard tested and ready! Best of all, with the launch of Snow Leopard, the bulk of the Word 2008 Spaces issues have been fixed after our collaborative efforts to address the problem.The Spaces bugs present with Office 2008 and Leopard have been viewed as a significant usability issue for many users, but Microsoft has repeatedly placed responsibility (http://www.macworld.com/article/137520/2008/12/office08_spaces.html) for fixing the problems on Apple, citing Apple's implementation of Spaces as the root cause. Based on today's posting, it appears that the two companies have finally worked through the majority of the issues related to Spaces and Office 2008, although Tedesco's wording suggests that there may still be lingering bug or two.

Article Link: Microsoft Declares Office 2008 Ready for Snow Leopard, Most 'Spaces' Issues Fixed (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/08/28/microsoft-declares-office-2008-ready-for-snow-leopard-most-spaces-issues-fixed/)

[ouimetnick]

Good to see Microsoft cares about Apple and Mac OS X. ;)

[jav6454]

Oddly enough, Microsoft is actually working.

[peepboon]

Finally! The first time it happened to me I was about to flip the table because I thought I lost my course work! lol

[alphaod]

I noticed that if you hide the toolbox before switching spaces there really isn't an issue… of course it's good to know they fixed it now.

[22Hertz]

WOW...spaces works with Office 2008?!

"Tedesco's wording suggests that there may still be lingering bug or two"

Not with a Microsoft product, surely it isn't so:D

[milbournosphere]

Just fixing the spaces issue in Office 2008 alone makes Snow Leopard worth buying. I will definitely purchase SL today after I get off of work.

[wankey]

Installing Snow Leopard now for the this alone.

[scotty588]

If Office 2008 is Snow Leopard comptable, then why are the updates not installing for me and giving me a database error when I start Word up. Doesn't fix the problem even after running the database utility.

[helix21]

Brilliant!
My personal number one 'refinement' of snow leopard

[22Hertz]

Have you tried downloading the update from the website?

I had to do that on Leopard to get mine working.
After the first update the built in updater worked fine.

[celticpride678]

Wait, Microsoft worries about OS X?:p

But anyways, thanks for finally fixing it! How about people with Leopard??

[tosui]

Can anyone report whether Office 2004 works on Leopard?

(Sorry, but I'm still using my 12" PowerBook - upgrading Mac & OS next week!)

[scotty588]

Have you tried downloading the update from the website?

I had to do that on Leopard to get mine working.
After the first update the built in updater worked fine.
Yep, that is the installer from the site.

[Eddyisgreat]

If Office 2008 is Snow Leopard comptable, then why are the updates not installing for me and giving me a database error when I start Word up. Doesn't fix the problem even after running the database utility.

Did you reinstall it under 10.6 or did you do an in place upgrade? I just did a clean install and i'm going to install Office 2008 in a minute.

[scotty588]

Did you reinstall it under 10.6 or did you do an in place upgrade? I just did a clean install and i'm going to install Office 2008 in a minute.
Clean install of Snow Leopard.
There is a post (here (http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.mac.office&tid=2bb74681-2615-42cc-a654-b2c56febade2&cat=en_US_121572df-97f7-480e-abff-bbefff045ff2&lang=en&cr=US&sloc=&p=1)) on the Microsoft forums talking about this issue.

[SystemZERO]

Augh, that Spaces glitch aggravated me so much in Word! It's about time!

[bucksaddle]

Clean install of Snow Leopard.
There is a post (here (http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.mac.office&tid=2bb74681-2615-42cc-a654-b2c56febade2&cat=en_US_121572df-97f7-480e-abff-bbefff045ff2&lang=en&cr=US&sloc=&p=1)) on the Microsoft forums talking about this issue.

I had the same issue but you have to install SP1 (12.1.0) before you can install SP2 (12.2.0) (as I found out in the system requirements for SP2).
I also had the same database error issue, just delete the database from your Documents/Microsoft Office folder and restart Word - that should fix it.

[thejadedmonkey]

Finally, Apple!

[shakenmartini]

I've been trying to break spaces with SL and Office 2008 and so far, the bugs from Leopard seem to be squashed.

HOWEVER, given the track record I won't call it for a week of hard use though.

[peter893]

Does the Office 08 installer require Rosetta to be installed? I vaguely remember reading this somewhere...

[bdkennedy1]

Interesting. I did a clean install of Snow Leopard and a clean install of Office 2008...

- Rosetta needed to be installed.
- Everytime I open an office program I get a database corruption error.
- Office Service Pack 2 will not install on my machine because it does not detect that Office is installed.

Doesn't sound compatible to me.

[scotty588]

I had the same issue but you have to install SP1 (12.1.0) before you can install SP2 (12.2.0) (as I found out in the system requirements for SP2).
I also had the same database error issue, just delete the database from your Documents/Microsoft Office folder and restart Word - that should fix it.
I have both updates downloaded and I am pretty sure I tried that, but will try again.

[jessica.]

AOL Keyword: Declares

[scotty588]

Thank you bucksaddle that worked!

[peter893]

So is it the installer that is still PPC code, or is all of Office 08 PPC code requiring Rosetta?

Whats up with that?

Im all for leaving Legacy PPC entirely behind...

Interesting. I did a clean install of Snow Leopard and a clean install of Office 2008...

- Rosetta needed to be installed.
- Everytime I open an office program I get a database corruption error.
- Office Service Pack 2 will not install on my machine because it does not detect that Office is installed.

Doesn't sound compatible to me.

[NATO]

Im all for leaving Legacy PPC entirely behind...

Me too... It sounds silly but I really don't want to install Rosetta just to install Office 2008 :(

[macintoshtoffy]

It frustrates me that there are people here who whine and yet create their own personal hell; don't use 'slimming' applications and follow the update instructions from Microsoft. Do them both and the problems won't arise.

But hey - according to some here as demonstrate by their actions, they're apparently towering intellectual giants compared to Microsoft programmers *rolls eyes*

[masterofreality]

Great. About time.

Did they ever fix the bug that makes "compare documents" crash *every single time*?

Or the one where pasting a table from excel turns it into an embedded XML document that can't be edited in Word 2007.

If they did, Office 2008 might actually be worth using now...

[PseudoWoobie]

No database errors here with a clean install of Snow Leopard although I did notice that Microsoft Autoupdate isn't working properly: It scans and says "no updates available" when there most definitely are updates available (a fresh install is 12.0.0, and patches exist up to 12.2.1).

Manually downloading each update from Microsoft worked just fine, however.

[harrier]

Can anyone report whether Office 2004 works on Leopard?

(Sorry, but I'm still using my 12" PowerBook - upgrading Mac & OS next week!)

According to the MacCast, if an app running on Rosetta is found (Office 2004 for example), SL will install Rosetta. So the answer is yes.

[The ArchAngel]

Anyone else getting these "missing bundle identifier" errors, all pertaining to office .pkg files, if you run softwareupdate -l from the command line?

[jpine]

Uh, wasn't MS suppose to stop selling Word because of a court order? Does that only apply to the MS OS version?

[Quillz]

Uh, wasn't MS suppose to stop selling Word because of a court order? Does that only apply to the MS OS version?
They can sell Office, just not Word in of itself.

Not to mention the company that claims to own the patents relating to Word exists solely to create lawsuits, anyway. I imagine the ruling will eventually be overturned.

[jpine]

They can sell Office, just not Word in of itself.

Not to mention the company that claims to own the patents relating to Word exists solely to create lawsuits, anyway. I imagine the ruling will eventually be overturned.

Are there a lot of users who would buy the Office without the inclusion of Word? I don't think I would any time soon. Not that I use Word. I prefer pages or NeoOffice.

[Quillz]

Are there a lot of users who would buy the Office without the inclusion of Word? I don't think I would any time soon. Not that I use Word. I prefer pages or NeoOffice.
I don't think it's even possible to buy Word outside of Office, which is the point. The injunction really won't affect Microsoft at all. There are always legal loopholes.

I actually find NeoOffice terrible, although Pages is fine for typical day-to-day usage.

[jpine]

I don't think it's even possible to buy Word outside of Office, which is the point. The injunction really won't affect Microsoft at all. There are always legal loopholes.

I actually find NeoOffice terrible, although Pages is fine for typical day-to-day usage.

So what you're saying is that MS can't sell Word as a standalone product (which they don't do anyway), but they can sell it if it is "bundled" into another product called "Office?" Gotta love courts and their rulings.

I actually wrote my dissertation on Pages. NeoOffice is nothing to write home about (no pun intended), but for my needs, it's not bad. You certainly can't beat the price.

[macintoshtoffy]

I don't think it's even possible to buy Word outside of Office, which is the point. The injunction really won't affect Microsoft at all. There are always legal loopholes.

I actually find NeoOffice terrible, although Pages is fine for typical day-to-day usage.

I'd love to use iWork a lot more but I simply can't because it lacks a built in Bibliography that supports Chicago style bibliographies and citations; if Apple added that plus a few other features - the reason for many students like myself purchasing Office 2008 would cease. I do very little correspondence with university and what I do is only for reading and anything sent back is in PDF format.

[Decrepit]

So what you're saying is that MS can't sell Word as a standalone product (which they don't do anyway), but they can sell it if it is "bundled" into another product called "Office?" Gotta love courts and their rulings.

I actually wrote my dissertation on Pages. NeoOffice is nothing to write home about (no pun intended), but for my needs, it's not bad. You certainly can't beat the price.

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-059-05468-Word-2007/dp/B000HCZ8GW/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1251527553&sr=8-7

Word 2007. Stand alone. Still in stock at Amazon.

And the injunction is on hold while Microsoft appeals, so they can still sell it as I understand it.

Just an FYI. :)

[spillproof]

I'm glad Office 2008 will work on SL with out problems. Though I am not forced to use Word anymore, I have come to love the Notebook page layout and all its functions for taking notes in class.

[HasanDaddy]

Office 2004 works just terrifficly on my MBA

I'll stick with 2004, which I reinstalled after ditching Office 2008

[SeaFox]

The Spaces bugs present with Office 2008 and Leopard have been viewed as a significant usability issue for many users, but Microsoft has repeatedly placed responsibility (http://www.macworld.com/article/137520/2008/12/office08_spaces.html) for fixing the problems on Apple, citing Apple's implementation of Spaces as the root cause.

Sounds like M$ isn't used to being in the passenger seat when it comes to app development, being an O/S maker themselves. It's the third party's job to rework their software to compatability with the O/S, not the O/S maker's job to bend to the application developer's will.

[UTclassof89]

OpenOffice.org (and never look back)

[fobfob]

I'm glad Office 2008 will work on SL with out problems.

Still got the same bugs that I notice. For example, if I have a window open on my 24" monitor, then disconnect the monitor, the window appears fairly small on my MBP screen but cannot be resized. Other bugs include crashing (esp when graphs are pasted from Excel), and various visual artifacts.. etc etc

Office 2008 is the buggiest S/W I have. Sadly, it's also the among the most useful.

[*LTD*]

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-059-05468-Word-2007/dp/B000HCZ8GW/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1251527553&sr=8-7

Word 2007. Stand alone. Still in stock at Amazon.

And the injunction is on hold while Microsoft appeals, so they can still sell it as I understand it.

Just an FYI. :)

They have 60 days to comply. I think as of two weeks ago or so.

[Abacab]

Ever since upgrading to Leopard Server and client,(from Tiger) when an excel file is put on the server and 4 to six people share, all hell breaks loose. I wish I could have one day of "changes cannot be made to this file because you do not have permission" (But the user is part of a group that HAS PERMISSION to the share point the file is on as well as being added to the shared list within excel.
The only way I have been able to fix is to log in the server as root, copy the file to a flash drive. delete from server, open from a client and re-save to server. Anybody have similar issues?

[pdjudd]

They have 60 days to comply. I think as of two weeks ago or so.

From what I read, they have already appealed the injunction so they probably will still sell Office and or Word as they are for the foreseeable future.

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Not to mention the company that claims to own the patents relating to Word exists solely to create lawsuits, anyway. I imagine the ruling will eventually be overturned.

Source? I've actually heard that the company used its format that Microsoft stole, and is in fact a real company, not just there to sue big companies. In fact there are many internal documents of Microsoft showing that employees knew of the patent and chose to ignore it hoping they wouldn't get caught.

[polaris20]

Interesting. I did a clean install of Snow Leopard and a clean install of Office 2008...

- Rosetta needed to be installed.
- Everytime I open an office program I get a database corruption error.
- Office Service Pack 2 will not install on my machine because it does not detect that Office is installed.

Doesn't sound compatible to me.

Ugh, I hope that's not what awaits me. Sorry to hear about your troubles. Honestly if I didn't use MS Office 2008 on my work uMBP and get it for free from school for my personal uMBP, I'd just be using OpenOffice or iWork. MS Office just isn't worth the trouble.

[*LTD*]

Source? I've actually heard that the company used its format that Microsoft stole, and is in fact a real company, not just there to sue big companies. In fact there are many internal documents of Microsoft showing that employees knew of the patent and chose to ignore it hoping they wouldn't get caught.

Yes.

The company has actually been using their patents. They are a real company, they've been in business since 1993. It has already been shown that MS knew of the patent issues and then went ahead and knowingly, wilfully, committed the violation. A jury found them guilty of this in connection with this case.

[Takuta-Nui]

Relief. This writer is happy.

[Hairball]

Use Open Office and Mail now that exchange is in SL.

[Doctor Q]

Has Apple admitted that the Spaces problem was their fault as Microsoft claimed?

[polaris20]

Source? I've actually heard that the company used its format that Microsoft stole, and is in fact a real company, not just there to sue big companies. In fact there are many internal documents of Microsoft showing that employees knew of the patent and chose to ignore it hoping they wouldn't get caught.

Yup, you're right. I don't have printed proof to confirm, but was mentioned Paul Thurrott in the most recent Windows Weekly podcast.

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Yup, you're right. I don't have printed proof to confirm, but was mentioned Paul Thurrott in the most recent Windows Weekly podcast.

My source is Leo Laporte on This Week In Tech. :D

[daschor]

For anyone still using ppc, v.X works great in Leopard. 2004 & 2008 are just a waste for most users.

[princigalli]

Wait, Microsoft worries about OS X?:p

But anyways, thanks for finally fixing it! How about people with Leopard??

more than most other companies do. Microsoft mouse always works perfectly, unlike Logitech that probably never completed their OSX drivers.

[scottstover]

I've been using Office 2004 with no problems. No benefit to going to 2008.

[SWITCHERCRAIG]

Can anyone report whether Office 2004 works on Leopard?

(Sorry, but I'm still using my 12" PowerBook - upgrading Mac & OS next week!)

I did an inplace upgrade to snow leopard on my imac running leopard with Office 2004 and it actually runs BETTER and faster than before. I used to get delays in scrolling before but seamless now.

Craig

[twoodcc]

well i'm glad to see both microsoft and apple working on the problem

[Bjohnson33]

Good to see Microsoft cares about Apple and Mac OS X. ;)

I wonder what would happen if MS ever decided to stop making MS Office for the Mac. With almost everyone that I've helped switch over to Apple computers, being able to use Word and Excel has been one of their biggest concerns.

[surferfromuk]

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-059-05468-Word-2007/dp/B000HCZ8GW/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1251527553&sr=8-7

Word 2007. Stand alone. Still in stock at Amazon.

And the injunction is on hold while Microsoft appeals, so they can still sell it as I understand it.

Just an FYI. :)

LOL! There's not a damn thing any legal entity on earth is ever gonna do to stop Microsoft.

[walnuts]

Sounds like M$ isn't used to being in the passenger seat when it comes to app development, being an O/S maker themselves. It's the third party's job to rework their software to compatability with the O/S, not the O/S maker's job to bend to the application developer's will.

As microsoft says it, they used a correct implementation of an apple window type that apple didn't think of when implementing spaces. Sounds pretty fair to me.

So, I must say, it is a real pleasure having spaces work for office- probably my favorite thing I've noticed about snow leopard so far.

[polaris20]

My source is Leo Laporte on This Week In Tech. :D

Well, same difference :D Leo does the Windows Weekly with Paul Thurott; he probably mentioned it on TWiT two days after Paul said it. ;)

[GoKyu]

It's great to see that they fixed the issue with Office, but even better than that, they fixed the issue with Spaces and YouTube!

If I'm watching a video fullscreen on Youtube, and need to check something else, I usually hit F8 to zoom out to my spaces...problem was, when you got back to the browser window, the video would restart.

Thankfully that hasn't happened AT ALL. Nice job, Apple!

[spillproof]

I'm glad Office 2008 will work on SL with out problems. Though I am not forced to use Word anymore, I have come to love the Notebook page layout and all its functions for taking notes in class.

Is it just me, or did anyone else have a problem with notebook view? It kept crashing every time I tried to create a new page or convert an existing page.

I just upgraded Flash and it seemed to fix the problem.

[MorphingDragon]

Fix the speed problems and "Fix" (As in Vet "Fix") entourage. iWork hits a nasty vibe once in a while but the speed makes up for it.