Microsoft Launches Office 365 Subscriptions Alongside Office 2013, But Macs Still Stuck on Office 2011

[rMBP15]

Microsoft is treating its MS Office franchise like its XBOX division with its XBOX LIVE subscription fees

[Kev.LoveMac]

Originally Posted by floatingspirit

Wow, no offense, but what I'm hearing is "Office 365 finally does what Microsoft software shoulda been doing all along."

I agree. This company has been promising its customers a good product since .... ten years. And now its coming. Well, maybe several months later, one has to add "Not yet".

[MacRumorUser]

Originally Posted by pundit

It's a bit rich to hear complaints about a change that makes Microsoft more profit on Macrumors. Isn't the crux of the Android/iPhone debate that the Android sales advantage is moot because profits! Or that the 30% cut for the Appstore is fine, because, again.. profits! So I guess the appropriateness of profitability here depends on whether Apple or some other corporation is making them?

As for value for money, Office 365 is fine if you're a multiple or frequent upgrader and user more office products. If you have to use Office, 11 isn't working for you, and there isn't a non-subscription version available for Mac, just get the PC version and use it on your Mac or PC. Consider it the Microsoft version of the iOS walled garden.

As for why you might not want/need Office... I guess you indeed might not, but there are many ways that most of the Office apps are best in class. E.G. Revision management in Word or Pivots in Excel. Office is way more customizable, and the core applications have full macro languages. The programmatic control is really important for a lot of corporations, and is just more complete in MS Office. Everything that can be programmatically exposed is.

So, yeah, you might balk at paying $100 for Office. You probably don't use the truly advanced features of Office and can get by with something less capable like Numbers or Pages... and that's okay. I'm not a particular fan of subscription services either, but another purchase option is always welcome IMO

The sad reality is that most people simply don't pay for office at all. There are more illegal copies / torrents of both PC & Mac versions of office than there are legitimate / paid & registered versions.

Yes office is an important part of Microsofts revenue stream and they want to protect that and get paid for the actual product rather than it ending up pirated left right and centre.

The move to Office 365 for $99 or $10 a month, for the product to be installed on upto 5 computers is good business. It means a family of three or four children off to college can get Office for each if their hardware for a relatively low price per unit when you divide the $99 by 3-5 people.

However there are people who even if Microsft released Office at $10 would still copy / pirate it, and still have the audacity to rip on them and call them greedy for wanting to change their future retail model so they could get paid.

Eventually Office will be available only via subscription and optional web apps, both for Mac & PC users.

[Steve121178]

Originally Posted by Larry-K

Does it crash faster now?

I know I'll end up buying it anyway, just to avoid subscribing to those crooks.

The Office 365 subscription is a good deal unless you have only 1 computer then it's easier to just buy the standalone product.

I just hope the next Office for Mac is better than 2011. I don't have a problem with the performance of Office 2011, just the UI which is absolutely horrific. I use Office 2013 daily at work so having to use Office 2011 with all it's faults is just a nightmare.

[MacRumorUser]

Originally Posted by Steve121178

The Office 365 subscription is a good deal unless you have only 1 computer then it's easier to just buy the standalone product.

I just hope the next Office for Mac is better than 2011. I don't have a problem with the performance of Office 2011, just the UI which is absolutely horrific. I use Office 2013 daily at work so having to use Office 2011 with all it's faults is just a nightmare.

You could be waiting a long time for next version of OFM. My NDA forbids me for saying why I think this.

Office for Mac 2011 was certainly a right step, but a number of issues with Outlook still remain unresolved, and it is it (Outlook) which causes more user problems than any other aspect of OFM2011.

[Steve121178]

Originally Posted by MacRumorUser

You could be waiting a long time for next version of OFM.

The earliest we will see it will be Q1 2014.

[MacRumorUser]

Originally Posted by Steve121178

The earliest we will see it will be Q1 2014.

I'd be more than surprised if it was 2014 at all if I'm honest, but I hope we do.

[spazzcat]

Originally Posted by ikramerica

Then give us Mac users Access for goodness sakes. Filemaker Pro is nice and all, but it's not part of a suite.

If you know how to use sql based database install one many free ones like mysql. There are free tools that give you a GUI as well.

[robleeco]

There is a bug in Powerpoint 2011 (14.2.4) with Mountain Lion (10.8.2) and transitions. The bottom part of the screen will show a previous slide during a transition (such as a fade). Make 10 slides, drop a full screen JPEG on each one, add a fade transition to all slides and run in show mode and you'll see it.

The problem has been discussed at this link but so far no solution:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/m...9-8604282ac8e6

Also discussed here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread/...art=0&tstart=0

[MacRumorUser]

Originally Posted by robleeco

There is a bug in Powerpoint 2011 (14.2.4) with Mountain Lion (10.8.2) and transitions. The bottom part of the screen will show a previous slide during a transition (such as a fade). Make 10 slides, drop a full screen JPEG on each one, add a fade transition to all slides and run in show mode and you'll see it.

Hi Robleeco,

Have you updated to 14.3.0 ? Service pack 3... If not please do so.

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads


I'm currently running 14.3.1 and can't replicate this issue at all.... I just did exactly as you said, created a slideshow with 10 slides and put a full jpg on each page and then fade transition between them and played back at full screen, all perfect. I saved as quicktime movie to prove there is no issue here.

[Saladinos]

Originally Posted by TheMTtakeover

I've been wondering this and since you develop on both maybe you can answer.
Why is it that 95% of the time when an app is available for iOS and for Android that the iOS one is of higher quality? Does it have to do with the APIs? If so why makes the iOS APIs better than the android ones?

The APIs on iOS are really well structured. Things have descriptive (even verbose) names, the documentation is excellent and includes more than just function names and descriptions (Apple employ technical writers to write programming guides for their frameworks). The toolchain is excellent - the new Clang compiler is doing incredible things, and the iOS simulator is fast and accurate. The developer tools for Android are less advanced, and the emulator is slooooow.

On top of that, the technology in iOS really is a step ahead. Nobody's caught up to Apple on stuff like CoreAnimation and CoreData, which have been industry-leading since they showed up on OSX. It means you can very easily create smooth animations, for example - that kind of thing can have inconsistent results on Android.

In fact, the only thing that I'd say could challenge CoreAnimation would be the new HTML5 CSS animations. HTML5 is already incredible for building interfaces - it's so much more flexible (and easy to build) and somehow still really fast. No wonder so many of Apple's UIKit controls are really webviews underneath!

It may be a little controversial, but I'd also argue from my experience that iOS developers tend to put more effort in to interface and interaction design than Android developers I've worked with. I can't extrapolate that to the whole world of course, but it's just something I've observed.

In companies I've worked with, the Android developers seem to be much more like Windows developers, or they're people who just love open-source stuff and deride Apple as being full of shiny toys. They don't understand that designing things to be pleasant for the person who will use them is one of the most important parts of product design. They're just not willing to put the effort in.

That said, it is possible to create good-looking, intuitive and flowing Android apps. Android does have a few features I'd love for iOS - for example, it has an XML-based vector format for images (called "drawables" in Android parlance) that can reference colours from stylesheets. That makes it really easy to build well-scaling interfaces and it's really flexible. Performance isn't an issue because the vectors are rendered once and cached. 9-patch images can also be pretty handy (but they're also fiddly to get right).

[Mike Valmike]

Originally Posted by MacRumorUser

The sad reality is that most people simply don't pay for office at all. There are more illegal copies / torrents of both PC & Mac versions of office than there are legitimate / paid & registered versions.

These figures sound plausible, but it makes me wonder how many or what prorportion of these copies of Office are used to any substantive effect. That is, a reputable business won't run pirated Office no matter what, because a typical LLC/partnership operating agreement, corporate bylaws, attorney ethics, etc, would prevent specified controlling individuals at the company from allowing pirated software to be used. I moonlight as the managing partner of two LLCs, both of which use Office extensively every day. The OA for both states that I am responsible for ensuring that company operations are in compliance with all applicable laws. If someone in either company went bootleg and we got "caught" doing it, I could lose my position, forfeit some of my interest, and/or possibly have repercussions before my professional licensing board. Suffice it to say I stamp that stuff out with alacrity. Meanwhile, I would suspect your local hole-in-the-wall dry cleaner might have a pirated copy of Office on its admin PC, but how much are they really doing with it anyway other than printing out their store hours in Word (in Comic Sans) to hang on the door? Their usage is flat-out infringement, no question, but there is no real expectation that MS would get revenue out of that user if Office couldn't be pirated. The user would just use a free alternative. Your typical home user is likely to be no better, though for a student at least there is an ongoing minimal level of usage consistent with the expectation that the company should be realizing some revenue from that.

I guess it's kind of like why Netflix doesn't care if people are ripping the DVDs they borrow. It's infringement beyond any doubt... but it just doesn't matter that someone might be copying the content in such a way.

[unplugme71]

Originally Posted by smoledman

Then use Open Office, Libre Office or Google Docs.

I'll continue to use O2010 for Win or O2011 for Mac until either says it no longer works. Then i'll stop using their OS until they find a way without doing yearly subscriptions. Or if needed, use LogMeIn at my work to do what I need to get done at home.

[pundit]

Originally Posted by Mike Valmike

These figures sound plausible, but it makes me wonder how many or what prorportion of these copies of Office are used to any substantive effect. That is, a reputable business won't run pirated Office no matter what, because a typical LLC/partnership operating agreement, corporate bylaws, attorney ethics, etc, would prevent specified controlling individuals at the company from allowing pirated software to be used. I moonlight as the managing partner of two LLCs, both of which use Office extensively every day. The OA for both states that I am responsible for ensuring that company operations are in compliance with all applicable laws. If someone in either company went bootleg and we got "caught" doing it, I could lose my position, forfeit some of my interest, and/or possibly have repercussions before my professional licensing board. Suffice it to say I stamp that stuff out with alacrity. Meanwhile, I would suspect your local hole-in-the-wall dry cleaner might have a pirated copy of Office on its admin PC, but how much are they really doing with it anyway other than printing out their store hours in Word (in Comic Sans) to hang on the door? Their usage is flat-out infringement, no question, but there is no real expectation that MS would get revenue out of that user if Office couldn't be pirated. The user would just use a free alternative. Your typical home user is likely to be no better, though for a student at least there is an ongoing minimal level of usage consistent with the expectation that the company should be realizing some revenue from that.

I guess it's kind of like why Netflix doesn't care if people are ripping the DVDs they borrow. It's infringement beyond any doubt... but it just doesn't matter that someone might be copying the content in such a way.

Yeah, pretty much this. Microsoft is, unlike Apple, primarily a software company. Software by its nature is less protected than hardware, and tougher to get paid for every copy. My stand is absolutely that if you're using Office as a part of making money, you should pay for it or seek a cheaper alternative if you have to. The other copies may or may not get intense use, but I really don't care so much.

Honestly, the big thing about subscriptions is adding value, and Microsoft did in a couple of ways; The skydrive 20g/skype minutes and the online-runtime version of office that files you send open with. So you no longer have to wonder if someone has a version of office that can open what you send. Its justifiable, just like a netflix or spotify subscription (although obviously would be one thing to torrent, rather than many like the other services.)

[mikeorchard]

Originally Posted by curmudgeon32

You said it right there: on the few occasions. You don't use animation much, so you don't see how some Keynote animations and transitions work OK, some get translated into crappy PPT analogs, and some just get mangled or omitted, necessitating a whole lot of extra work. You're doing the kind of Keynotes that translate well into PPT and that's great for you — but don't assume that works for everyone, and you don't need to talk down to others, yeah? Cool.

How was I talking down to you? If iWork doesn't work well enough for you, pay MS lots of money and suck it up. Animations are clearly worth it for you.

[linkgx1]

I like it a lot. But... I'm not sure about this whole subscription model. I mean, it is the same price as Netflix...but....

----------

Originally Posted by pundit

Yeah, pretty much this. Microsoft is, unlike Apple, primarily a software company. Software by its nature is less protected than hardware, and tougher to get paid for every copy. My stand is absolutely that if you're using Office as a part of making money, you should pay for it or seek a cheaper alternative if you have to. The other copies may or may not get intense use, but I really don't care so much.

Honestly, the big thing about subscriptions is adding value, and Microsoft did in a couple of ways; The skydrive 20g/skype minutes and the online-runtime version of office that files you send open with. So you no longer have to wonder if someone has a version of office that can open what you send. Its justifiable, just like a netflix or spotify subscription (although obviously would be one thing to torrent, rather than many like the other services.)

Agreed. I like the riskier Micorsoft. They are awesome.

As long as they keep updating, I might stick to this. Plus I love being able to use it on like 5 devices and their cloud versions of the software.

[robleeco]

Originally Posted by MacRumorUser

Hi Robleeco,

Have you updated to 14.3.0 ? Service pack 3... If not please do so.

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads


I'm currently running 14.3.1 and can't replicate this issue at all.... I just did exactly as you said, created a slideshow with 10 slides and put a full jpg on each page and then fade transition between them and played back at full screen, all perfect. I saved as quicktime movie to prove there is no issue here.

I got excited that there was a fix. I updated to 14.3.0 but the same problem is visible at the bottom of the screen. The problem is only on Mountain Lion (10.8.2). Older versions of OS X with PPT did not have the problem. This is visible on a brand new Retina Macbook with a clean install of Office with SP3. Bummer.

[MacRumorUser]

Originally Posted by robleeco

I got excited that there was a fix. I updated to 14.3.0 but the same problem is visible at the bottom of the screen. The problem is only on Mountain Lion (10.8.2). Older versions of OS X with PPT did not have the problem. This is visible on a brand new Retina Macbook with a clean install of Office with SP3. Bummer.

I wonder if it's a retina issue ?

I was running 10.8.2 on my MacPro albeit with Powerpoint 14.3.1 and didn't have the issue.

What resolution is your 'slide' set to ?

I just ran the test again using my MBA running 10.8.2 but powerpoint only on 14.2.3 and did the same thing, a dozen slides, jpg image stretched to full slide, fade transition after 2 seconds.

Playback full screen and once more no problem what so ever.

I exported it again and uploaded it here to show


So I wonder where the discrepancy is, why it is effecting you ? The only thing I can think of is the Retina display.

Try changing resolution in system preferences so it's not set to HiDpi mode (change scale for device, and set it to maybe 1920x1200 instead and do the same test). Run the same test again and see if it happens, keep me updated (pm me if need be) as I'm a Microsoft : MVP for Macintosh so I can see if the other MVP's have ran into this issue or what solutions they can think of if isn't resolved with the change of resolution in system preferences.

Thanks

MRU.

[robleeco]

Originally Posted by MacRumorUser

I wonder if it's a retina issue ?

I was running 10.8.2 on my MacPro albeit with Powerpoint 14.3.1 and didn't have the issue.

What resolution is your 'slide' set to ?

I just ran the test again using my MBA running 10.8.2 but powerpoint only on 14.2.3 and did the same thing, a dozen slides, jpg image stretched to full slide, fade transition after 2 seconds.

Playback full screen and once more no problem what so ever.

I exported it again and uploaded it here to show


So I wonder where the discrepancy is, why it is effecting you ? The only thing I can think of is the Retina display.

Try changing resolution in system preferences so it's not set to HiDpi mode (change scale for device, and set it to maybe 1920x1200 instead and do the same test). Run the same test again and see if it happens, keep me updated (pm me if need be) as I'm a Microsoft : MVP for Macintosh so I can see if the other MVP's have ran into this issue or what solutions they can think of if isn't resolved with the change of resolution in system preferences.

Thanks

MRU.

Many people are experiencing the same problem. Problem exists independent of resolution, external monitor, hardware. The common problem is Mountain Lion and Mac PowerPoint 2011.

This Powerpoint transition problem has been discussed for a while here:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/m...9-8604282ac8e6

And also here:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0

[MacRumorUser]

Originally Posted by robleeco

Many people are experiencing the same problem. Problem exists independent of resolution, external monitor, hardware. The common problem is Mountain Lion and Mac PowerPoint 2011.

This Powerpoint transition problem has been discussed for a while here:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/m...9-8604282ac8e6

And also here:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0

Oh I see Jim (another Mac MVP) is already looking into this one. No point me trying to troubleshoot it with same thought process.

Its interesting that everyone seemed to be utilising Nvidia solutions, who are having this issue.

Both my machines Mac Pro its a AMD 5870 and my MBA is intel 3000 and neither suffer, so it is perhaps more a system diver issue as Jim suggests too.

We do know 10.8.3 has big focus on new gpu drivers, I wonder if its possible to get someone with access to 10.8.3 beta and Nvidia GPU to see if they have the issue.


I'll try and see if I can get my hands on a GTX295 tomorrow (hopefully someone i know still has one spare) and 10.8.3 to test it.

[davcolley]

It's an ugly java looking UI. Totally worthless.

[curmudgeon32]

Originally Posted by mikeorchard

How was I talking down to you? If iWork doesn't work well enough for you, pay MS lots of money and suck it up. Animations are clearly worth it for you.

You need to work on your reading comprehension, my friend. My original point was not that I wanted to use PowerPoint (which absolutely and totally sucks), but rather that it was a drag to lose the iWork.com browser-based sharing of presentations. And yeah, as a PROFESSIONAL GRAPHIC DESIGNER WHO IS BEING PAID TO PRODUCE ANIMATED PRESENATIONS, they are "worth it to me". Now, back to your cave.

[mikeorchard]

Originally Posted by curmudgeon32

you need to work on your reading comprehension, my friend. My original point was not that i wanted to use powerpoint (which absolutely and totally sucks), but rather that it was a drag to lose the iwork.com browser-based sharing of presentations. And yeah, as a professional graphic designer who is being paid to produce animated presenations, they are "worth it to me". Now, back to your cave.

lol.

[iubhounds]

I get the same error as the OP. It has only happened with the latest upgrade to my Office 11 for Mac.

I tried Numbers but it would not link cells of other tabs within the spreadsheet, and I use that feature a lot.

If I am missing something in Numbers, a way to link cells to other spreadsheets, then I am willing to learn that process.

Otherwise, will it do any damage if i trash "office365service.app" ???

[FluJunkie]

Originally Posted by 1Alec1

How is the Mac version of Excel worse? They're the same thing.

They're not. They're mostly the same thing. The Mac version is missing some functionality that makes things like my precious PopTools work.