First Looks at Mac Microsoft Office 2008

[MacBytes]

Category: 3rd Party Hardware
Link: First look at Office 2008 for Mac: final code
Description:: The biggest software release of '08 is Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, and it's hitting the streets this month. Read on to find out all you need to know about the new package.

Posted on MacBytes.com
Approved by Mudbug

[palmerized]

Cool. I'm looking forward to trying out Office. We'll see in a couple weeks I guess.

[Peace]

"Microsoft has applied some of the Vista version magic to Office 2008 with regard to pricing. Thankfully, however it's a bit easier to follow. There are two main options; a basic Office 2008 for Mac standard edition ($649 or $399 for an upgrade) or an Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition ($849, or $549 for upgrade)"


Unbelievable !!

[gerardrj]

"...It's been a long time between drinks for Mac users waiting for a new version of Office..."

With the exception of Palmerized in the first post, I've not heard of anyone wanting or needing an upgrade to Office. Specifically to Palmerized: why do you look forward to it? It is simply the "something new" factor, or are there some features of Office that you need and are not present in the shipping version? Sure it looks different and may perform advanced functions easier, but do you use any of those functions? Personally I've not used Office in years and I don't even launch iWork all that much. TexEdit is my go-to workhorse for anything that isn't page-layout.

I work for a Mac reseller and I know that almost our entire user base uses Office simply for MS Word to write simple letters and school papers. 90%+ of that work could just as easily have been completed with Mac's TextEdit program for free.
For those looking for more complex layout, I always suggest iWork at 1/2 the price (of Student Teacher) first. It's faster, easier and integrates with all your other media on the Mac more easily.
The maybe 2% of people who actually "need" Office are those who are sending documents via email to others who will edit and return those documents. Sure you could do this with iWork via export, but it's an extra step and you really have to use the menu items or be a contortionist to hit the shortcut key for "Save as...". iWork needs a "default to Microsoft" save option.
Even for those who send lots of documents, most don't need the recipient to edit them, and I still suggest iWork and "Save as PDF", it's more universal and no worries about changes on the other end.

So I really do want to know... what is in it for the consumer to get an Office upgrade? I know what's in it for MS, lots of money.

[rikers_mailbox]

Unfortunately, Microsoft has dropped macro and Visual Basic (VB) support in Office 2008

Wait ... really?! No macro or VB support in Office 2008?

This is a big gotcha for me, macros are used extensively at my place of employment. Crapola.

[skinnylegs]

Honestly, I don't see why someone would shell out that kind of money for MS Office given all of the other alternatives.

[MacRumors]

Microsoft has given some websites the opportunity to test drive the upcoming Mac Office 2008 suite ahead of its official launch at Macworld Expo. Aside from Intel compatibility, Office 2008 also tries to reorganize the Office experience:

“One of the goals for this release was to allow people to rediscover the power of Office,” said Microsoft’s Han-Yi Shaw, lead program manager for Word, Compatibility, and User Experience. “Sometimes we get requests from power users for features we already have.”

APCMag explores some of the new features in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage.

- Word offers more desktop-publishing features, allowing easy document formatting
- Excel adds a new formula builder, increases max sizes of spreadsheets, but drops macro and Visual Basic support
- Powerpoint can create diagrams easily, Send to iPhoto which can be viewed on your iPod
- Entourage with improved Exchange connectivity, but still no encrypted MAPI mode

Macworld also has brief looks at Word 2008 and Excel 2008 with similar notes.

Article Link

[theheadguy]

Hopefully this will step up the game so we can get Apple to look at iWork more seriously.

That's the only reason I care about these Microsoft updates... Same goes for the Zune and all the other players out there. People should be happy when those products improve. The more they improve, the faster Apple has to work to stay that much more superior. It's always funny to see some new product by a competitor and the article is rated "97 positives, 462 negatives."

[Fiallo1984]

Now the real question is whether it's the same slow awful program it was in 2004. I can't count the number of times I've had to wait for Word or Excel to resolve it's pinwheel of death.

[savar]

Originally Posted by theheadguy

Hopefully this will step up the game so we can get Apple to look at iWork more seriously.

That's the only reason I care about these Microsoft updates... Same goes for the Zune and all the other players out there. People should be happy when those products improve. The more they improve, the faster Apple has to work to stay that much more superior. It's always funny to see some new product by a competitor and the article is rated "97 positives, 462 negatives."

I'm actually looking forward to this release. It hit home last week when I was trying to print some file labels ... NeoOffice completely bungled a simple label format. I ended up switching to MS Office on my Dell and it got the labels perfect on the first go.

If they remove some of the bloat then I will probably be purchasing Office 2008 for my Mac. There is still just no substitute.

[mattvolp]

Originally Posted by Fiallo1984

Now the real question is whether it's the same slow awful program it was in 2004. I can't count the number of times I've had to wait for Word or Excel to resolve it's pinwheel of death.

Yes, if they can fix this then maybe I'll go back to Word and move away from Google Docs.

[iSee]

Yay...
I bought an extra copy of Mac Office 2004 on "Black Friday" just to get the almost-free upgrade to 2008. So I'm getting impatient to use the software I've (essentially) already bought.

By the way, MS just confirmed my 2008 order. I hope that somehow means they'll ship it earlier than six weeks (or whatever they said) after general availability.

[jmsait19]

dropped macro support... that's interesting. that seems like something that the real power users use.

but i'm all for dropping the bloat... here's to hoping!

[OnaMacSince1989]

The new Excel drops Macros?? WTF!?!?!

[iSee]

Originally Posted by Fiallo1984

Now the real question is whether it's the same slow awful program it was in 2004. I can't count the number of times I've had to wait for Word or Excel to resolve it's pinwheel of death.

I had this problem (frequent pauses of 5-10 seconds or longer) with a Mac I used to use at my old job--more RAM was the solution. Anyway, I'd bet anything that 2008 will require more RAM.

[fastbite]

Let's hope it doesn't feel like this...

[Brianstorm91]

Aqua.. AQUA!

[CptnJustc]

Drops macro support? Bloody heck... not that Excel 2004's compatibility was all that great, but I was hoping that would be fixed in this 'upgrade'.

[NYmacAttack]

Originally Posted by OnaMacSince1989

The new Excel drops Macros?? WTF!?!?!

This is crazy. This is one feature that people will miss the most. Microsoft really dropped the ball on this.

[SPUY767]

Excel without macros = fail. More crap being shoveled on us from the industry leader. Erwe all knew that MS would give us a sub par product tho. The Mac OS is just a productivity suite away from replacing Ms in the enterprise.

[tjcampbell]

Since I started using Pages I've never looked back. The only thing I'm awaiting is the ability to view and edit pages docs on my iphone.

[Popeye206]

I actually loved it when MS word did word processing (i.e. I type, it corrects my spelling and grammar). I do like some of the list printing features as one person pointed out... but I think MS and others would better service the customers by giving us reliability and speed over fancy features I'd rather leave to the DTP applications.

No Macro support? Now that is a shame... must be another ploy to try and keep corporate america on Windoze.

[Cameront9]

Not sure why everyone is up in arms about no macros...it was announced that it would not have macro support MONTHS ago....

[CptnJustc]

Originally Posted by tjcampbell

Since I started using Pages I've never looked back. The only thing I'm awaiting is the ability to view and edit pages docs on my iphone.

Autosave, please. (Yes, without resorting to Applescript.) Mild insanity to have a productivity suite without it.

Originally Posted by Cameront9

Not sure why everyone is up in arms about no macros...it was announced that it would not have macro support MONTHS ago....

Sorry, wasn't keeping that careful track. But it still sucks.

[zelet]

MS dropped Macro support for the same reason they don't make Office 100% compatible... they don't want to help Apple.

I guarantee that if Apple continues down this path of success much longer MS is going to pull the plug on ANY Exchange integration or Office integration thus forcing Apple to stay on the sideline in the business arena.