Microsoft Unveils Mac Office 2008 Packages, Pricing

[jettredmont]

has anyone here who's used iWork08 and Office 2007 not feel that iWork's a bit.....Fisher-Price in comparison? Keynote's transitions are the only standout feature.

Since you asked, no, I do not feel that iWork is "Fisher-Price" compared to Office. iWork does feel a whole lot more like a Mac OS X app and less like a warmed-over Classic app, which tends to give me the exact opposite impression.

Are there missing features in iWork? Of course. Is that a problem? Not for me. Your mileage may well vary. Use the tool that's right for you.

 

[ddubbo]

This link to Microsoft's site is asking me to download/install Silverlight. While I'm curious to see what their digital media asset management stuff is like, I'm deeply, deeply wary of allowing Silverlight onto my computer or into my browser.

What is it? Will it screw up my mac or my Firefox? Will it make it more unstable? (highly likely if it's a non-office app from MS)

My mac is running pretty well at the moment, and I'd like to keep it that way please.

Who here is running Silverlight?

Me. But on XP. Makes no trouble at all under FireFox. By now see no difference to Flash. May be a bit easier

 

[Glenny2lappies]

PST support?

I wonder if Entourage will support PST files? If not, then it's back to the *only* reliable way of using an Exchange server to migrate PST files.

****s.

Has the ribbon got bells on it?

The only reason I can see to migrate is to get a universal application.


Bah humbug.

 

[Poll Smoker]

I thought spelt was a hardy European wheat...?

The word is "hearty".

 

[joeconvert]

No exchange support in the student edition is going to hurt a lot. If you attend a University that is all Microsoft, and their IT department is either closed-minded, or very paranoid, there will be no exchange support for Apple mail or Entourage. Many college IT departments don't turn on the IMAP switch that will allow Apple mail to connect to it (Apple mail says it supports exchange, but only if IAMP support is turned on).

I don't know of another mail program other than Office X or Office 2004 that supports MS Exchange without IMAP. That will lose a sale to me since I have to have exchange support. Maybe Apple will update mail to allow for non-IMAP enabled exchange servers. Otherwise I'll have to stick with Entourage 2004

Apple Mail generally uses webDAV to access exchange.

 

[Morky]

Digital Asset Management

I can't believe Apple let MS beat them to the punch on digital asset management (Expression Media). Apple or Adobe should own this area, but Microsoft is first out of the gate. Dumb on both Apple's and Adobe's part - it's a way to get into the data center.

 

[happydude]

yawn

man is M$ out of touch or what. $400 for the standard edition. iwork '08 with numbers puts that to shame. the average user should stick with iwork and if you have to send a document or spreadsheet to someone just export it into word or excel. easy as pie. save the $300 and buy an iphone.

or, openoffice, neo office, whathave you. there is NO NEED to buy office 2008. nothing mircosoft will infect my computer. yes, i'm an apple snob.

 

[TurboSC]

Sounds like an interesting deal, my school has always had pretty nice deals with software, so this isn't really anything new to me.. and plus our software deals consist of the actual programs, not the student editions... same price too.

JourneyEd I think the site is called? Still a great deal and a nice gesture from Micro$oft.

 

[AdeFowler]

Well I have to have it so I'll buy the home edition when I get my new MBP in January. I wonder how much it'll be in the UK.

 

[psychometry]

no exchange support for student edition?? wtf.

my college uses exchange.

**** microsoft

Gross. Your University needs an IT infrastructure.

 

[Kenn Marks]

anyone who thinks iWork is better than Office is either a fool or a fanboy. Neither is better than the other. they serve different purpose.

plus, if you are willing to forgo those $400 and $500 version, Excel itself is worth $150. I generally don't like MS products but Office is an exception.

plus, the notes layout only found in Mac Office is great when you are taking lecture notes for the class. iWork just doesn't give you as good of a tool when you are trying to word process. iWork is great at making pages, but it is not a good word processor.

I do agree that Keynote is better than PowerPoint but there is a compatibility issue too.

Think I'll just stick with AppleWorks, the Ed edition loads on both Mac and Windows. Office is just too much BLOATware. I'm willing to bet that 95% of the users of Office don't ever touch 50% of it's features, so who are they putting all the features into the software for anyway. I think Word is made for those writing a Thesis or working on a manuscript for their latest Novel.

 

[MacsAttack]

has anyone here who's used iWork08 and Office 2007 not feel that iWork's a bit.....Fisher-Price in comparison? Keynote's transitions are the only standout feature.

No.

iWork08 does everything I need. It does everything my family needs. It does everything my friends (all the ones who bought Macs after getting to play with mine) need.

Any you just know that here the price will be a minimum of £150. For one machine. For half of that I was able to get the iWorks family pack - that covers 5 machines.

Buy buy Micro$oft. I'm not going to miss you!

 

[MacsAttack]

No, they're charging $250 for Exchange, Automator and a license to use it in a for-profit business. The Home/Student edition is not legally able to be used in a business.

Oh. Right. So I'll need to spend at least £800 then as I do "for profit" work... Hmmm... or just stick iWorks for less than a tenth of that.

Hard choice.

 

[offwidafairies]

Wow, if Apple would just say that about Leopard, I'd go buy my new MBP tonight.

me too

and what is exchange??

 

[Orng]

Think I'll just stick with AppleWorks, the Ed edition loads on both Mac and Windows. ... I think Word is made for those writing a Thesis or working on a manuscript for their latest Novel.

You're right, I have a friend who IS writing a thesis, and needs the footnoting abilities of word. That alone renders iWork unusable for him.

I agree with you on Appleworks, I liked that too for awhile... at least until I needed to work on a thesis...

 

[notjustjay]

I think Word is made for those writing a Thesis or working on a manuscript for their latest Novel.

Been there, done that. I ditched Word. Why? Because... it kept crashing and losing work on my valuable thesis. Switched to LaTeX. A bit of a learning curve (boy, did I feel geeky "compiling" my thesis) but it made managing the work SO much easier. I could completely focus on my content, one chapter at a time, and it took care of all the formatting for me. Especially the math stuff (equations etc).

LaTeX, like Word, like iWork, like anything, is not for everyone. You pick the tool which works best for you.

In my case, I don't live in a bubble. So for stuff I do where I only have to produce printed copy or present the final result, I'll use Pages, Keynote, AppleWorks, whatever gets the job done. But when I'm expected to produce files to share with others, or files that need to be archived, I use Office.

 

[saxman]

Apple Mail generally uses webDAV to access exchange.

That may be correct. I thought it was IMAP... same as with the iPhone but no matter - I still can't use Apple's Mail with my university's exchange server. Guess it's a webDAV switch they need to throw. Oh well

 

[Kenn Marks]

Quit bitching people.
Nothing to see here, move along.
Prices mirror those of the PC counterparts, I don't see why everyone is complaining. The full version of Office 2007 Pro on the PC is $500, granted you get a ton of apps, but the core (Word/Excel/Outlook/Powerpoint) is all you really use anyway (although I wouldn't mind Access:Mac). We're not getting ripped off, it's an expensive Office suite. And it'll be so nice to get rid of the last PowerPC programs I have on my computer, all from Office:2004.
Although I agree that no Automator support and no Exchange support in the Home/Student editions is ******.

Access - are you nuts!!! For a home database Appleworks does a great job if you want a professional version get a copy of FileMaker Pro a good majority of Web databases are in Filemaker or SQL so why use Access. As with all Apple designed aps user interface and intuitive design the is keyword.

 

[saxman]

Yes, just one more thing:

Excel = Priceless

For me there is no substitute for Excel on Windows. I tried NeoOffice and iWork. I tried Excel on OS X. Finally, I broke down and got Parallels and pulled out an old copy of Windows just so I could run Excel.

This is true. For people who just use a spreadsheet to manage home inventory or for lists, any spreadsheet will do. However if you are going to be doing heavy duty number crunching with custom scripts and if/then/else statements, Excel is by far the best application for it. Now that VB is going away in the mac version, the windows version is king. There really is no substitute

 

[MacsAttack]

But when I'm expected to produce files to share with others, or files that need to be archived, I use Office.

Been there. Done that. Pages export works just fine. The layout folks have not reported any problems over the last year .

 

[JPark]

You're right, I have a friend who IS writing a thesis, and needs the footnoting abilities of word. That alone renders iWork unusable for him.

I finished my thesis a few months ago. I initially started it in Word but quickly got frustrated with its tables/figures/footnotes/bibliography. I ended up using LaTex (through TexShop). If your friend's school has LaTex thesis format templates available, I highly recommend giving it a try. (Plus it's free.)

 

[JPark]

Been there, done that. I ditched Word. Why? Because... it kept crashing and losing work on my valuable thesis. Switched to LaTeX. A bit of a learning curve (boy, did I feel geeky "compiling" my thesis) but it made managing the work SO much easier. I could completely focus on my content, one chapter at a time, and it took care of all the formatting for me. Especially the math stuff (equations etc).

LaTeX, like Word, like iWork, like anything, is not for everyone. You pick the tool which works best for you.

In my case, I don't live in a bubble. So for stuff I do where I only have to produce printed copy or present the final result, I'll use Pages, Keynote, AppleWorks, whatever gets the job done. But when I'm expected to produce files to share with others, or files that need to be archived, I use Office.

You beat me too it, but let me second that recommendation.

 

[Ravel]

Given how bad the new Office for Windows has turned out, I'm gonna pass. rly.

 

[Roadstar]

There certainly should be swedish too. Sweden has the biggest population of the nordic countries, so it wouldn't make sense to exclude swedish. Especially when swedish is so similar to danish and norwegian and Finland is bilingual.

Swedish is not mentioned because it's not a new language in Office 2008. Office 2004 (and maybe earlier ones as well, dunno) already comes with Swedish localization included (http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx?pid=download&location=/mac/download/office2004/office2004.xml&secid=4&ssid=1&flgnosysreq=True), and they're apparently not going to drop it at this point.

 

[tom.96]

I use MS Office at work a lot and it is a very good package - but when I get home I use OpenOffice through X11. It serves me very well and files have always transferred ok between the two platforms.

Office is good but would be simply too expensive for me!