Apple Office?

[wake up Jobs!!!]

They need office on the mac platform, because if they do not , many of the people who switch to the mac will have no way to upload their office files and windose stuff to the mac. It would totally ruin everything the "switch " ads stand for. I think apple will do alot to try and make sure that M$ office does not leave the mac platform.

Gabe-

 

[backspinner]

Re: OS X ads

Originally posted by eric_n_dfw
Apple's OS X, Unix ads have been in Information Week for a while now too.
(The one that says, "Sends all other Unix boxes to /dev/null")

a unix add is not quite the same as advertising to the public

on another note: yes, business users need just MS Office, no questioning, price doesn't really matter, it has to work, buy-install-be productive, period.

 

[whfsdude]

Aslong as there is no frontpage app from Apple I will be happy


frontpage just plain sucks.

 

[Backtothemac]

Originally posted by wake up Jobs!!!
They need office on the mac platform, because if they do not , many of the people who switch to the mac will have no way to upload their office files and windose stuff to the mac. It would totally ruin everything the "switch " ads stand for. I think apple will do alot to try and make sure that M$ office does not leave the mac platform.

Gabe-

Wrong. AppleWorks will read any office created document. That is a fact. I just did it at home, and it was flawless. Especially if they boost the features and include it with new Macs.

 

[kenohki]

Don't kid yourselves. Apple can't afford to lose MS Office support. Enterprise wants Office and Exchange and if they can't get it on the Mac to provide a homogenous environment, at least as far as applications, then the Macs will be thrown out the door due to TCO (Total Cost of Ownership for those who aren't in the IT field). Enterprise zombies know Excel, they know pivot tables, they know how to write macros in VBA (VisualBasic for Applications). Try taking your VBA macro and running it on AppleWorks.

Let Sun and OpenOffice fight the office suite battle. Let Apple stop squandering their resources on screwing up developer relations and focus on expending resources to get us faster hardware!!!

I don't know if anyone remembers Apple's now defunct software subsidiary called Claris. They were at one point responsible for MacWrite II/Pro, ClarisWorks, FileMaker, HyperCard, etc. Well AppleWorks is essentially ClarisWorks. ClarisWorks came in Mac and Windows flavors and hardly put a dent in MS Office. Apple should know better than to try this again. If they're stupid enough to try and take on MS Office with something like AppleWorks then they deserve to lost any enterprise marketshare they have left.

 

[StuPid QPid]

Originally posted by Backtothemac
Oh, and lets step on some toes. Personally, I think we give Office for PC to much credit. I would be willing to bet that most users of PC's use Works. Hmmm... AppleWorks, Microsoft Works. strange don't you think

"Microsoft Works"

Does it? First I've heard

Note: apologies for the old gag. I notice Microsoft Works is number one in the top 20 "oxymoron list" at oxymoronlist.com

 

[hesdeadjim]

I Hate F****** Word

M$ Word is the worst piece of software every created. M$ has done nothing on both PC and Mac in the last 5 years to increase productivity, ease of use, and user friendliness. I use WordPerfect 3.0 usually if I know I'm just going to print it out at home. Sadly, the only other option is Apple Works, and it isn't as fully functional. The key to Office in my mind is Excel and PowerPoint, until Apple can get a good competitor to these two products, then iOffice or Apple Works is useless in the real world.

Until there is viable competitor to Office, I think Apple should concentrate elsewhere. Sadly, as the business and Personal computing worlds stand, there is no life without Office. Starting competition will only prove in coverting less PC users, less businesses, and less profit for Apple.

 

[aafuss1]

Originally posted by Backtothemac
I love it! Give it to them I say. Not only that, but there is a PC version of AppleWorks. Make the app cross platform, and boom, there is another mole into their lair. he.he.

Bring Apple, I cannot wait to be microsoft free.

Well, on the PC, Microsoft Works (it does come with a lot of Windows computers) is going to get a new version, and I wish it could open Claris/AppleWorks files. I use ClarisWorks (Oremwmber before it was renamed AppleWorks.

 

[lordsinforge]

what about monopoly issues?

I mean even if M$ won a antitrust case against them for dropping support of Office for another major OS maker any cash they would save from stopping the support would be lost on legal costs. And even if the US decided not to prosecute there are some countries that are pissed at M$'s lack of right to left languages in office who would gladly raise a ruckus.

 

[aafuss1]

Originally posted by StuPid QPid


"Microsoft Works"

Does it? First I've heard

Note: apologies for the old gag. I notice Microsoft Works is number one in the top 20 "oxymoron list" at oxymoronlist.com

Well it does exsist:
Works 6.0
and there's a new version coming soon:
Works 7.0


By the way, Mircosoft sells it Works package, with Word, Maoney,Encarta, and Picture It!-it's good value (and is supplied with many PC's). Maybe Apple could create a AppleWorks suite-AppleWorks, iCal,iSync and some sort of encyclopedia.
A new version of AppleWorks-I predict it would be released in 2003

 

[eric_n_dfw]

Originally posted by aafuss1
By the way, Mircosoft sells it Works package, with Word, Maoney,Encarta, and Picture It!-it's good value (and is supplied with many PC's).

Yep - on Dell's site, I clicked the first home PC I saw and it comes with MS Works Suite - which includes MS Word.

From Dell's site:

Microsoft Works Suite 2002 - The best choice for accomplishing a variety of home computing tasks. This suite of software includes the robust Microsoft Word application for writing letters, creating resumes, and more. Find your way around town with Streets & Trips, or research a topic for school with Encarta encyclopedia. With all these applications and more, Works Suite offers a solution for the entire family!

Originally posted by aafuss1
Maybe Apple could create a AppleWorks suite-AppleWorks, iCal,iSync and some sort of encyclopedia.
A new version of AppleWorks-I predict it would be released in 2003

Or maybe Apple and MS could get off their high-horses and work out a similar package with MS Word for Mac included. I use AppleWorks at home, but it cannot always handle the formatting done by my company's marketing geeks. (Who, aparently have far too much time on their hands to write Word macros and whatnot!) I really need Word for Mac to work on my Mac at home. Outlook (not express) for OS X would be nice too.

 

[drastik]

Originally posted by aafuss1



Well it does exsist:
Works 6.0
and there's a new version coming soon:
Works 7.0


By the way, Mircosoft sells it Works package, with Word, Maoney,Encarta, and Picture It!-it's good value (and is supplied with many PC's). Maybe Apple could create a AppleWorks suite-AppleWorks, iCal,iSync and some sort of encyclopedia.
A new version of AppleWorks-I predict it would be released in 2003

except iCal and iSync are free, or will bw with 10.2. I do like the encyclopedia idea, tho.

 

[drastik]

Originally posted by eric_n_dfw

Outlook (not express) for OS X would be nice too.

Gotta say that entourage beats the hell out of Outlook, and I use both everyday

 

[eric_n_dfw]

One more thing...

Something that's ticked me off ever since I plopped down $2000+ for my G3/400 is that, short of OS 8.5, it came with absolutely NO software! People paying a lot less for the Bondi-Blue iMac's were getting huge bundles with Quicken, AppleWorks, etc. but we "pros" got zilch. A practice that still goes on to this day. (Although, iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto and iTunes are welcome additions)

 

[eric_n_dfw]

Originally posted by drastik


Gotta say that entourage beats the hell out of Outlook, and I use both everyday

Does Entourage connect to MS Exchange Server?

 

[NeXTCube]

Watch out for the "average" consumer

Like a number of other people here have mentioned, I think that Apple needs to not scare M$ away from Office:Mac. Non-computer savvy users (read:95% of the human population) don't really understand that documents and applications are separate things, and that documents can be read by more than one program. So, unfortunately, the Mac will be a tough sell to people if there's no 100%-compatible MS Office.

To make matters worse, even if OpenOffice or Appleworks can read existing Office files, there's nothing - *nothing* - to keep M$ from changing the file format (they used to do it with every release!) so that suddenly, everyone's scrambling because the new Dell at work came with Office 2010 preinstalled and we can't read the files all-of-a-sudden. Imagine the crying that would create!

I realize that M$ "responded to user feedback" after Office 1997 and announced that they were going to stop changing the file formats - but truth is stranger than fiction. Access 2000 files are not compatible with Access 2000 SR1 files - files created by two copies of a program that are indistinguishable to most users. Oops!

Obviously, this puts Apple in a position where it needs to slam M$ and kiss their butts at the same time - which is a weird place to be. But, then again, M$ needs Apple to keep from looking like a total monopoly, and what the heck - and Office:Mac sale is still a sale.

 

[athempel]

My Mac DID come with AppleWorks

My iBook, which I purchased a bit over 3 months ago, DID come with Appleworks pre-installed, and on the restore CDs.

If you say that they're not bundling it on higher-end Macs, then that's probably because they believe the majority of higher-end Mac users are going to use MS Office anyway. I guess they also believe that lower-end Mac users will be disappointed if they can't immediately switch on their new Mac and make documents.

 

[eirik]

hope

I was a bit dissapointed that M$'s Mac Business Unit is not seriously threatening to pull Office from the Mac.

Why? Because then maybe Apple could BUY Microsoft's Mac Business Unit, including Office, Project, Visio, and maybe one or two other applications. I've been hoping for something like this to come out of the anti-trust stuff. This to me is the only sure way to ensure worthy competition.

To ensure compatibility, there would be a standards board that made certain that neither MS nor Apple tweaked formats, API's, or protocols to screw things up in the other OS. Each firm would be required to publish to the other OS the appropriate API's and stuff so that the opposite firm could build appropriate plug-ins for things such as scripting languages. Compatible, compatible, compatible!!! Note, we don't want M$ to make the translation plug-ins for the Mac or visa versa. Why? Why is IE on the Mac so slow? M$ has little to no interest to make it a speed demon.

For Apple, I'd like to see Visual Basic, for example, fully-mapped to AppleScript or something, and perhaps even operate inside of a sandbox. By sandbox, I am referring to the term or concept whereby scripts or applets operate inside a virtual computer within one's computer such that any malicious actions by such code would be safely and securely contained.

I agree with those that say M$ pulling Office out of MacOS would be bad news, if Apple couldn't BUY the rights to M$ applications on the MacOS platform (not permitted to sell apps that run on other platforms).

A lot of wishful thinking true. And, I doubt M$ would be so foolish as to arm Apple with the evidence to persuade the federal and state governments to insist on some kind of a licensing/acquisition by Apple. But, sometimes hope is all we really ever have.

 

[eric_n_dfw]

Re: My Mac DID come with AppleWorks

Originally posted by athempel
My iBook, which I purchased a bit over 3 months ago, DID come with Appleworks pre-installed, and on the restore CDs.

If you say that they're not bundling it on higher-end Macs, then that's probably because they believe the majority of higher-end Mac users are going to use MS Office anyway. I guess they also believe that lower-end Mac users will be disappointed if they can't immediately switch on their new Mac and make documents.

Yep - iMac's and iBook's come with the bundles. PowerMac's and PowerBooks do not.

When I bought my G3, there was only one other option, the iMac. I intended on doing some home video editing so the iMac was out of the question. Not everyone who buys a tower is a "high-end user".

Besides, go buy a higher-end system from a PC manufacturer. The more you spend, the more the usually package with it.

Apple was (may still be) giving $100 rebates for Mac purchasers that also bought Office X - that's a good start. (But Office X is STILL too expesive in my opinion)

 

[MOM]

not all word docs open well in AW

First, I would love to dump MS office for AW. But, I have several problems from my side of things. I work as researcher which means I write papers and grants. For papers I use MS word and Endnote. Endnote works with AW, but it doesn't have a plug-in like for Word, which makes things easier. Also, the new version of Endnote has Word templates for many journal styles. For grants I also use these apps but I need to insert graphics in my text document. Also, most grant applications come as word documents with complex tables and other formatting. I've tried to open these in AW but they get completely messed up. Since following the rules is very important in writing a grant, I don't like the idea of spending hours tweaking an imported version of a grant in AW to make it look like the original. Formatting can take hours of your time (as much as I would like a G5-it still doesn't make this sort of thing faster). My point. If a new AW were to directly compete with Office, then it better import documents of all kinds-text/graphics etc-very very very well. If such an AW resulted in the death of Mac Office, it could cause many folks in academics to switch to PC just so they can get there work done.
I do think AW, even in its current form, does the basics very well. I use the drawing program for fixing up most of my charts. I have been using it since the MacDraw days. (BTW, AW doesn't even open MacDraw/ClarisDraw documents!) I would love to switch back to AW for presentations and writing. I'm just concerned the rest of the world won't switch with me.

 

[richard5mith]

Getting no software with my Powermac or Powerbook really pissed me off when I saw what the iMac and iBook users were getting. I bought them because they were better machines, not because I was a professional. And I certainly refuse to pay Microsoft's silly Office prices.

Mac Office is a good idea(tm).

As for the person who mentioned Frontpage, Frontpage 2000 is a dream and is the only program I miss on the Mac from the PC. Still easier to use than Dreamweaver which still insists on the floating palette interface which I just hate (which they got rid of on Windows, but not the Mac), and a terrible setup for creating tables. It has some nice points, but for speed and ease of use, give me FP2000 anyday (but not 2002, yuk).

 

[b8rtm8nn]

clarisworks became Appleworks but a lot of the developers started GoBe which makes Productive. It was for BeOS and now ships for Windows. I personally would like it to be used for OSX instead of AppleWorks, which I hate.

Also, there is not an Exchange client for OSX. You can IMAP mail with Entourage or run Outlook 2001 in Classis or use a browser or install Remote Desktop Connection and hook up to a PC remotely and run Outlook from there

 

[bretm]

Originally posted by richard5mith
Getting no software with my Powermac or Powerbook really pissed me off when I saw what the iMac and iBook users were getting. I bought them because they were better machines, not because I was a professional. And I certainly refuse to pay Microsoft's silly Office prices.

Mac Office is a good idea(tm).

As for the person who mentioned Frontpage, Frontpage 2000 is a dream and is the only program I miss on the Mac from the PC. Still easier to use than Dreamweaver which still insists on the floating palette interface which I just hate (which they got rid of on Windows, but not the Mac), and a terrible setup for creating tables. It has some nice points, but for speed and ease of use, give me FP2000 anyday (but not 2002, yuk).

Isn't Dreamweaver documentation cross-platform? I thought they, like Adboe, make mirror images of their programs for just that reason. Documentation and manuals are the same. So are books at the bookstore. It would be a big hassle if they weren't. That said, how on earth could the windows version not have floating pallettes and the mac version have floating pallettes. That would too big a difference for the documentation to handle. I do know that the latest version lets you work in 2 ways, the new MX palletes and the older DW 4 style pallettes.

 

[elgruga]

what a bunch of saps we are....

Come on guys, M$ Office is not the only way to create documents.
AppleWorks is a bit hokey, but if they are going for a big upgrade then I will buy it.

I AM SICK OF M$ - AND THE SLAVISH WAY WE ALL MUST HAVE OFFICE.

Its ridiculous, its like being addicted to crack or something.
A letter is a letter is a letter.

M$ Office X will last for a couple of years, and if M$ pull out, so what?
I still use Delrina daily planner its got to be 10 years old but it WORKS!

Office X is good for at least 5 more years if you want to continue with it. hell, M$ might be gone by then......(I hope)

This notion that we must have upgrades to apps like Office every year is crazy; it works, use it until it doesnt work any more.
Lets stop giving cash to Billy gates.

Enough with this 'upgrade' insanity!

 

[Nebrie]

Re: Open Office anyone?

Originally posted by davegutt
Has anyone heard of Open Office? Its for Windows, Linux and OSX, and it is FREE, or 79 w/ support.

OSX will be out in a bit, but Windows version is out. It opens all Office docs, and does a few neat tricks with graphics.

It is the real deal.

http://www.openoffice.org

Dave Gutt

yes we've all heard of it before. It's still got a long way to go to match up to Office. But guess what, businesses are still not using it because it's not Office.