First Looks at Mac Microsoft Office 2008

[pbbaker123]

Excel power users

I have a spread sheet that i will email any... numbers and Calc will not open it, only Excel 04.

There seems to be an LS Compatibility error and then crashes each program...

I am quite sure that the new excel will not even open it....

 

[metallicaisgood]

Is that how the final product is going to look? It doesn't look nearly as nice as the Windows version. It looks like a product in the early stages of development.

 

[DMann]

Ms

Is that how the final product is going to look? It doesn't look nearly as nice as the Windows version. It looks like a product in the early stages of development.

Regression is indeed a notable feature of MS upgrades. Macros in Excel? Nada

 

[Schwieb]

I don't understand all of the programming implications involved, but it seems that you make a good case why you couldn't implement VBA now. Any chance if the demand truly pans out that you would continue to work on VBA support and add it on with a later update?

I cannot speak of future plans at this time. My managers did not take the decision to remove VB lightly, and we knew from the start it would be very controversial and would have a significant detrimental impact for many people. However, the realities of software development are that resources are not infinite, and we had to make some cuts for Office 2008. There are a number of ways that some form of cross-platform macro support can be implemented, and that is certainly an issue that we will be looking at in the future. However, when and in what form it might be is not something I can publicly discuss.

Or, at the very least, does the update installer leave Excel 2004 intact so that those who use the macros could switch back if the need arises?

The installer does not remove Office 2004 at all -- in fact, running Office 2004 and 2008 side-by-side is (mostly) supported. You can certainly keep Excel 2004 on your Mac and continue to use it.

Schwieb
MacBU Dev Lead

 

[walnuts]

I cannot speak of future plans at this time. My managers did not take the decision to remove VB lightly, and we knew from the start it would be very controversial and would have a significant detrimental impact for many people. However, the realities of software development are that resources are not infinite, and we had to make some cuts for Office 2008. There are a number of ways that some form of cross-platform macro support can be implemented, and that is certainly an issue that we will be looking at in the future. However, when and in what form it might be is not something I can publicly discuss.

The installer does not remove Office 2004 at all -- in fact, running Office 2004 and 2008 side-by-side is (mostly) supported. You can certainly keep Excel 2004 on your Mac and continue to use it.

Schwieb
MacBU Dev Lead

Thanks for the answer. We only sparingly use macros at work, so while I won't need them all the time, its certainly a comfort to know if I did need it I could just pop back to the older excel.

 

[pbbaker123]

So...

I cannot speak of future plans at this time. My managers did not take the decision to remove VB lightly, and we knew from the start it would be very controversial and would have a significant detrimental impact for many people. However, the realities of software development are that resources are not infinite, and we had to make some cuts for Office 2008. There are a number of ways that some form of cross-platform macro support can be implemented, and that is certainly an issue that we will be looking at in the future. However, when and in what form it might be is not something I can publicly discuss.

The installer does not remove Office 2004 at all -- in fact, running Office 2004 and 2008 side-by-side is (mostly) supported. You can certainly keep Excel 2004 on your Mac and continue to use it.

Schwieb
MacBU Dev Lead

Explain why we need the '08 version again??? I guess I forgot....

 

[canisreevus]

Explain why we need the '08 version again??? I guess I forgot....

Because 2008 is universal binary and will run much quicker on Intel Macs (no Rosetta) and the usability of the interface appears to be far superior. I hated all the popup palette things in 2004.

 

[Glenny2lappies]

Because 2008 is universal binary and will run much quicker on Intel Macs (no Rosetta) and the usability of the interface appears to be far superior. I hated all the popup palette things in 2004.

This nicely sums up why we're all banging our heads against a very hard wall. Microsoft will simply succeed by doing nothing other than dressing it in a new frock, charging more, and piling on the marketing BS.

Please read the rest of this thread.

It doesn't run faster. The UI isn't better - in fact it's more confused. And there's important features that aren't available in Office 2008 which were available in the 2004.

Office 2007 & 2008; codename "Revenge of the Paperclip"

 

[pbbaker123]

Explain why we need the '08 version again??? I guess I forgot....

Yeah, I know its stupid to quote myself.... but what else is there to say?

 

[canisreevus]

This nicely sums up why we're all banging our heads against a very hard wall. Microsoft will simply succeed by doing nothing other than dressing it in a new frock, charging more, and piling on the marketing BS.

Please read the rest of this thread.

It doesn't run faster. The UI isn't better - in fact it's more confused. And there's important features that aren't available in Office 2008 which were available in the 2004.

Office 2007 & 2008; codename "Revenge of the Paperclip"

1) It does run faster on Intel Macs (and more stable). Do your research, and if you read all the pages, someone in Beta made the observation that it is much faster than 2004 since it is UB.
2) The UI is actually based on one's personal preference. From my research, it is cleaned up a bit from the 2004 version (aka improvement). The ribbon stuff doesn't bother me one bit.
3) They have not increased the prices. They are exactly the same as the 2004 versions.
4) They removed VBA, and I can see why people complain. However, I do not use the VBA stuff myself, so this is negligible to me.
5) I can't complain at all about the price especially since I got it coming for a grand total of $57, cheaper than iWork '08.
6) I have read the entire thread (and have not based my opinions on these mere comments, but have done my own research). Most people in this thread complain about the lack of VBA in Excel and the fact that it's by MS and not Apple.

There are new features other than the fact that it's UB, but how many new features can you really add to an office suite these days? Each iWork release doesn't come out with amazing new features that make me want to pay for a whole new suite (except '08 finally added a spreadsheet app). IMO, iWork '08 and Office for Mac 2008 are both very capable. Personally, I prefer Pages, Excel, and Keynote when looking at the three big programs offered in the suites. My wife prefers Word (basically because she's used to Word), Excel, and Keynote. Based on the compatibility I need with MS Office users, I prefer the Office for Mac suite for my daily use, though.

 

[oceanzen]

I'm using Word 2004 right now.

I have British English checked and yet it still tries to correct some words to the USA spelling.

Like the English word "analyse", it wants to correct to the American spelling analyze.

(Ironically as I typ this now Safari recognises analyze to be spelt wrong and analyse to be correct, so this problem is definitely with Microsoft and not Apple)

It basically means I have to check every word Word thinks I've spelt wrong as I cannot trust Microsoft's British spelling of anything.

(I'm annoyed because I'm writing my dissertation for my degree.)


Can anyone with Word 2008 do a test? Check Spelling UK then type the word analyse.


KthnxBai

 

[DMann]

MS Office 2008

1) It does run faster on Intel Macs (and more stable). Do your research, and if you read all the pages, someone in Beta made the observation that it is much faster than 2004 since it is UB.

True, Office 2008 Beta does run faster on Intel Macs. This alone makes it a worthwhile upgrade, perhaps until the next one in 2012.

 

[janstett]

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?

I *need* Entourage/Outlook/Exchange. I can't make do with mail.app. So at very least, getting rid of the Rosetta dependencies in Entourage and the Microsoft daemons in favor of Universal apps will help.

As for the office apps, I've been using Pages/Numbers/Keynote to read documents, but I also haven't made modifications to any 400 page specs yet that can cause dozens of people grief if there's the slightest incompatibility.

 

[Westside guy]

Like the English word "analyse", it wants to correct to the American spelling analyze.

Well it's not Microsoft's fault that your entire country doesn't know how to spell.

 

[davidmac]

Office 2008 file sizes and stability

Stability

I didn't chang anything on my PowerBook G4 12" outside of installing the beta and Word, Excel, and Entourage crashed on a per minute basis until I freed up 5GB of space on the HD, previously having 1.5GB free.

File Size
Word files are insanely large when using templates. I tried to email a six page document and couldn't figure out why it didn't go through in over half an hour and looked at the file size. 78MB! I had used the green cover page template and the document ballooned. As a test I saved a blank .rtf file, .rtf with the cover page, .docx with cover page and .doc with cove page. The file sizes were 32Kb, 74.6MB, 1.9MB, and 1.8MB respectively. Some email programs won't allow you to receive or send greater than 2MB sized attachments, so a cover page and a table of contents may be enough to stymie productivity. And how did the file balloon from 1.9 to 74.6 megabytes by using .rtf?

Anyway, don't be surprised by the file size. Otherwise, I love the new interface and the ability for Office to remember more than 9 recent files opened.

David

 

[bonafide]

I am currently in possession of Office:Mac 2008. Am I supposed to be? Future shop sent it to me last week and I got it today? Wtf I thought I wasnt supposed to get this until Jan 15th?

 

[chillywilly]

I am currently in possession of Office:Mac 2008. Am I supposed to be? Future shop sent it to me last week and I got it today? Wtf I thought I wasnt supposed to get this until Jan 15th?

Considering today is the 14th, I don't think a day early isn't all that tragic for release dates. Guess the shipper was more than efficient.

 

[chillywilly]

Didn't see it posted in here yet, but hoping for some details about Entourage 2008 and handheld compatibility. Specifically, Treo users (Palm OS).

Would be nice to know how syncing works and if there will be another option besides iSync.

 

[DMann]

Ms 2008

Considering today is the 14th, I don't think a day early isn't all that tragic for release dates. Guess the shipper was more than efficient.

Better too soon than sorry......

 

[bzollinger]

It's been long enough since an office for mac release, maybe one can justify an upgrade now...vs. MS release versions of office for the PC every year back in the office 2000 days.

 

[~~Hello~~]

I hear that you can't use VBA for 2008, not sure if this is the case with the other versions. Anyway if you can't use it then what do people use instead?

 

[basqarl]

Please forgive my naivety if it is not appropriate to post in this thread.

I posted a question about Office 2008 to page 7 of this other thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/415994/

Should I have posted it to this thread instead?

I do not want to be redundant but I would like some additional 'educated' viewpoints to consider [read: obsess over] before making the decision to return the item and forgo Office 2004 or 2008.

Thanks!

Quote:
As a newcomer who does not comprehend the more technical details in this thread, please forgive me if my question about Office 2004 and Office 2008 seems redundant or naive.

I am waiting to purchase my first Mac for a possible MBP refresh; if nothing happens by the end of January, I'll make my purchase regardless. (Running a Dell Inspiron 8500 on its last legs... and I won't bore you with the reasons for the MBP...)

In anticipation of my Mac, I purchased Office 04 in time to be able to upgrade to Office 08 for only the shipping charge. Of course, since I do not own my Mac as of yet (husband thinks I'm crazy to buy software prior to computer), I haven't opened my Office 04 to send in the UPC, etc., for the "free" upgrade. But if I am to get the upgrade I need to open the Office 04 and send in the proof of purchase, etc., postmarked by Feb. 14.

So, what would be your recommendations? (I use a PC with Word at work but want a Mac---) Should I just return the Office 04 and stick with iWork once I make my purchase? Keep Office 04 and send for the "free" Office 08 since I probably won't see a 'deal' like this again? If I keep Office, should I (or can I) install Windows on my Mac so that Word will perform better?

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Please disregard this and forgive me if it is not appropriate to post in this thread...

 

[canisreevus]

iWork is great software. However, if you need to constantly transfer files to and from your work computer, I would recommend going with Office 08. I would check out video tutorials of both in action to see for yourself which you would like if easier and better compatibility is not a question. I'm getting Office 08 because I use tons of Office files each day, and compatibility is a major issue (also, I hated having to open each file in Pages/Keynote and saving it as a .pages or .key file (tons of wasted time)).

 

[Nosoforos]

well sorry to say, but 2008 is actually running a lot slower here than 2004. Which is terrible, it was the only reason I "upgraded"

BTW Who else thinks the new dock icons are very ugly?

 

[paulbaker]

Trial???

Well, I have made my position on this clear... but that does not stop me from wanting to try it in person at least once before casting final judgement...