It's seriously hard for me to get excited about any app that doesn't run on an iPhone or iPad anymore. Weird. Reading about new Mac desktop apps just feels so...old.
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First Screenshots of Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 Surface
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I really want to like this, but Word is just a mess.
You've got the menus in the menu strip next to the
(where they should be). Then you've got this ribbon bar thing - which I really don't like, but I guess they say is that cat's pajamas, and I could live with. But then you've got the bar above the ribbon bar that controls what ribbon bar you're looking at - and finally you've got the bar above the bar above the ribbon bar with the search bar and heaven know what else lurking there. Next to that I get a floating window with tabs and window shades in each tab.
How is this supposed to make it easier for me to find a function I'm looking for?
Not to mention the fact that I've now lost 20% of my vertical screen real estate to menus and bars. Where do I actually get to type my document?
And yes, I know I can turn some (if not all of it) off - but clearly they think I'm supposed to be running with it on.
You've got the menus in the menu strip next to the
(where they should be). Then you've got this ribbon bar thing - which I really don't like, but I guess they say is that cat's pajamas, and I could live with. But then you've got the bar above the ribbon bar that controls what ribbon bar you're looking at - and finally you've got the bar above the bar above the ribbon bar with the search bar and heaven know what else lurking there. Next to that I get a floating window with tabs and window shades in each tab.How is this supposed to make it easier for me to find a function I'm looking for?
Not to mention the fact that I've now lost 20% of my vertical screen real estate to menus and bars. Where do I actually get to type my document?
And yes, I know I can turn some (if not all of it) off - but clearly they think I'm supposed to be running with it on.
Not impressed. Outlook doesn't look much different than Entourage. I can see some small resemblance to Outlook, but not a lot.
If Mail could add support for Server Based Rules, Out of Office Asst, and some easy access to Public Folders, no one would need this update...
I'll stick with iWork/Mail/iCal
If Mail could add support for Server Based Rules, Out of Office Asst, and some easy access to Public Folders, no one would need this update...
I'll stick with iWork/Mail/iCal
Please elaborate. This is like saying you like one hammer better than another because the one has a feature that the other one doesn't do (even though they both hammer a nail into wood).
Word isn't anything special and there are items in the iWorks suite that I didn't know about until I went through the tutorial.
Meh, don't care. iWork is far better in the stable department and the conversion issues of iWork are a non-issue. 9 times out of 10 it's becaue a font is missing.
Microsoft can keep their bloated Office suite.
Microsoft can keep their bloated Office suite.
10% less crashiness in Word when you Find for text that doesn't appear in the document?
20% more inclusion of features in the menus so you can bind them to keystrokes instead of having to find "header same as previous section" in the toolbox using your mouse?
100% less Entourage?
Microsoft has an HR problem
So after reviewing the screenshots in detail, I am forced to wonder, does Microsoft's HR team have a policy of hiring only those UI designers with D's and F's on their transcripts, or do the good ones just not apply for jobs @ MS?
I mean, it looks like the net effect of the ribbon (which is an awesomely cool concept) has been implemented so poorly that it's net effect is to continue pushing the top of our content another 100 pixels down the screen, making editing tall documents on wide displays even worse. There's one good reason they haven't put Office on the iPhone: the toolbar would be larger than the entire screen.
So after reviewing the screenshots in detail, I am forced to wonder, does Microsoft's HR team have a policy of hiring only those UI designers with D's and F's on their transcripts, or do the good ones just not apply for jobs @ MS?
I mean, it looks like the net effect of the ribbon (which is an awesomely cool concept) has been implemented so poorly that it's net effect is to continue pushing the top of our content another 100 pixels down the screen, making editing tall documents on wide displays even worse. There's one good reason they haven't put Office on the iPhone: the toolbar would be larger than the entire screen.
I dumped Office 2008 for iWork a few months ago after getting frustrated with general slowness and the (now corrected, I believe) Spaces issues Office had on Leopard. If I really need to do an extensive amount of work in Office, I boot my Windows 7 virtual machine. Otherwise, iWork gets me by for most things.
Also, I find Keynote > Powerpoint.
Also, I find Keynote > Powerpoint.
Hopefully Outlook will work with the PST files from Outlook for Windows. Right now it is a royal pain in the keister to transfer Outlook e-mail, contacts, calendar and tasks to the Mac.
Among other things, Word is much more compatible with it's PC version than is Pages. I've had numerous documents created on the PC version of Word that did not format correctly in Pages. I've also had documents created in Pages not work correctly in Word. Since many of us are forced to exchange documents in MS Office format with clients, bosses, judges, etc., we cannot afford to be incompatible. And if, as promised, this new version of Office again supports VBA scripts, it will be even better.
You believe Microsoft to hire ANY UI designers? Have you seen what happens when you install 40-50 application to the Start menu?
I'd say something along the lines of "When is M$ going to HIRE any UI designers?"
Strike up the band! Bring on the dancing girls!
Woohoo! I can't wait until it's released! I'm so excited I'm about to burst a blood vessel! Why do we have to wait so long, though? I want it now -- I need it now! My life won't be complete without . . .
Oh. Ooops. This is isn't the iPad thread? Sorry! My bad.
Office, huh? I've heard of that. I think.
Woohoo! I can't wait until it's released! I'm so excited I'm about to burst a blood vessel! Why do we have to wait so long, though? I want it now -- I need it now! My life won't be complete without . . .
Oh. Ooops. This is isn't the iPad thread? Sorry! My bad.
Office, huh? I've heard of that. I think.
That's the main reason I need it as well. I get word documents from work that simply won't format cleanly in Pages. I don't really blame Apple, I'm sure it's a tough problem - but it does mean I need office installed on my system if I want to share a document with someone at work.
Office 2003 is still fine. They need to look more at touch since mobile computing is on the rise.
There will be full PST support in Office 2011.
You can also turn the ribbon off if you don't like it.
Again, you were being specific to Word, not to importing anything. Now it's a function of whether it imports it or not, not a matter of whether it works or not.
If there was a standard (which M$ still hasn't established) then everyone could exchange data back and forth without issue. What you are seeing is the Platform / Office lock that M$ does by not standardizing how they store files (either the format or what data they put in it).
If you really wanted to standardize on a document exchange platform, it should have been PDF, which is a Portable Document Format, that doesn't rely on a specific application to view or edit it.
I understand the argument that you need to exchange data, but if they would save data in a more common format that was cross platform, it wouldn't be an issue.
Again, M$ platform / office lock tactics.
I'm assuming that's the new Entourage, which is a very welcome change! I have to use Entourage for my office email (I guess we are running a really old Exchange server without much off-campus support) and the UI feels so dated. I'm loving Apple Mail.
The ribbon, for one.
Many people dislike it at first (I didn't like it, but that's probably the usual irritation at finding where things moved in the new interface).
After a couple of weeks, though, I began to dislike the old interface when I used a system that hadn't been upgraded. I was hooked on the ribbon.
I like the ribbon. However, the number of UI elements is maddening Office:Mac UI designers keep adding things (menubar, toolbar, formatting palette, and now, ribbon). The reason why the ribbon worked on Windows is because it replaced an old idea with something better. Simply tagging on ever more UI features without cutting out the old makes for a bloated and messy interface.
Outlook alone is worth upgrading to. Entourage is a worthless app to use with Microsoft Exchange