First Screenshots of Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 Surface

[ValSalva]

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.

Word has lockable text areas for forms. Instead of creating a text box that scrolls if the context exceeds the length of the text box, a Word text area allows for a variable amount of content to push the remaining document's content lower down on the page.

This is critical for printing (say medical progress notes) because the extra contents of a scrolled text box won't show up on a printed page. I use this functionality on a daily basis.

I wish another more nimble word processor would do this but I haven't been able to find one.

 

[MorphingDragon]

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.

Actually thats an interesting point. I'm porting the conveyancing Macros at work to OpenOffice Basic, but the major change that a partner has asked me to do it to make them export to PDF instead of Word. We don't want clients editing out documents (its happened before) and PDF displays fine on every computer ever. My Grand-dad even realizes that PDFs are better for clients than .Docs.

I've been using PDF with my website documents too. It makes so many issues disappear.

 

[MacHiavelli]

Office costs far too much.

 

[AidenShaw]

Mac software that looks like it belongs on the Mac?

Something that Apple should take notice of - Itunes looks and acts like an alien entity on a Windows system. Glad that Windows 7 supports .MOV files natively, so don't need to install Quicktime either (for those rare QT files).

 

[nixonhead]

Terrible icons and interface!
I don't want to have this **** on my beautiful

 

[IntelliUser]

I'll stick to iWork and Mail.

 

[elgrecomac]

Balmer may be righting the ship...

As a recent (3 years) Mac user and long time Windows user (currently in Fusion), I have to admit that the boys and girls in Redmond are finally getting the **** together. First, Window 7 came out, an excellent OS and a worthy competitor to Snow Leopard after screwing up Vista. Then, after screwing up the UI in the MS Office with the latest release (and all power users know what I am talking about), the beta on Windows looks terrific. I suspect the Mac version will be equally as impressive as the Office for Windows beta currently out. It takes them two effort but the effort seems to be working. My only MS wish-list items are Visio and MS Project for the Mac. America's corporations would be very very happy.

 

[YMark]

There better be support for Visual Basic in Excel or the whole upgrade is lame (just like the ribbon).

 

[johncarync]

Macros?

Microsoft promised that they would bring macros back in the next release. Anyone want to bet that it won't make it into the final release?

-John

 

[cmaier]

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.

True, but, of course, being able to exchange files without damaging them is a feature. And VBA script is a feature allowing lots of vertical market plug-ins. Just as the app store is a feature that causes many to buy iPhones, so too is the Office ecosystem a killer feature for that suite.

 

[futureswitcher]

lookin' good!

Lots of good things here in my opinion...

Regardless of whether or not you like the ribbon (I hated it until I got used to it, but now i'm ambivalent about it), you've got to admit that it's nice that MS is finally recognizing the benefits of a uniform UI. I hate switching between Office 2007 and 2008 because 2 programs that should be very similar are absurdly different.

I'm also very excited about the return of VBA! My favorite part of those screenshots was the developer tab on excel and powerpoint!

But, most of all, I'm excited about never having to use that laughable inspector again!

 

[cmaier]

Something that Apple should take notice of - Itunes looks and acts like an alien entity on a Windows system. Glad that Windows 7 supports .MOV files natively, so don't need to install Quicktime either (for those rare QT files).

Very true. All Apple applications look completely out-of-place on windows machines. The MBU has a tough problem trying to make a cross platform product that looks at least somewhat at home on Macs, and yet still feels somewhat familiar to those who have to work on both platforms. Adobe, Apple, MS have all had this problem.

 

[MorphingDragon]

True, but, of course, being able to exchange files without damaging them is a feature. And VBA script is a feature allowing lots of vertical market plug-ins. Just as the app store is a feature that causes many to buy iPhones, so too is the Office ecosystem a killer feature for that suite.

Learn OpenOffice basic then.

 

[MikhailT]

As a recent (3 years) Mac user and long time Windows user (currently in Fusion), I have to admit that the boys and girls in Redmond are finally getting the **** together. First, Window 7 came out, an excellent OS and a worthy competitor to Snow Leopard after screwing up Vista. Then, after screwing up the UI in the MS Office with the latest release (and all power users know what I am talking about), the beta on Windows looks terrific. I suspect the Mac version will be equally as impressive as the Office for Windows beta currently out. It takes them two effort but the effort seems to be working. My only MS wish-list items are Visio and MS Project for the Mac. America's corporations would be very very happy.

I doubt that, Office Suite Team and MacBU are not the same team, so any expectations based on the PC should not be ported to Mac. Remember this is MacBU's first time going full Cocoa for the entire Office Suite. I'm not sure if its Intel only either.

Still no OneNote application in there, which sucks. OneNote is my favorite application on Windows.

Very true. All Apple applications look completely out-of-place on windows machines. The MBU has a tough problem trying to make a cross platform product that looks at least somewhat at home on Macs, and yet still feels somewhat familiar to those who have to work on both platforms. Adobe, Apple, MS have all had this problem.

Everybody have this issue, there's no universal solution for porting anything across all platform. Even Java fails at this.

 

[BornAgainMac]

How did Microsoft manage to get a screen shot between error messages?

 

[cmaier]

Learn OpenOffice basic then.

Because I want to write all that stuff myself instead of buying it off the shelf? Or because I don't want my files to be 100% compatible?

 

[MorphingDragon]

How did Microsoft manage to get a screen shot between error messages?

This was a prerendered movie.

 

[ValSalva]

One reason Windows 7 and Office 2010 (presumably) are so good is that they have been through or are going through extensive beta testing.

If Office 2011 is going to be as good as it can be as well as be accepted by the Mac community, MS should make it available for widespread beta testing.

If they don't I fear they'll just end up with a slightly updated Office 2008 with a whole new set of problems.

 

[dernhelm]

Everybody have this issue, there's no universal solution for porting anything across all platform. Even Java fails at this.

Not true. Java programs can be very consistent across platforms. The only problem is that they look consistently bad.

Java's goal was to provide a common platform: language, GUI, networking, everything that would run everywhere. They almost succeeded, but what they didn't understand is that nobody wants a "java looking" GUI for their app. If you are running on windows, the app should feel like other windows apps. if you are running on Macs, the app should feel like other Mac apps.

The closest thing I've seen is QT. You can make an app that ports to windows and macs and feels native, but it's darn hard to get the skinning right.

 

[makkystyle]

This is good news. I look forward to Office 2011. A lot of Apple people hate the idea of anything MS on their Macs - but Office, especially Word, does some things that no other word processor will do. I'd move to iWork if it had the features I need but only Word seems to have them.

Sadly MS can't figure out the basic functions people need to actually use the product on a daily basis. I was trying to create a digital letterhead for my company last year. We made a nice Illustrator document and then proceeded to export it in PDF as a page background. Dropped it into Pages and save as a template and bam done.

Then on to Word. We tried PDF, TIFF, JPG, PNG, you name it, we tried. We also tried as a background, as a 100% opacity watermark and just as an embedded image. Either the background would move when you carriage returned from the beginning of the document, or it would automatically resize itself and get out of whack, or it would print the background in low-res. I did finally get the template working on my mac (with some compromises to position and resolution) and that template wouldn't work on the PC's and vice versa.

It is 2010! How hard can MS make it to embed an image in a document? I should note this was Office 2008 also. It's completely ridiculous how clueless MS is to some of the most basic functions of their software.

What's crazy is that in EXCEL I have insane multi-sheet spreadsheets with huge calculations and the app runs those no problem, whereas Numbers just crashes upon opening because it's calculation engine blows. Numbers still blows away Excel in formatting of the documents though. Again, what should seemingly be the easiest fix escapes MS release after release.

 

[MorphingDragon]

Because I want to write all that stuff myself instead of buying it off the shelf? Or because I don't want my files to be 100% compatible?

Shhh...

Franklin Law primarily does property law but we ahve 3 lawyers that do family law and 1 that does commercial law. F@lcon merely automates document generation and had to be hand written anyway. The practice manager had a look at what it would cost to upgrade to 07 and he nearly had to go to hospital again. 07 also breaks F@lcon.

 

[HLdan]

This is good news. I look forward to Office 2011. A lot of Apple people hate the idea of anything MS on their Macs - but Office, especially Word, does some things that no other word processor will do. I'd move to iWork if it had the features I need but only Word seems to have them.

I have both iWork and Office 2008 and prefer Pages, but I have good reasons for using Pages. I'm a bit uneducated about Word in terms of what more it can do. Could you or anyone explain what Word can do that Pages cannot do, and please leave out the compatibility stuff because I am well aware of that. I'm just curious what's special about Word, because I don't see it.

 

[Frosties]

What is with the os9 formating palette, looks really dated to me. And aqua is just terrible.

As reference Word 2010 that look much more modern.

 

[Shadow]

It looks okay, except they're still using the damned "Formatting Palette". It's a nice idea but it's too constricting - I don't want all my commonly-used tools (like font-changer) hidden underneath a ton of menus; just keep it for the rarely-used stuff.

But really, as long as they sorted out performance it'll probably be a hit. Does anyone know if it's using Carbon or Cocoa?

 

[IntelliUser]

As a recent (3 years) Mac user and long time Windows user (currently in Fusion), I have to admit that the boys and girls in Redmond are finally getting the **** together. First, Window 7 came out, an excellent OS and a worthy competitor to Snow Leopard after screwing up Vista.

To Snow Leopard, not really, closer to Tiger.

Then, after screwing up the UI in the MS Office with the latest release (and all power users know what I am talking about), the beta on Windows looks terrific. I suspect the Mac version will be equally as impressive as the Office for Windows beta currently out. It takes them two effort but the effort seems to be working. My only MS wish-list items are Visio and MS Project for the Mac. America's corporations would be very very happy.

It looks to me as if all they're doing is bringing the quality of their software back to a barely acceptable level (from a totally unacceptable one). If they're really starting to improve, that's to be seen in the future.

Meanwhile, we still don't know how fast and stable these new version actually rare.