Mac Office 2008 Preview

[SiliconAddict]

um, someone should have told Microsoft not to bother. Bill, there's a little something called iWork '08 which kinda makes office for Mac somewhat useless.

Seriously though, I'll take a look when it's released, but will most likely stick to iWork.

Unless you want to actually function in the real world. iWork is borderline useless for all but people who want to do the basics.

 

[Peace]

Unless you want to actually function in the real world. iWork is borderline useless for all but people who want to do the basics.

It's a lot slower too because it's currently using Carbon instead of Cocoa

 

[SiliconAddict]

Looks good? Their site doesn't even load.

Yo! Microsoft webtards! I'm not running IE on Mac! You don't even publish that anymore! Design for Mozilla!

I question who is the tard. Works fine on FF on my MBP. I think you shouldn't jump to conclusions until you actually let the site load. That and check your extensions. Check your adblock settings. Mine was blocking some elements of the site.

 

[Abstract]

Bill, there's a little something called iWork '08 which kinda makes office for Mac somewhat useless.

Not it doesn't.....not if you have proper work to do.


The big news for Word is more toolbars at the top (only they are bigger)

The big news for Excel is ... what exactly? OLE?

The big news for Powerpoint ... no news at all.

The big news for Exchange? They seem to have built in support for Windows Mobiles with that "Today" widget. [/quote]

The big news is that this will be an Intel native app, and crash less often (hopefully). To me, that would have been good enough. In fact, a universal version of Office:Mac would have been perfect as well. I always liked it, and it was VERY easy for me to do everything. iWork 08 isn't powerful enough if you have real spreadsheets and documents to write. Of course, even when I do write proper documents, I do it in LaTeX.

 

[Hairball]

I converted to Mac about a year and a half ago for home use. At work I use a PC and most of the programs I need are from MS Office, so I see the need and preference for both manufacturers. Between the two, I prefer the Mac design and usability. I'm not particularly fond of the new MS ribbon interface, but I haven't used the program either. Just as using Numbers took a little time getting used to, Office will require the same. I'm not going to bash MS simply because it is MS.

 

[powderblue17]

Why does MS even make Office for the Mac? I mean, they are making it for a competitor's minority market share OS. It can't be nearly as profitable as Win32 Office, considering the huge difference in number of sales they must rack up. And I'd imagine the development costs are about the same. Sure they leverage already having developed the file formats and so forth. But it has to be easier to develop for a platform when you're also the ones who developed the OS and all the development tools!

I am really glad they sell Office for OS X- a lot of people have to have the real deal at work or else they couldn't use their Mac. I'm just curious as to why they spend the effort? I'm sure there is some part of the equation that I am missing.

It's really simple. To keep the Justice Department off there back. If they were to cancel Office for Mac then the whole talk of breaking up MS would start again. Plus it actually makes very good money for Microsoft and that's why they put it in the Entertainment Division so they could help make up some of the huge losses with the XBox when they report earnings. Why would an Office product be apart of the Entertainment division anyway? I guess you could also say there is some history involved to as word, excel, and powerpoint first appeared on the Mac in the 80's before the Windows versions. Although I'm sure if Microsoft could they would kill it but really they can't.

 

[bigmc6000]

Eh well

Guess I'll be running Office 2004 for another 3-5 years. This looks exactly like Office 2007 and it blows, bad... I really really really hate it - I bought a new computer and after it froze my straight out of the box computer 3 times and ran macro code slower than my 7 year old computer I uninstalled and put Office XP on it. And for those who haven't used it and who considering themselves more than just "casual users" the "ribbons" suck - bad. They have to be the most counter productive thing in any update that I can ever recall - honestly....

 

[LordJohnWhorfin]

Thought process?

I'm not used to seeing "thought process" and "microsoft" in the same sentence. Unless it's qualified with "lack of".
They lost me years ago with that frickin paperclip.

 

[jmmo20]

the new sidebar looks exactly like iWok sidebar but.. uglier and bulkier.. and with a on more stuff that makes it all look bloated.

If it wasn't because I do need Excel for everyday science stuff, and that Office 2004 is way toooo slooooooow on my Macbook, I wouldn't even consider updating at all.

But for everything else I use iWork (numbers is still not up to speed in science related stuff).

But I'll get a corporate Office license thru my research council so.. i won't complain because i will be freee.

 

[chicagostars]

right

It's really simple. To keep the Justice Department off there back. If they were to cancel Office for Mac then the whole talk of breaking up MS would start again. Plus it actually makes very good money for Microsoft and that's why they put it in the Entertainment Division so they could help make up some of the huge losses with the XBox when they report earnings. Why would an Office product be apart of the Entertainment division anyway? I guess you could also say there is some history involved to as word, excel, and powerpoint first appeared on the Mac in the 80's before the Windows versions. Although I'm sure if Microsoft could they would kill it but really they can't.

Good points. It's about business. The companies don't see things as personally as rabid followers do.

 

[bloodycape]

iwork '08 or Office '08

Which do you think will be better?

I'd have to say neither. One is still in the works while the other is just nothing special.

 

[uaaerospace]

They can't even get their web site to work on my Mac.

It doesn't work much better on Windows. I couldn't get it to fully load at work with flash 9.

 

[mac-er]

Office 07 for Windows and Office 08 for Mac will both be marked as the time as the major beginning of the downfall of the Office empire. They have just totally ruined their UI.

And, there is absolutely no reason why any website like that should take so long to load. MS is so out of touch.

Google just released their version of Powerpoint today....

 

[bloodycape]

No problem here and I was viewing it under Opera.

I actually like the new Office 2007, it looks cleaner and it is just as easy to use, and I have been using office since 95. This new one should be a nice improvement. If it is I will say bye to Openoffice, as the word software does not have grammar check, and is slow to print and save. Same can be said for iwork, it was slow to open a 450kb word doc, and add the fact it has no grammar checker it make it useless for me as a student.

 

[mountainbiker80]

Ha!

This looks like an improvement on the Windows ribbon, and I'm slowly getting sold on some of their design ideas, but I still think this is wrong in terms of layout... Particularly with more and more widescreen displays, I would've really preferred for them to streamline this same model of functions into the vertical palettes.

HA! I couldn't even get Safari 3 to display their flash! It just crashed on me. Surprise? No.

 

[Superdrive]

I'm loving Office 2007.

I just hope that learning the Ribbon in Windows will translate over to OS X. It's a difficult task with the persistent menu bar.

Come on MacBU, get that page working.

I'm taking a class at school learning about Office 2007. This is supplement to courses once taught in Office 2003. I'm quickly getting used to the ribbon interface. Although it works well in most instances, there are still a few things that were done faster before. That simply may be because I haven't learned it correctly yet too.

Looks good? Their site doesn't even load.

Yo! Microsoft webtards! I'm not running IE on Mac! You don't even publish that anymore! Design for Mozilla!

It doesn't work in IE or Firefox for XP either...

 

[God^Cent]

I donno what all you are talking about with the slow site.... started up just fine for me. The UI looks 110% better, gj Microsoft (for once.).

 

[Doctor Q]

I've used versions of Office since it came on floppy disks, and I've used the ribbon in the Windows version of Word. I strongly dislike the ribbon, and will probably avoid updating my Macs if they add the ribbon to the Mac version too, given how many hours I spend in Excel (approximately 25 per day).

 

[Chef Medeski]

I wouldn't even consider getting Office 2008 for my MacBook Pro, as I already have Office 2007 and Parallels 3. Coherence in Parallels is getting better and better at making Windows applications work seamlessly with Mac apps. However, I might consider getting it for my iBook. I was thinking of getting iWork '08, but I decided to wait for Microsoft's offering.

(I'm one of the few people that I know who love the ribbon interface of Office 2007. )

I like it! And active previews. Im awaiting 2008, but I already got iWork since its great for layout and Numbers is much better for Lab Reports with tables I find than Word or Pages. So thats my main goal with it. Word is definetely more robust, when I get frustrated by limited capabilites in iWork, which while rarely occur does happen, I always go straight to Office and even though it might take me awhile to find it. It almost always has what I need.

 

[Gherkin]

I am definitely not an Office Mac power user by any stretch (infact, I only really use Word), but I don't get all the hate on it here. I use the current version and Word works just great, though a little slow because I'm on an Intel Mac.

This new version will be a universal binary which should be very nice, and the ribbon, from what I've used on the Windows machines at my university's computer labs, seems like it would be VERY nice once you get the hang of them.

I guess I probably wouldn't upgrade if I had to pay for it, but I get Office for free from my school so I'll will definitely be upgrading to this.

 

[sellitman]

I have NEO-Office

I think it's silly to spend money for an office suite when NEO-Office works so well on my Intel iMac. I have the last version of iWork too and between the two the MS version is of no interest.

 

[Nabooly]

You can also add me to the short list of people who like it. I really do. I also like the Office 07.

iWork is still a very nice and powerfull set of tools, but i reckon office does some of the things better.

I only use office for word and powerpoint. I dont need any of the other tools with it.

 

[Dustman]

lets just hope that microsoft doesnt add registry and drm as features, as they commonly do.

 

[weezer160]

I hope Apple ports iWork to winbloz. Then we can talk about a downfall.

 

[majordude]

I question who is the tard. Works fine on FF on my MBP. I think you shouldn't jump to conclusions until you actually let the site load. That and check your extensions. Check your adblock settings. Mine was blocking some elements of the site.

You have a point there (but if you wear a hat no one will notice).

I have Firefox and it fully loaded. Didn't render properly. Others have expressed issues with it loading too. Read the whole thread.

Adblocks blocking a normal (non-ad) site? No issues? I'm the tard?