Microsoft Delays Office 2007 for Mac

[dpaanlka]

The Windows Office team isn't comprised of Mac experts. I wouldn't want someone who's not intimately familiar with the platform doing the testing. That's an excellent way to miss bugs!

The point of what I'm saying is there shouldn't be a Mac BU. There should just be the "Microsoft Office Team" developing the product that happens to run on both platforms, not two entirely different products that are struggling to work like each other. They should be feature and schedule identical, with the only differences being the user interfaces (one for Mac, one for Windows) which isn't a tremendous technical hurdle.

If the bug is theirs, then we send it to them, and work with them as necessary to get it fixed. In the case of the PowerPoint team, the PowerPoint:Mac team is on the first floor of one of our buildings at our Silicon Valley Campus, and the Windows PowerPoint team is on the second floor. If there's a question, the two teams are only a few steps away. We run into each other in the hallways and cafeteria all the time.

I'm not an expert in project management, but this doesn't sound like an award-winning model of efficiency.

As an independent business unit, we decide what we're going to put into our products. It's a flexibility that we greatly enjoy, since it allows us to do Mac-only features that make our Windows counterparts jealous.

I'll be impressed if Microsoft releases the office formats as open source, so that everybody can start creating perfectly office compatible products. That will show Microsoft is truly ready to compete.

I've been trying to get my friends to use Pages and Keynote, but it's futile when they have to open their stuff in Office.

 

[nadyne]

The point of what I'm saying is there shouldn't be a Mac BU. There should just be the "Microsoft Office Team" developing the product that happens to run on both platforms, not two entirely different products that are struggling to work like each other.

We used to be part of one big Office-for-all team, and found that we weren't able to be as effective for our users as we wanted to be. We split off a few years ago. Our goal is to be the best office suite for Mac users, and we think that our current situation is the best way for us to reach that goal. I realise that some folks think that we should have other goals. If you think that we're wrong, submit some product feedback and tell us exactly what you think we should be doing. Doing so helps inform our future decisions, and we can aggregate your feedback with the other feedback that we get as well as the extensive research that we do.

If you're really interested in the history of Microsoft's Macintosh products, I have to recommend one of our other MacBU bloggers: Rick Schaut. Rick has been developing Word:Mac since the dawn of time (he came on board for Word:Mac 5.0, anyway), and has seen it all, including the formation of the MacBU. Look for the 'History' tag in his blog. His post from 2004 about the history of Mac Word 6.0 and a post he wrote earlier this year about the history of Mac Office (he says it's part one, but we've kept him too busy on Word to write the later parts yet) are quite interesting. I've only been in MacBU (and Microsoft) for a year, so I don't have quite the insight into our history as he does. Rick and some other long-time MacBU developers are also posting in our team blog, so maybe they'll post something about our history in the future.

Regards,
Nadyne.

--
Nadyne Mielke | user experience researcher
Microsoft Corporation | Macintosh Business Unit
go ahead, mac my day

 

[dpaanlka]

His post from 2004 about the history of Mac Word 6.0 and a post he wrote earlier this year about the history of Mac Office (he says it's part one, but we've kept him too busy on Word to write the later parts yet) are quite interesting.

We already included that Word 6.0 story in this discussion, how did you miss that?

Not to sound rude or mean, but your posts are starting to sound more and more like Microsoft PR-approved pieces rather than genuine thoughts.

 

[MisterMe]

...

Not to sound rude or mean, but your posts are starting to sound more and more like Microsoft PR-approved pieces rather than genuine thoughts.

Duh!

 

[Flowbee]

Not to sound rude or mean, but your posts are starting to sound more and more like Microsoft PR-approved pieces rather than genuine thoughts.

And your posts are starting to look like you're more interested in bashing MS than having an actual discussion of the topic. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but it doesn't seem like you have much experience managing a large-scale software development project, and as such, there is a reasonably good possibility that you have no idea what you're talking about.

Nadyne has taken the time to answer your questions without personally insulting you... why can't you show the same respect?

 

[ClaphamChris]

Just want to say it's very good to see Nadyne here.

Office for Mac is always going to be a tough job and it won't please everyone all the time. But, let's be honest, it's actually a pretty fine piece of software and connects with the Windows world very well, all things considered.

But credit where credit's due - they're here and answering questions.

They don't have to do that. And should at least get a bit of respect for doing so. When was the last post from someone on Adobe's Creative Suite team. for example?

Good on you, Nadyne.

 

[dpaanlka]

And your posts are starting to look like you're more interested in bashing MS than having an actual discussion of the topic.

Being the first time I ever talked to anyone at Microsoft, your absolutely right, I am getting years of built up Microsoft annoyances off my chest. I don't like Microsoft, sorry if you don't like that.

Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but it doesn't seem like you have much experience managing a large-scale software development project, and as such, there is a reasonably good possibility that you have no idea what you're talking about.

And there is a reasonably good possibility that I might be right. It's my belief of what I see that seems like common sense to me, and I'd like Nadyne or whoever to explain why they're doing stuff their way when the makers of the major apps I use (Apple, Adobe, and Quark) seem to get along just fine the other way.

The basic reason I seem to have gotten so far (and please correct me if I'm wrong or explain to me why it is otherwise) is that Microsoft is unwilling to spend the money or resources to give Mac users an equivalent of Microsoft Office for Windows with a Mac-like interface, but rather an entirely different, lesser product that is always late which exists merely as a show, and I should be oh so grateful that the great software giant has shown Mac users this incredible act of charity.

Nadyne has taken the time to answer your questions without personally insulting you... why can't you show the same respect?

Where are the personal insults? Respect doesn't mean have to take everything "Nadyne" says at face value. I don't agree with what she's saying, and her posts really do sound like a PR guy talking instead of an actual person having a conversation to me.

I'm sure it has nothing to do with Nadyne or anyone actually at the Mac BU, I'm sure they're all great people who love their Macs and are really good at what they do. It's Microsoft that's the problem.

 

[i4k20c]

hey nadyne,

I for one would like to say thank you for some awesome products that have been made. I am currently a college student, and i've given both pages and Microsoft word 2004, and find word to fit me better as a college student. The thing i love the most, and hope alot is going into this is Microsoft word notebook! More and more classes in college are just lectures, and it's a really nice feature, makes taking notes in class much better! There's a ton of features i could discuss, but my favorite by-far is the recording feature. I love how when I press enter and move to the next line, the recorder knows i've done so, this makes it nice for when i review my notes, i can just click on a specific bullet point, and the recording will start from there!

Some Improvements Maybe?

+I've already sent most of these thoughts through user feedback, because i truly do hope software developers or the likes read user-feedback and take it into consideration!

+The best way to explain this is through a scenario: Sometimes as i am typing notes in my 2.5hr lectures, i have Microsoft word notebook open and i am recording the lecture, as well as safari open so i can surf the web here and there. Let's say i have been taking notes for 1/2 hr and have saved periodically, but i am bored so i switch over to safari, i get the little dialogue box that sates "your recording is still in session," sometimes when i go to click okay on that, ms word notebook freezes, thus i have to force quit! Now this is okay, because i know you should always save, so i have saved the document, and assume I haven't lost to much. When i re-open the document, all the text is there from my latest save point, but the recording has been deleted! This really irritates me, because i've noticed especially with apple's recent update, MS word notebook freezes more. I hope there is a fix, so that when i hit save, it is saving both the text and the recording!

+I have also noticed, that you can't really find the recordings anywhere in the micrsoft folder. I assume this is true because it is saved with the document and not separately. But, it would be cool if i could somehow take the recorded material from MS Word Notebook, and can listen to it on my ipod or something? This would be nice if I'm just trying to re-listen to a lecture!

+When recording the noise the keyboard makes can be quite irritating, and sometimes it is hard to hear the professor. I doubt there is anyway to do this, but it'd be nice if somehow it was possible to make the keyboard noise less, and the vocal voice higher.

+I've also noticed that our counterpart, MS for windows offers way more templates than MS for OS X does, it'd be nice if we could get some more templates.

Again, my main focus was on the MS notebook, and my complaints were on the recording because this is what i use most, so i have the most experience with it! Complaints aside, i want to say again, i absolutely love the notebook recording option because of how it follows along your notes, so the recording knows when you press enter, and thus the recording is correlated to note-taking! Absolutely brilliant!

 

[bloodycape]

+I've also noticed that our counterpart, MS for windows offers way more templates than MS for OS X does, it'd be nice if we could get some more templates.

I will agree there. I would also suggest maybe better integration from and to Apple Pages, Keynote, and Open office.

I did not see this listed but is Access going to part of the new suit? If not is there any way we can get MS to bring this software to us with full function.

And one last thing, I was never fond of Entourage feel and power. However, Outlook 2003 was a different story. I like it a lot more and find it easier to use.

 

[quigleybc]

This is terrible

Running Office in Rosetta is so bad...

How are companies doing this?

My girlfriend needs Office at her job, and she's on an Intel Mac,

Entourage freezes, Word and Excel Crawl....Office is the single most important App for Mac in the workplace imo, how can this not be UB yet...??

Madness..

 

[dpaanlka]

Running Office in Rosetta is so bad...

It is fine if you have more than the base amount of RAM.

 

[nadyne]

We already included that Word 6.0 story in this discussion, how did you miss that?

I didn't miss it. I was just pointing out that there's some insight into this from the MacBU perspective.

Being the first time I ever talked to anyone at Microsoft, your absolutely right, I am getting years of built up Microsoft annoyances off my chest. I don't like Microsoft, sorry if you don't like that.

You didn't even hit my radar as someone who was particularly cranky. If you ever see me at MWSF, buy me a drink and I'll tell you some stories.

And there is a reasonably good possibility that I might be right. It's my belief of what I see that seems like common sense to me, and I'd like Nadyne or whoever to explain why they're doing stuff their way when the makers of the major apps I use (Apple, Adobe, and Quark) seem to get along just fine the other way.

Adobe and Quark have different user bases. I think that their users are professional users, and their users value consistency more than anything else. (This is only my opinion, I've done absolutely no research of their users!) We have a very diverse user base, which includes everyone from a soccer mom buying her first computer, through the Mac IT admin who lives and dies by his AppleScript, to the folks who switch between Windows and OS X frequently. Each of these different types of users has different needs. Not all of them want or need everything that's in WinOffice. Many of them want things that they can only get in OS X. We have a delicate balancing act here of trying to meet the needs of everyone. We try to aim for the sweet spot. We know that we're not meeting 100% of every single user's needs. Do we like it? No. (Is it possible to meet 100% of every single user's needs? Probably not, but that's a separate discussion.)

Respect doesn't mean have to take everything "Nadyne" says at face value.

You don't need to put my name in quotes! I'm a real person. If we were going to come up with a fake name for use by a committee, I think that we'd choose one that isn't quite so uncommon.

Regards,
Nadyne.

--
Nadyne Mielke | user experience researcher
Microsoft Corporation | Macintosh Business Unit
go ahead, mac my day