Microsoft Launches Free 30-Day Trials of Office 2011

[Steve121178]

This version of Office for Mac is great!

I agree. Office 2011 is an excellent product. Office 2008 was a bit of a mess but Office 2011 is a joy to use.

 

[AdeFowler]

I remember Macs in the past coming with Office Test Drive pre-installed.

For what it''s worth, I switched my business over to iWork last year and haven't looked back.

 

[Winni]

This story has the word 'Microsoft' in the title, therefore I am compelled to make a derogatory remark about MS and how awful anything they have ever done is.

Alternatively, I could actually read this article and point out what a good idea offering a 30 day trial is and that MS Office for Mac is a good piece of software.

I choose option #2. Office 2011 for Mac is a good piece of software and certainly more powerful than Apple's iWork suite or the free OpenOffice.org and its various incarnations.

I just find the price tag too high and haven't upgraded yet from Office 2008. I also own iWork (since Pages 1.0, actually), but never really used it.

The world where I work and do business speaks Microsoft, not Apple.

 

[0815]

Is this Office 2011? Because it runs fine on the core duo (not core duo 2!) 2GB macbook I've installed it on. Previous versions of Office for Mac were awful, but I just don't see the horrible implementation you refer to.

And after having read the rest of your post - are you just slating MS for the hell of it? I honestly think a large number of the people criticising it here haven't actually tried it and are just basing their opinions on previous versions of Office for Mac. That's like my friend who commented on me buying a mac, saying "You can't even right click on them" and comparing them to Vista machines (This was before Windows 7) - only mac he has tried was the iMac G3.

Yes of course Office 2011 since 1. this article is about 2011 and 2. there was no outlook in previous versions.

And no, I'm not slanting MS for the hell of it. I also use at the office Windows7 and I'm very impressed by it. But Outlook from Office for Mac (2011) sucks - I have not tried Word or Excel since I'm happy with Pages/Numbers, maybe they are better - but Outlook is just bad.

 

[Thunderhawks]

steve ballmer is desperate, dropping the windoze tablets as he is donning a blue jean (struggling to get his fat arse into it) and a black turtle neck sweater (even more struggling)...... looking? for his john lennon glasses, .........

apple, wake up! get with the project and make iwork ........ WORK!

let's get rid of this microsoft sheise forever!...................

It's "Scheiße" or if you don't have the "ß" Scheisse, German for crap, sh..t

and I have tried to use iwork, but it didn't feel right and to me was not user friendly and I am as Apple as they come.

Only really like Excel from the Office Suite and use Word as these are standards in business.

Loved MacWrite's simplicity.

Anytime something is overfeatured like Word I cringe:-(

 

[Steve121178]

And no, I'm not slanting MS for the hell of it. I also use at the office Windows7 and I'm very impressed by it. But Outlook from Office for Mac (2011) sucks - I have not tried Word or Excel since I'm happy with Pages/Numbers, maybe they are better - but Outlook is just bad.

Outlook is rubbish on Windows, it's not just specific to Mac. I'd go as far as saying Outlook (all versions, especially 2003) is the worst piece of software I've ever had to support. It's crap.

However, a lot of the developers for Office 2011 say that Outlook 2011 is the best version of Outlook ever...

 

[weckart]

Could he not download the Russian language on Windows?

What for?

A Windows 7 x86_64 language pack is not much use on a Mac edition of Office, which is 32 bit only. You can only download those language packs if you have Windows 7 Ultimate, anyway, otherwise it costs extra.

Mac editions of MS Office are separate discrete installations. There are no language pack upgrades.

 

[roadbloc]

and safari now seems snappier

I lol'd. A lot.

 

[Aduntu]

Really? Well, as far as I know, my abused and poorly maintained systems seems to work fine with Non-MS Software. That should be enough as far as qualifications are concerned. But hey, if you insist, I am an Airline Pilot with some decent technical knowledge and a Masters Degree in Computer Information Technology

Unless you're well-versed in C++ and Objective-C, I'd wager that you're not qualified to determine that Office 2011 is "crap". I'm not saying you have to fully understand high-level programming languages to know good software, but you can't simply characterize it as "crap" without providing some kind of reasonable proof to back up your assumptions -- especially when users of the current version and previous versions are raving about the improvements and subsequent quality.

 

[Hamstring]

I like Office 2011. I like Outlook a lot. Of course I got it through work for 15 dollars. That helps. The only thing that ticked me off is that my old iphoto won't email via the Entourage link anymore. I guess I need to upgrade iPhoto.

 

[Burger Thing]

Unless you're well-versed in C++ and Objective-C, I'd wager that you're not qualified to determine that Office 2011 is "crap". I'm not saying you have to fully understand high-level programming languages to know good software, but you can't simply characterize it as "crap" without providing some kind of reasonable proof to back up your assumptions -- especially when users of the current version and previous versions are raving about the improvements and subsequent quality.

LOL! Yeah. I have programmed C++, don't you worry. But I am not sure if that is necessary for a software evaluation on the users side, when a simple, sequential paste of "A-330" causes a spreadsheet software to go *poof*. Maybe I should start looking into the source code and try to implement some fixes on my next layover in Hong Kong

 

[JAT]

They better should fix all the bugs and add the missing features ... having used MS Office since it's first days on a PC I'm more than disappointed with 2011.

LOL! Having used MS Office since its first days on a Mac, I've been disappointed with pretty much all of them since 4.0.

The problem with 2011 is Outlook. It really is Entourage 2 instead of a true Outlook. And the Ribbon is comparable to Office 2007 on Windows, not 2010.

I really need to put it through its paces with my macros, see if it is truly compatible.

 

[seedster2]

This story has the word 'Microsoft' in the title, therefore I am compelled to make a derogatory remark about MS and how awful anything they have ever done is.

Alternatively, I could actually read this article and point out what a good idea offering a 30 day trial is and that MS Office for Mac is a good piece of software.

Anything with Microsoft or Adobe will bring out the usual baseless attacks.

Tbf, everyone saying that iWork or open office or some other alternative is sufficient clearly doesn't use their macs for business where document sharing is a standard activity.

I'm a lawyer and clients and 99% of other lawyers all use windows with office.

If I can't open their documents with 100% compatibility and assurance that they will look the same on my screen as it did on theirs, and vice versa, i'd be screwed.

Agree with you. for casual small business it MAY be sufficient, but it is a joke in traditional business environments.

I agree, iWorks has way better Soccer Team templates, and better.....ermm...

Pretty much

Outlook is rubbish on Windows, it's not just specific to Mac. I'd go as far as saying Outlook (all versions, especially 2003) is the worst piece of software I've ever had to support. It's crap.

Outlook is oddly my favorite application because its unified. I am not a fan of Apple's approach of having individual applications.

 

[Aduntu]

LOL! Yeah. I have programmed C++, don't you worry. But I am not sure if that is necessary for a software evaluation on the users side, when a simple, sequential paste of "A-330" causes a spreadsheet software to go *poof*. Maybe I should start looking into the source code and try to implement some fixes on my next layover in Hong Kong

Like I said... You don't need to understand the programming language to identify solid software. However, to categorize software as "crap," when it's contrary to what many others believe and have experienced, you better be prepared to present substantial proof. No one is claiming the software didn't crash on your machine -- but don't expect anyone to blindly take your word for it and write off the software completely because Burger Thing guy said it sucks.

 

[Burger Thing]

Like I said... You don't need to understand the programming language to identify solid software. However, to categorize software as "crap," when it's contrary to what many others believe and have experienced, you better be prepared to present substantial proof. No one is claiming the software didn't crash on your machine -- but don't expect anyone to blindly take your word for it and write off the software completely because Burger Thing guy said it sucks.

Well, we all have different standards regarding software, applications and operating systems. But it sure annoyed the heck out of me, when a simple and easy task managed to crash a relative expensive piece of software 3 times in a row. Especially after reading positive remarks of the new Office suit here. I have to be honest to tell you, that so far I am a bit disappointed about it and I would not call it a solid piece of software. But like i said, others have different expectations.

One guy for example stated here, that the MAC version of Office will never be as good as on a Windows machine - and I had the impression that the message he was trying to convey is, that this is somehow normal. But why is that? Why can't Microsoft make an equivalent software to the Windows Version? Is that really that hard to do?

That seems to be the norm nowadays though. People are also complaining that for example the Windows version of iTunes is not particular good either.

 

[Terminal.app]

I won't still touch that with a ten foot pole.

This story has the word 'Microsoft' in the title, therefore I am compelled to make a derogatory remark about MS and how awful anything they have ever done is.

Alternatively, I could actually read this article and point out what a good idea offering a 30 day trial is and that MS Office for Mac is a good piece of software.

Heheheh, exactly.

If it's not on the Mac App Store, I'm not buying it. I don't want Microsoft scattering files all over my computer.

Huh?

open office (libreoffice) is so much better than ms office thou iwork is the greatest office suit there is.

I'd actually rate the office suites in this order:

1. MS Office 2010/2011
2. iWork
.
.
.
.
.
.
9999. OpenOffice/NeoOffice/LibreOffice

To quote an earlier poster, "I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole."

Conveniently, the new release of LibreOffice 3.3 is also available today, with a free 30-billion-day trial. Worth considering, especially if you prefer the traditional (non-ribbon) Office interface.

The ribbon really isn't that bad, and it's easier to get used to than LibreOffice's horrific...everything.

 

[Dr McKay]

What for?

A Windows 7 x86_64 language pack is not much use on a Mac edition of Office, which is 32 bit only. You can only download those language packs if you have Windows 7 Ultimate, anyway, otherwise it costs extra.

Mac editions of MS Office are separate discrete installations. There are no language pack upgrades.

No, I mean the guy who said his Dad switched to Mac, so he could have it in Russian...

 

[takemore]

No, I mean the guy who said his Dad switched to Mac, so he could have it in Russian...

I am that guy whose dad switched to Mac So I also, as weckart do not see how downloading Russian language pack for Office for Windows 7 could help me in any way to make MS Office 2011 for Mac speak in Russian?

 

[JAT]

I choose option #2. Office 2011 for Mac is a good piece of software and certainly more powerful than Apple's iWork suite or the free OpenOffice.org and its various incarnations.

I just find the price tag too high and haven't upgraded yet from Office 2008. I also own iWork (since Pages 1.0, actually), but never really used it.

The world where I work and do business speaks Microsoft, not Apple.

You could get the cheap package. I don't know about Germany, but it starts at $120 here, probably actually less if you shop around. No Outlook, but it really doesn't improve the things it needed to improve, like compatibility with Win, so not much point, anyway. But Word and Excel are drastically improved over 2008. I refused to get 2008 after trying it, I upgraded from 2004.

 

[MacAddict1978]

Eating a bit of crow, my Word 2011 trial crashed on me 3 times, and gave me insane messages after restart every two minutes. But I had auto save set to 1 minute intervals and lost 2 sentences.

Then I discover there is an update that fixes these things... That ticks me off. Shouldn't you update the product you have live for download already updated??? Annoying but at least it fixes the issues.

Excel 2011 crashed 3 times within 10 minutes on me yesterday - I kid you not.



Funny, on those 3 crashes yesterday, my work went *poof*...

Whatever people hype about it: It is still a piece of cr@p. Now I hope that Apple gets its act together and brings out iWork 2011. Please.

 

[Motown]

Question

What version of Office are you using? Is it 2011 or 2008? Is it an English version or something else?

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I am using the new office since September and its far better than the previous version. The compatibility with the win version is 100%, funcionality about 90% (Word, Excel).

However it still has some bugs - for example it was not able to install the first update (could not find the installed apps in Applications folder!?). Another bug that screws me every day in Word: when you start to add some text into existing paragraph, it does not keep the original font, but starts using Times New Roman... Does anybody else have such problems?
Dispite such bugs, its functionality is still wider than that of Pages.