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Microsoft Office 2008 Update Available!
- Thread starter kevo0822
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Microsoft Office 2008 Update Available!
Office Update didn't find it, and my attempt to install after download failed until I removed the installation completely and re-installed. Then the Office Update still didn't find it, but the manual install was successful (it let me select the Macintosh drive and install the update). Word and Excel now both read 12.0.1.
Not noticeable difference - it still takes too long to start up on my new iMac.
Office Update didn't find it, and my attempt to install after download failed until I removed the installation completely and re-installed. Then the Office Update still didn't find it, but the manual install was successful (it let me select the Macintosh drive and install the update). Word and Excel now both read 12.0.1.
Not noticeable difference - it still takes too long to start up on my new iMac.
Not so bad for me
I've been soldiering on with v.X for quite a while and, good as Rosetta is, was frustrated by the amount of RAM Word and Excel were taking, their general sluggishness and, most of all, the 32-char file name limit (working on projects with really long file name conventions meant a lot of editing in the Finder).
Bought an Expression Media upgrade from eBay, and after a day and a bit's use with the patches applied, got to say I'm quite pleased. All apps are more responsive, I like the feel (although it is a bit bloated for a word processor and spreadsheet) and launch times are about 50% faster for me. Clean launch from boot of Word is about 8 seconds, Excel slightly faster. And saves me hours in file renaming.
So I'll tip my cap to Microsoft here. It's not the radical speed up one would have hoped for given four years engineering and a Universal Binary, but early indications are that it will set me up nicely for a few years in the cross-platform world I live in.
By the way. 2.2Ghz MBP, 4GB RAM, 7,200 HD.
I've been soldiering on with v.X for quite a while and, good as Rosetta is, was frustrated by the amount of RAM Word and Excel were taking, their general sluggishness and, most of all, the 32-char file name limit (working on projects with really long file name conventions meant a lot of editing in the Finder).
Bought an Expression Media upgrade from eBay, and after a day and a bit's use with the patches applied, got to say I'm quite pleased. All apps are more responsive, I like the feel (although it is a bit bloated for a word processor and spreadsheet) and launch times are about 50% faster for me. Clean launch from boot of Word is about 8 seconds, Excel slightly faster. And saves me hours in file renaming.
So I'll tip my cap to Microsoft here. It's not the radical speed up one would have hoped for given four years engineering and a Universal Binary, but early indications are that it will set me up nicely for a few years in the cross-platform world I live in.
By the way. 2.2Ghz MBP, 4GB RAM, 7,200 HD.
Trouble upgrading? Please check the Private messages
Greetings and Salutations
Those who cannot get the updater to see anything to upgrade and are posting to this forum, please check your private inbox. I have been posting information to help solve your problem.
David Pelton
Microsoft MacBU
Greetings and Salutations
Those who cannot get the updater to see anything to upgrade and are posting to this forum, please check your private inbox. I have been posting information to help solve your problem.
David Pelton
Microsoft MacBU
It's nice to see someone from the Microsoft MacBU posting in this forum. Even though I think that it is not yet time for me to make the leap to Office 2008 (perhaps when I finally break down and get an MBP), I find some small comfort in knowing that someone who can influence the quality of Office 2008 is both listening and responding.
Install failure
I thought I posted this before, but perhaps not, I don't see it....
I was having trouble installing the update on my Macbook. The error message was (paraphrase) installer failed to find software on this volume to update. In other words, it acted as though I didn't have a valid copy of Office 2008 loaded. I had it installed plus the auto-update, update from last week.
Through a long tech support call with Microsoft we uninstalled and reinstalled Office and ran the update. Same problem.
We repaired disk permissions, same problem.
We did a "shift boot" and we were able to install the update and everything appears to be running. We confirmed that I have no programs loading at boot so we just don't know what the cause of the issue was, but we did get the update completed.
I thought I posted this before, but perhaps not, I don't see it....
I was having trouble installing the update on my Macbook. The error message was (paraphrase) installer failed to find software on this volume to update. In other words, it acted as though I didn't have a valid copy of Office 2008 loaded. I had it installed plus the auto-update, update from last week.
Through a long tech support call with Microsoft we uninstalled and reinstalled Office and ran the update. Same problem.
We repaired disk permissions, same problem.
We did a "shift boot" and we were able to install the update and everything appears to be running. We confirmed that I have no programs loading at boot so we just don't know what the cause of the issue was, but we did get the update completed.
I was told on the phone that it is not yet on the "auto update" since it was released yesterday.
Posting solutions
Greetings and Salutations
Just so everyone is clear. I am using the private messages to gather information. All findings and facts I am posting on the forum here so that everyone can use them. Please see my posts number 120 - 125 for some facts.
Thanks for your help solving this unfortunate issue.
David Pelton
Microsoft MacBU
Greetings and Salutations
Just so everyone is clear. I am using the private messages to gather information. All findings and facts I am posting on the forum here so that everyone can use them. Please see my posts number 120 - 125 for some facts.
Thanks for your help solving this unfortunate issue.
David Pelton
Microsoft MacBU
Still waiting for 2008
I mailed in my upgrade two months ago and I am still waiting to even get MS Office 2008! I called today and the "support" person told me that they still have over 10,000 unprocessed upgrade orders and that mine probably won't even show up in their system for another TWO WEEKS!
Here's an oxymoron for you: Microsoft Productivity! I wish that I didn't have to exists in a cross-platform world and I could have just gone with Apple's software. At least i would have it by now!
I mailed in my upgrade two months ago and I am still waiting to even get MS Office 2008! I called today and the "support" person told me that they still have over 10,000 unprocessed upgrade orders and that mine probably won't even show up in their system for another TWO WEEKS!
Here's an oxymoron for you: Microsoft Productivity! I wish that I didn't have to exists in a cross-platform world and I could have just gone with Apple's software. At least i would have it by now!
David,
Please add me to your PM list. I tried last night and the updater didn't find it for me either.
Thanks,
Dale
iWork is what you need. OpenOffice is functional but not at all Mac-like. It is not a pleasure to work with. It also takes up 500 MB of disk space. I think it actually makes copies of all your fonts which makes up a good bit of that 500 MB. There are several options for Office type applications on the Mac but the nicest and most Mac-like are definitely those in the iWork suite.
Frank
I installed Office 2008. My autoupdater isn't working either. I was able to install the updates yesterday, but the autoupdater still isn't showing any updates at all as being installed, but when I check for the versions, it is showing that the update worked correctly.
Not sure if I should uninstall & reinstall? Any suggestions?
Not sure if I should uninstall & reinstall? Any suggestions?
There are no AutoUpdate bits - answer
Folks, please remember that we have not posted the AutoUpdate file at this time. Therefore, you will not see the update from running the AutoUpdate application OR choosing Check for Updates from the Help menu.
This is not a bug, and you do NOT have anything wrong with your office install.
Thank you
David Pelton
Microsoft MacBU
Folks, please remember that we have not posted the AutoUpdate file at this time. Therefore, you will not see the update from running the AutoUpdate application OR choosing Check for Updates from the Help menu.
This is not a bug, and you do NOT have anything wrong with your office install.
Thank you
David Pelton
Microsoft MacBU
If you want to create complex documents I would agree with you. If you only want to create math equations then it won't be hard at all.
Besides, if the person that wants to use it is smart enough to perform high level math then learning LaTeX will be easy, don't you think?
Frank
Why ive uninstalled Office 2008 and am using Office 2007 in Fusion
These comments are my personal opinion only:
1. Office 2007 is way faster than Office 2008.
2. Office 2007 is more stable.
3. Office 2007's interface is much nicer and users less screen real estate than Office 2008.
4. Live previews. In Office 2007 when I select any item, be it text, table or smart art, when i scroll through fonts etc it give me a live preview in the document of what it will look like.
5. Smart context. If I insert a table in Office 2007 after the insert the UI switchers to the table editing options automatically. Office 2008 does not.
6. Office 2008 has no VBA or Macros.
7. I have some animation intensive PowerPoints created in Office 2007 when loaded into Office 2008, not only do they run much slower they also have some graphical errors.
if you ask me one of the reasons people would get Office for Mac is so that they can use the same systm that is been used at work, which generally would be windows. So why make the UI totally different, it just makes no sense.
These comments are my personal opinion only:
1. Office 2007 is way faster than Office 2008.
2. Office 2007 is more stable.
3. Office 2007's interface is much nicer and users less screen real estate than Office 2008.
4. Live previews. In Office 2007 when I select any item, be it text, table or smart art, when i scroll through fonts etc it give me a live preview in the document of what it will look like.
5. Smart context. If I insert a table in Office 2007 after the insert the UI switchers to the table editing options automatically. Office 2008 does not.
6. Office 2008 has no VBA or Macros.
7. I have some animation intensive PowerPoints created in Office 2007 when loaded into Office 2008, not only do they run much slower they also have some graphical errors.
if you ask me one of the reasons people would get Office for Mac is so that they can use the same systm that is been used at work, which generally would be windows. So why make the UI totally different, it just makes no sense.
I'm having some compatibility issues between OS X Office 2008 & PC OfficeXP. Particularly with Excel files. My work PC runs OfficeXP but has the "compatibility pack" installed so it can read and save .docx & .xlsx files from Office 2007/2008. Still, I have ran into a couple simple .xlsx files which Office 2008 on my Mac refuses to open. I thought it might be due to VB macros but that's not necessarily the case.
Change "2007" to "2003" in the above, and I find this is also true. I switch back and forth between Office 2008 and Office 2003 running on fusion, and the only downside I find to Office 2003 is pasting in images from illustrator:mac requires me to be careful with cursor positioning.
Add:
11. Office 2003 has relatively decent built-in drawing tools that are compatible with Office 2003, instead of smartart stuff that's compatible with very little and doesn't act like I expect it too. Where'd "insert drawing object" go?
The thing is, I can understand why Office 2003 under fusion would be more stable than Office 2008 at this point (fewer crashes, compatibility with Spaces, no cursor disappearances, double clicking on words doesn't stop working, tables redraw properly, etc.). What I CANNOT understand is why Office 2003 under fusion would actually feel FASTER than Office 2008. It always keeps up with my typing, it doesn't seem to lag, and, ignoring the time to start fusion, it probably starts up faster. The fact that running the old windows version under a VM feels faster (and very well may actually be faster) than the native version would embarasss the heck out of me if I coded this.
I totally agree with you. These are the reasons why im using office07 in XP parallels.
It's all in the working style...
This discussion about equation editing tools is drifting a bit off-topic, but the overarching concept is identical. Each of us has to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of the tools we use.
Many math teachers write out their test equations by hand, perhaps others use LaTex or something similar (though I personally do not know of any). Some, like me are willing to sacrifice a bit of appearance quality in order to stay focused on the concepts I'm trying to assess. Personally, I don't want to learn yet another syntax for something that I can do with a few keystrokes and mouse clicks in MathType. Besides, with MathType, I don't have to save each equation as a separate document. They're all embedded in my Word doc, ready to revise (if needed) simply by double clicking on them. For me, this is a great way to work.
There's no one right answer...we each use that which best serves our own personal needs, LaTex or MathType, Office 2004 or 2008...doesn't really matter in the end. What matters is that we have adequate tools that help us accomplish our goals. That being said, its always good to investigate new tools to see if they might better serves ones needs, and I thank Frank for pointing them out (Thanks Frank!).
This discussion about equation editing tools is drifting a bit off-topic, but the overarching concept is identical. Each of us has to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of the tools we use.
Many math teachers write out their test equations by hand, perhaps others use LaTex or something similar (though I personally do not know of any). Some, like me are willing to sacrifice a bit of appearance quality in order to stay focused on the concepts I'm trying to assess. Personally, I don't want to learn yet another syntax for something that I can do with a few keystrokes and mouse clicks in MathType. Besides, with MathType, I don't have to save each equation as a separate document. They're all embedded in my Word doc, ready to revise (if needed) simply by double clicking on them. For me, this is a great way to work.
There's no one right answer...we each use that which best serves our own personal needs, LaTex or MathType, Office 2004 or 2008...doesn't really matter in the end. What matters is that we have adequate tools that help us accomplish our goals. That being said, its always good to investigate new tools to see if they might better serves ones needs, and I thank Frank for pointing them out (Thanks Frank!).
I would LOVE to be able to say that iWork is an acceptable replacement for Office. Unfortunately, I can't.
Keynote is much better than Powerpoint, so no issues here.
I really like Pages. Too bad I do mostly scientific writing that involves citations and bibliographies. For this I need a citation manager that works with my word processor. So I'm stuck with Word until Apple addresses this.
Numbers is fine for some things, and I've been using it quite a bit. Too bad I need some "advanced" features like error bars for my graphs, which means I need to use Excel or another statistics program. Of course, Microsoft TOOK OUT customizable error bars in Excel 2008, and hasn't gotten around to fixing them in their "critical" 12.0.1 patch.