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Microsoft Office 2008 Update Available!

Wow - I can't believe this was released!

I can't believe this made it through testing. With the "improved" Excel 2008, everytime someone sends me an Excel doc through mail and I open it, it opens as a small window - if I click the green "maximize" button, it locks up the ENTIRE machine to the point that I have to hold down the restart button. Happens every time.

I'm also having problems with large data sets (5000 rows) where it slows Excel to a crawl and trying to modify graphs crashes the app (every time again). All this on a Penryn MBP with 4GB RAM.

I'm very disappointed in MS and this app.
 
ksmith80209 said:
I can't believe this made it through testing. With the "improved" Excel 2008, everytime someone sends me an Excel doc through mail and I open it, it opens as a small window - if I click the green "maximize" button, it locks up the ENTIRE machine to the point that I have to hold down the restart button. Happens every time.

I'm also having problems with large data sets (5000 rows) where it slows Excel to a crawl and trying to modify graphs crashes the app (every time again). All this on a Penryn MBP with 4GB RAM.

I'm very disappointed in MS and this app.
Click to expand...

Experiencing the same issue as above. Excel opens in a small window, you either click to maximize or drag to enlarge the window and entire MBP locks up. Only response is mouse movement. No Force Quit, nothing is responsive at all other than BeachBall and Mouse pointer able to move around. Only way {and I have left it like this for 30 mins} to recover is to hold down reset like above poster stated.

Also having issues now, where Excel documents I had {pre-update} are reporting "Data Loss" when I open them. Trying to pin point what is common between them all, and also trying to get originals again. However, pre-update, never had an issue opening these workbooks; post-update - all links within my workbooks seem to be broken, and Excel spits back Data Loss error.

All fun.
 
asian8feet said:
Experiencing the same issue as above. Excel opens in a small window, you either click to maximize or drag to enlarge the window and entire MBP locks up. Only response is mouse movement. No Force Quit, nothing is responsive at all other than BeachBall and Mouse pointer able to move around. Only way {and I have left it like this for 30 mins} to recover is to hold down reset like above poster stated.

Also having issues now, where Excel documents I had {pre-update} are reporting "Data Loss" when I open them. Trying to pin point what is common between them all, and also trying to get originals again. However, pre-update, never had an issue opening these workbooks; post-update - all links within my workbooks seem to be broken, and Excel spits back Data Loss error.

All fun.
Click to expand...
I'll do you one better - I left my MBP for an HOUR and it was still locked up! I had music streaming in the background and it would clip in for 5 sec, then out for 30 sec - like Excel was using the entire processor.

Oh yeah - I got the "data loss" thing today too. Nice!

Seriously - did anyone at MS open this app and use it before shipping? This is really bad, even by MS standards... I really wish they'd release Numbers 2.0 with some of the more advanced Excel functionality. I'd be gone from MS forever!
 
Shadow said:
Am I the only one that thinks Office 08 is actually really good?
Click to expand...

I like the concept of MS Office (look, feel, etc.) but it is really buggy for me (on two machines).

Another example - every time I try to open a document I exported from Keynote to PowerPoint - PowerPoint crashes. Every single time. PPT '04 was fine and it opens fine for my PC friends, but apparently PPT '08 can't handle it.

I refuse to believe that I'm just that good of a "tester" to find all these "obscure" bugs...
 
Do I think Office 2008 is pretty sweet?

Yes, Word and Excel are very good, Word in particular. Powerpoint is good for compatibility, of course, if you're making the presentation I obviously prefer Keynote hands down.

However, the one thing that makes me like Word & Excel 2008 a bit less is the performance of these apps! Modern computer with 3 GB of memory, and they are absolutely dreadfully slow.

Otherwise, yes, I think Office 2008 is a decent and modern product.
 
powerbook911 said:
Do I think Office 2008 is pretty sweet?

Yes, Word and Excel are very good, Word in particular. Powerpoint is good for compatibility, of course, if you're making the presentation I obviously prefer Keynote hands down.

However, the one thing that makes me like Word & Excel 2008 a bit less is the performance of these apps! Modern computer with 3 GB of memory, and they are absolutely dreadfully slow.

Otherwise, yes, I think Office 2008 is a decent and modern product.
Click to expand...

That is a big otherwise though. A dreadfully slow Word Processor or Spreadsheet on a new computer is RIDICULOUS.

Why don't we just say it. MS should be ashamed to have released these apps. They are obviously NOT DONE. The feature set looks like they will be nice when they are done but that is not now.
 
frankly said:
That is a big otherwise though. A dreadfully slow Word Processor or Spreadsheet on a new computer is RIDICULOUS.

Why don't we just say it. MS should be ashamed to have released these apps. They are obviously NOT DONE. The feature set looks like they will be nice when they are done but that is not now.
Click to expand...

The feeling I get is that the developers don't actually USE the applications. Everything is great, when it works. But when you've typed 20 pages into document and it starts dropping text, mis-displaying tables and text (it disappears and reappears when you page away and back), screwing up "ms drawing objects" from old documents and not letting you put new ones in, the cursor vanishes and you need to restart, etc., you begin to want to tear your hair out. You search for text in a 100+ page document and it crashes. Each time. And the windows randomly jump between Spaces.

I dunno, maybe my problems are "compatibility mode"-related, but I've averaged 4+ hours a day in Word 2008 since I got it and it's simply not a finished product, particularly not compared to any Windows Office release (I've been using MS Word since the very first version came out for DOS, and Excel was called Multiplan and ran on a TI-99/4A. Word and I have a long history. And I've never had so many problems).
 
ksmith80209 said:
I'll do you one better - I left my MBP for an HOUR and it was still locked up! I had music streaming in the background and it would clip in for 5 sec, then out for 30 sec - like Excel was using the entire processor.

Oh yeah - I got the "data loss" thing today too. Nice!

Seriously - did anyone at MS open this app and use it before shipping? This is really bad, even by MS standards... I really wish they'd release Numbers 2.0 with some of the more advanced Excel functionality. I'd be gone from MS forever!
Click to expand...

It is possible that the issue is with the Nvidia video drivers. Further investigation into my logs show that

3/14/08 11:07:25 AM kernel NVChannel(GL): Graphics channel exception! status =
> 0xffff info32 = 0x3 = Fifo: Unknown Method Error

Occurs when I am experiencing this "lock-up".

http://www.officeformac.com/ProductForums/Excel/822/23

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1065674&tstart=0

Going to try see how Excel responds WITHOUT the recent Graphics Update that we got.
 
Pittsax said:
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.
.
Click to expand...

Have you tried Pages and Sente? Having tried a variety of other Word Processor-Reference Manager combinations, I am about to embark on my PhD using these two. Sente doesnt give CWYW support, but the scan feature works flawlessly, and the Sente GUI is the most "Mac" like I have come across.

Actually, I LOVE Word 2008! Notwithstanding the frustratingly long load times, I have enjoyed using it over the past month or so. Sente works with Word 2008: I would consider using it but I can't get the scan feature to work in footnotes.

Sente: http://www.thirdstreetsoftware.com/index.cgi?page=sente

-Mooey
 
StevieMooey said:
Have you tried Pages and Sente? Having tried a variety of other Word Processor-Reference Manager combinations, I am about to embark on my PhD using these two. Sente doesnt give CWYW support, but the scan feature works flawlessly, and the Sente GUI is the most "Mac" like I have come across.

Actually, I LOVE Word 2008! Notwithstanding the frustratingly long load times, I have enjoyed using it over the past month or so. Sente works with Word 2008: I would consider using it but I can't get the scan feature to work in footnotes.

Sente: http://www.thirdstreetsoftware.com/index.cgi?page=sente

-Mooey
Click to expand...

That looks nice, I guess, but man is it expensive. Having never used something like that can you tell me what I'm missing. Why is sente so helpful? What does it do? Does it allow you to organize your sources by topic and format them for you? I feel like I'm missing something since it costs $129 I'm thinking it must do something more that I don't see.
 
The bug is still there!
When I use dual screen, I maximize the windows in my external monitor, and when I minimize and maximize programs from the dock such as Adium. The Word windows automatically jumps back to my primary monitor with a small size.. Thats really suck..
 
I downloaded the update several days ago. Haven't noticed any changes, but I also haven't had any problems. Overall I like Office 2008. It is slow to start on my G5 iMac (17ish bounces on first launch), but after that it is fine.
 
I thought I would install Office 2008 for Mac to compare opening times once the machine boots up to the opening times after the 12.0.1 update.

Installed Office 12.0

Opening Times- First time

Word- 18 seconds
Excel- 3 seconds
PowerPoint- 5 seconds
Entourage- 4 seconds

Installed 114MB 12.0.1 Update and Restarted

Opening Times- Second Time

Word- 3 seconds
Excel- 1 second
PowerPoint- 2 seconds
Entourage- 2 seconds

I can conclude that on my iMac the update has improved the speed of these applications opening. This may not be the case on other machines as everyone's configuration is usually different.
 
James McColgan said:
I thought I would install Office 2008 for Mac to compare opening times once the machine boots up to the opening times after the 12.0.1 update.

Installed Office 12.0

Opening Times- First time

Word- 18 seconds
Excel- 3 seconds
PowerPoint- 5 seconds
Entourage- 4 seconds

Installed 114MB 12.0.1 Update and Restarted

Opening Times- Second Time

Word- 3 seconds
Excel- 1 second
PowerPoint- 2 seconds
Entourage- 2 seconds

I can conclude that on my iMac the update has improved the speed of these applications opening. This may not be the case on other machines as everyone's configuration is usually different.
Click to expand...

The differences in these times between users is getting to be absolutely absurd. I would love to have some clarification as to what the people who have these fast times actually consider the appropriate time to stop counting.

The reason I say this is because if I only counted the launch to be when the application icon stopped bouncing in the Dock then I might have similar times. However, the application is NO WHERE NEAR ready to accept user input when the icon stops bouncing. So let's get real here. When you say that Word took 18 seconds and Excel took 3 seconds on first launch are you actually talking about when you could start entering keyboard input into the document (without dramatic pauses in between each key input either) or are you talking about the icon having stopped bouncing?

I just installed the update and upon first launch got even more ridiculous times:

Word - 1:15
Excel - 1:12
PowerPoint - :45

Second launch of each was 15 to 30 seconds.

The simple fact is that if I only count until the icon stops bouncing we are talking about 1-3 seconds. If I count until the splash screen disappears we are still under 10 seconds. However, when I don't stop counting until I can ACTUALLY USE the application and begin typing without dramatic pauses between each key (IOW, when the app has finished loading) then we get the long times listed above.

I am tired of reading about these 3 second launches because I think they are being determined based on the things listed above. Let's get some accurate reporting and see what the launch times are really like. My machine is only one year old and it was the top of the line MBP when I bought it. I also don't see crazy launch times from any other app so I know it is not my machine and the setup. The launch sequence for these apps is coded HORRIBLY and need to be fixed.

Thanks,
Frank
 
My problem isn't so much about the start-up time. The splash-screen for Word and Excel disappear within 10 seconds.

However, after start-up, it usually takes about 1/2 to 1 minutes for the app to warm up. What I mean is....there are ridiculous delays after each type or click:

Type "hello"
wait 1 second
spinning wheel shows up for 3-10 seconds
"hello" appears on the screen, sluggish.

After about a minute or so everything begins to speed up.
Have you guys encountered a similar problem?
 
frankly said:
The reason I say this is because if I only counted the launch to be when the application icon stopped bouncing in the Dock then I might have similar times. However, the application is NO WHERE NEAR ready to accept user input when the icon stops bouncing.
Click to expand...

ca90065 said:
My problem isn't so much about the start-up time. The splash-screen for Word and Excel disappear within 10 seconds.

However, after start-up, it usually takes about 1/2 to 1 minutes for the app to warm up.
Click to expand...

My exact issue as well. If you were just looking at the screen, you might think Word (or Excel) is ready to use after 15 seconds or so; but when I've tried to use it after that time I get beachballs (or just nothing at all) for another 30-45 seconds. It just flat out won't respond for a ridiculous amount of time.
 
Those start times do sound ugly. I have not seen any of that. Launch times are like 25 seconds or less. I wonder what is going on with some of you?
 
ca90065 said:
My problem isn't so much about the start-up time. The splash-screen for Word and Excel disappear within 10 seconds.

However, after start-up, it usually takes about 1/2 to 1 minutes for the app to warm up. What I mean is....there are ridiculous delays after each type or click:

Type "hello"
wait 1 second
spinning wheel shows up for 3-10 seconds
"hello" appears on the screen, sluggish.

After about a minute or so everything begins to speed up.
Have you guys encountered a similar problem?
Click to expand...

That is exactly the point I was making. I consider the startup time when I can start typing without delay. The application is NOT started until that happens. Otherwise it is simply on its way to being started and that is what I think these people with short "startup" times have been talking about.
 
robanga said:
Those start times do sound ugly. I have not seen any of that. Launch times are like 25 seconds or less. I wonder what is going on with some of you?
Click to expand...

Please provide clarification as to what you consider "launch" times. Is the document open and completely responsive? Also, note that my launch times were in that area AFTER the first launch. However, that is still ridiculous. Other applications (Safari, Pages, etc.) launch in one or two seconds after the first launch. And this means they are completely responsive after that one or two seconds.

Frank
 
I just tested Word, PowerPoint and Excel and was able to start work within a range of 12 to about 20 seconds with each of them. This on the MBP indicated in my signature.

The shortest was Word, Excel was maybe 1-2 seconds longer, and PowerPoint was in 3rd
 
frankly said:
The differences in these times between users is getting to be absolutely absurd. I would love to have some clarification as to what the people who have these fast times actually consider the appropriate time to stop counting.

The reason I say this is because if I only counted the launch to be when the application icon stopped bouncing in the Dock then I might have similar times. However, the application is NO WHERE NEAR ready to accept user input when the icon stops bouncing. So let's get real here. When you say that Word took 18 seconds and Excel took 3 seconds on first launch are you actually talking about when you could start entering keyboard input into the document (without dramatic pauses in between each key input either) or are you talking about the icon having stopped bouncing?

I just installed the update and upon first launch got even more ridiculous times:

Word - 1:15
Excel - 1:12
PowerPoint - :45

Second launch of each was 15 to 30 seconds.

The simple fact is that if I only count until the icon stops bouncing we are talking about 1-3 seconds. If I count until the splash screen disappears we are still under 10 seconds. However, when I don't stop counting until I can ACTUALLY USE the application and begin typing without dramatic pauses between each key (IOW, when the app has finished loading) then we get the long times listed above. I don't see why I would lie about something like this, it is exactly the same opening time as Office 2007 on my windows computer so this was expected from a new program from the beginning. If it took over a minute like you suggest there is a problem.

I am tired of reading about these 3 second launches because I think they are being determined based on the things listed above. Let's get some accurate reporting and see what the launch times are really like. My machine is only one year old and it was the top of the line MBP when I bought it. I also don't see crazy launch times from any other app so I know it is not my machine and the setup. The launch sequence for these apps is coded HORRIBLY and need to be fixed.

Thanks,
Frank
Click to expand...

First of all I conclude the time when the program has fully opened and the indicator on word for example starts flashing which means it is ready for typing. I usually press a couple of letters to make sure they come up straightaway. There were no pauses when I did this. When Excel opened after 3 seconds I could click in each cell and type straightaway. I stop counting when the program has fully opened and I can start to use it straightaway. This is accurate and if you wish I will capture these facts on video to show to anyone that doesn't believe them. All you need to do is say and I will take some videos but I am disappointed you don't believe me as I wouldn't lie about something so irrelevant. The launch sequence in my opinion is just as normal as the one in any other app, fast for me.
 
robanga said:
Those start times do sound ugly. I have not seen any of that. Launch times are like 25 seconds or less. I wonder what is going on with some of you?
Click to expand...

I wonder too as I don't experience any of these issues or long boot up times.
 
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