Microsoft Office 2015 (2016?)

[kmaute]

Many classes require Microsoft word documents from on. The days of handing printed paper is coming to a close.

Formatting is more then just a 1" margin as well, as people put more work into their homework.

then there's all the collaboration going on where you need to pass in homework that was done by a team, again not something that can easily done with a text editor.

Your experiences certainly differ from my own - particularly in my current coursework at a major research University. Additionally, a text file that can be diff'd and merged using a VC system is far more suited to collaboration than a Word file e-mailed back and forth. If you're writing for the web, Word is the worst possible choice. It can't even export to .txt properly. But that is fine, to each their own.

I guess I have a problem with Microsoft portraying itself and IT departments accepting as a common standard. I refuse to buy into the "have-to-have it" mentality. Why do you think they offer it to students for free? It's because they want to lock students in to that mentality before they have buying power in their future organizations.

As in the OP's case who is not willing to learn another system and/or works in an environment dominated by Microsoft, the only good solution is to jump to a PC and put up with the consequences.

ETA: Read this article. It sums up my feelings.

 

[CoMoMacUser]

Why do you think they offer it to students for free?

So Word is free to students now? Damn. I had to buy it when I was in college and grad school.

 

[kmaute]

So Word is free to students now? Damn. I had to buy it when I was in college and grad school.

It really depends on the University. My last school didn't but my current school does. I have it on a Parallels install just for the Analysis ToolPak in Excel.

 

[lancdoc]

Many classes require Microsoft word documents from on. The days of handing printed paper is coming to a close.

Formatting is more then just a 1" margin as well, as people put more work into their homework.

then there's all the collaboration going on where you need to pass in homework that was done by a team, again not something that can easily done with a text editor.

With a son in college, I am in agreement with above, formatting is critical and professors aren't going to cut you any slack if they find it difficult to read or incorrect due to program. My son had tried some of the readily available programs, but all to a more or less degree had formatting issues. Many professors don't even want paper copies, you send them the word document, so it had better look correct.

 

[darko256]

Sorry for taking the discussion at this point (and I didn't check on previous pages whether this question arose before or no), but I am curios for a long time why there is no Access in Office suites for Mac. Is it because in the past Microsoft was probably convinced that inclusion of Access into Mac Office suites will boost OSX at the expense of Windows, or is it because the architecture of Access is incompatible with OSX and would demand a big amount of time for redesign?

I currently run Office 2013 at rMBP15'' on 64bit Windows 8.1 through BootCamp and it is superior than Office 2011 for Mac. As an architect I also run 3dsMax and Revit in the same manner and I am skeptical about virtualization. More, from the experience at both sides of this machine I can state that the experience of using AutoCAD is a way better on W8.1 than on OSX. Sorry for OT.

 

[WorldIRC]

What do you use instead?

I don't have a use for Word...and if I need it, I use it. But it would be less than 5 times per year I use it.

 

[skaertus]

Your experiences certainly differ from my own - particularly in my current coursework at a major research University. Additionally, a text file that can be diff'd and merged using a VC system is far more suited to collaboration than a Word file e-mailed back and forth. If you're writing for the web, Word is the worst possible choice. It can't even export to .txt properly. But that is fine, to each their own.

I guess I have a problem with Microsoft portraying itself and IT departments accepting as a common standard. I refuse to buy into the "have-to-have it" mentality. Why do you think they offer it to students for free? It's because they want to lock students in to that mentality before they have buying power in their future organizations.

As in the OP's case who is not willing to learn another system and/or works in an environment dominated by Microsoft, the only good solution is to jump to a PC and put up with the consequences.

ETA: Read this article. It sums up my feelings.

So much hate!

I think Word is a great piece of software. The best word processor I have ever used. And I have used a lot of them.

It is not true that I am not willing to learn another system. I just can see no use in learning them. LaTeX is may be good for some people with specific needs. However, it is not used in my academic field and in my area of work. In addition, its tools are not useful for me. Word is more straightforward. I have used LaTeX – just the basics – and I concluded that it is not for me. In fact, I found I was programming instead of writing. What if I enter some formatting wrong?

I have tested others as well. LibreOffice Writer seems an awkward version of Word. Word is much better and easier to use. WordPerfect used to be good, but it is not actively developed in years. FrameMaker is not very friendly. Nisus Writer Pro is OK, but Word has more features. Apple Pages lacks features. Mellel is good, but very incompatible with Word and still does not have all the features I need. Scrivener is good, but I found it just make my workflow longer.

I tested everything, every option, and Word 2013 is the best one. No contest.

I can understand some people are anti-Microsoft and anti-Word. Most of these people are willing to defend their political/phylosophical views above pragmatism. I just want to get my job done, the easiest way possible, in a timely manner and without much trouble.

If Microsoft had to take over the world and eliminate competiton so it could spend zillions of dollars improving Word to make it a killer app, then be it. I am a glad subscriber of Microsoft Office 365, and I have long forgotten WordStar and other "stars" of yore.

 

[maflynn]

why there is no Access in Office suites for Mac.

Purportedly because Access relies on APIs/services built into Windows that are missing in OS X. While I believe MS could get around that, they are have decided a long time ago not too. My belief is to further distinguish their windows version as having more features and abilities.

I currently run Office 2013 at rMBP15'' on 64bit Windows 8.1 through BootCamp and it is superior than Office 2011 for Mac. As an architect I also run 3dsMax and Revit in the same manner and I am skeptical about virtualization. More, from the experience at both sides of this machine I can state that the experience of using AutoCAD is a way better on W8.1 than on OSX. Sorry for OT.

Thats what I do, but I'm now running Vmware Fusion version 7 as well. Performance is decent with Office, the nice thing is that you can set up Vmware to use your current bootcamp install, so you don't need to set up a new windows install for vmware.

 

[skaertus]

Thats what I do, but I'm now running Vmware Fusion version 7 as well. Performance is decent with Office, the nice thing is that you can set up Vmware to use your current bootcamp install, so you don't need to set up a new windows install for vmware.

I am running Parallels 10 and it also allows using the current BootCamp install as a virtual machine. I read that Parallels offers a better performance than VMWare Fusion, but I have not really tested Fusion lately.

 

[kmaute]

With a son in college, I am in agreement with above, formatting is critical and professors aren't going to cut you any slack if they find it difficult to read or incorrect due to program. My son had tried some of the readily available programs, but all to a more or less degree had formatting issues. Many professors don't even want paper copies, you send them the word document, so it had better look correct.

Please provide examples of formatting that can only be done in Word that is needed by the common undergraduate student. I can think of several, however, I think the percentage of students needing them in undergrad is very low <10%.

So much hate!

I think Word is a great piece of software. The best word processor I have ever used. And I have used a lot of them.

It is not true that I am not willing to learn another system. I just can see no use in learning them. LaTeX is may be good for some people with specific needs. However, it is not used in my academic field and in my area of work. In addition, its tools are not useful for me. Word is more straightforward. I have used LaTeX – just the basics – and I concluded that it is not for me. In fact, I found I was programming instead of writing. What if I enter some formatting wrong?

I have tested others as well. LibreOffice Writer seems an awkward version of Word. Word is much better and easier to use. WordPerfect used to be good, but it is not actively developed in years. FrameMaker is not very friendly. Nisus Writer Pro is OK, but Word has more features. Apple Pages lacks features. Mellel is good, but very incompatible with Word and still does not have all the features I need. Scrivener is good, but I found it just make my workflow longer.

I tested everything, every option, and Word 2013 is the best one. No contest.

I can understand some people are anti-Microsoft and anti-Word. Most of these people are willing to defend their political/phylosophical views above pragmatism. I just want to get my job done, the easiest way possible, in a timely manner and without much trouble.

If Microsoft had to take over the world and eliminate competiton so it could spend zillions of dollars improving Word to make it a killer app, then be it. I am a glad subscriber of Microsoft Office 365, and I have long forgotten WordStar and other "stars" of yore.

Great. It's pretty obvious that you need/love Microsoft Word. That's totally cool. If that's your most important software title on a computer, why insist on staying on OS X? If my most important software application was GarageBand, you wouldn't see me working on a Toshiba.

I think, however, you're in the minority. 90% of people could get by with TextEdit, 7% need Pages, 1% need Office for Mac, and the remainder need to be on Windows or use some special technical writing software such as TeX or Framemaker. I hope you enjoy your Dell.

 

[skaertus]

Great. It's pretty obvious that you need/love Microsoft Word. That's totally cool. If that's your most important software title on a computer, why insist on staying on OS X? If my most important software application was GarageBand, you wouldn't see me working on a Toshiba.

I think, however, you're in the minority. 90% of people could get by with TextEdit, 7% need Pages, 1% need Office for Mac, and the remainder need to be on Windows or use some special technical writing software such as TeX or Framemaker. I hope you enjoy your Dell.

Actually, I do not love Microsoft Word. I do not have a love/hate relationship with software. I use what works best for me at a given time.

I had problems with Microsoft Word in the past. In 2006, I was writing my Master thesis on Word 2003 (on a Windows PC). Everybody used Microsoft Word back then, as everybody uses it now. Word crashed, corrupting the .doc file in a way that it was not possible to recover. I thought I had lost my 200-page work since the file was corrupt and I could not open it with Microsoft Word anymore. My salvation was OpenOffice Writer. I tried to open the file with OpenOffice Writer and it worked fine.

Then I learned that Microsoft Word's .doc was a filetype prone to crashing and that OpenOffice's .odt was much superior, as it was a Zip file containing two files inside – one, a plain text file and the other with formatting. OpenOffice's file format was much more stable and I went on writing my thesis in Writer instead of Word. Writer's interface was not as good as Word's – and I am not talking about beauty here. Commands were easier to find in Microsoft Word than in OpenOffice Writer, and the overall experience was better. Ergonomics was better. However, I stuck with OpenOffice Writer as I could not rely on Microsoft Word's filetype. When Word 2007 was released, with a new filetype (.docx, which was similar in concept to .odt), I started using it, and I found the ribbon enhanced the experience.

Word evolved to be a better word processor since then. Word 2010 was even better. However, when I was writing my PhD thesis in Word 2010, I had some problems with formatting, especially when the document became too long. I have not yet experienced such issues in Word 2013, and I hope I do not. Word 2013 is a very fine word processor. I tried to use alternatives and none of them provided a similar experience. I like WordPerfect's stream formatting approach, but WordPerfect is dated now. LibreOffice Writer is better than it was in the past, but the interface is still awkward and compatibility with Word is not 100%. I could use Apple Pages, but Apple cannot even provide the most basic features – footnotes cannot even split in two pages, which is something unacceptable for any reasonable word processor. Word seems to be the only one that has it all – probably because Microsoft developed it over the years, but the fact is that it became a great program.

Now, two things bother me.

The first is that Apple is not willing to provide a good word processor as a replacement to Word. Pages is fine, but it could have more features. How difficult can it be to make footnotes split in two? Or to allow cross-references? Just hire a team of 10 programmers and make iWork better. It is not that expensive, especially for a company with so many billion dollars in the bank. Even LibreOffice Writer has that.

The second thing is that Microsoft Word for Mac is so crap. Word for Mac has the features, but its interface is awkward. In addition, it is a memory hog, it crashes and its language options are broken (I cannot use grammar check in Word, for instance).

I am counting on Microsoft to make a better Word for Mac. It does not have to be the same as Word for Windows, it just has to be a stable piece of software. I cannot count on Apple as it has not updated Pages in years (feature-wise) and it will not do it now.

As for using a PC instead of a Mac, I have tried that. After buying my first Mac in 2008 (a white 13-inch MacBook), I bought a Windows laptop in 2011. It was a 15.6-inch high-end machine with a full HD screen. However, the chassis was plastic crap; the keyboard felt cheap; the trackpad was crappy; it got very hot all the time; and it had several problems and internal parts seemed to be loose. My 15-inch retina MacBook Pro is a great machine, and it feels great, with a good keyboard and trackpad. And the screen is 16:10, which is something I cannot find in the Windows world anymore. And Windows laptops for sale here in Brazil are so crappy... OS X is also good; scrolling with the trackpad is so smooth! However, I have to deal with this lack of good software for Mac.

 

[Paradoxally]

With a son in college, I am in agreement with above, formatting is critical and professors aren't going to cut you any slack if they find it difficult to read or incorrect due to program. My son had tried some of the readily available programs, but all to a more or less degree had formatting issues. Many professors don't even want paper copies, you send them the word document, so it had better look correct.

Word processors suck. They're good for the odd document and when you're lazy. For academic and professional work, LaTeX is the absolute best. You (almost) do not have to worry with formatting. In my field (computer science), it's very helpful. I used to use Pages (since it's a lessor of two evils) but since transitioning to LaTeX, I am not looking back.

 

[skaertus]

Word processors suck. They're good for the odd document and when you're lazy. For academic and professional work, LaTeX is the absolute best. You (almost) do not have to worry with formatting. In my field (computer science), it's very helpful. I used to use Pages (since it's a lessor of two evils) but since transitioning to LaTeX, I am not looking back.

Depends on what you do.

LaTeX is absolutely useless for me.

I am an attorney and every document must be written and saved in Word format. I work in a large law firm that uses Word as standard. Attorneys from other firms expect me to send drafts in Word format and they will send their draft in Word format as well. My clients expect me to send documents in Word format and they do the same. If I write something in LaTeX, it will not work as nobody even knows what LaTeX is.

In the academic field, every law journal accepts articles in Word format. Some accept WordPerfect or PDF. I am not aware of any law journal that accepts LaTeX.

LaTeX is a language nobody speaks in the legal world. And I must say that, to my knowledge, in the business world nobody knows LaTeX either. LaTeX basically does not exist. It would be absolutely useless for me to learn LaTeX.

 

[saberahul]

For Mac? Which ones? FileMaker, perhaps?

Not a fan of FM either - too basic for my purposes. I like SQLite and MySQL, though Oracle works best IMO. It depends on use - my use is heavy with databases reaching over 250GB in size; thus, Oracle works best.

If your needs are simple, look at FM - pretty basic NoSQL software. I, on the other hand, despise NoSQL (personal preference for all those who will start arguing).

 

[ButteryScrollin]

Anyone hear any news on release dates?

first half of 2015.

 

[skaertus]

first half of 2015.

Where did you hear/read that?

 

[ButteryScrollin]

Where did you hear/read that?

From Microsoft. It's not been announced publicly.

 

[skaertus]

From Microsoft. It's not been announced publicly.

You seem to have some privileged information then. Do you work at Microsoft or something?

Will it be released in the beginning of the year (like January) or near June?

Do you know the reason for the delay? A delay like this could mean that Apple is really putting an effort on this. Or could mean that the team was focused on the iPad version and the Mac version was left behind.

Will there be feature parity with the Windows version? Will any other program apart from Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook be released?

 

[Traverse]

Will there be feature parity with the Windows version? Will any other program apart from Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook be released?

I must admit, I'm getting annoyed now. I don't mind that there is no release date, but I would like SOME kind of status update. I get sick of the silence. Using Office 2013 via VMWare Fusion 7 with Windows 8.1 gets the job done, but adds unnecessary resource usage and battery drain for an office suite.

As much as I want to believe Office for Mac will have feature parity, I think we'll be disappointed. Look at OneNote. It's pretty, fast, and smooth, but it is inferior to the Windows counterpart. I think well get a very refined UI with good performance, but a lack of functionality.

 

[skaertus]

I must admit, I'm getting annoyed now. I don't mind that there is no release date, but I would like SOME kind of status update. I get sick of the silence. Using Office 2013 via VMWare Fusion 7 with Windows 8.1 gets the job done, but adds unnecessary resource usage and battery drain for an office suite.

I am annoyed as well. Office 2013 works well under Parallels for me, but I would much prefer to have a new Office for Mac. It has been over a year and a half that Office 2013 came out, and almost four years since Office 2011 for Mac was released, and there are still not a word on the next Office for Mac.

As much as I want to believe Office for Mac will have feature parity, I think we'll be disappointed. Look at OneNote. It's pretty, fast, and smooth, but it is inferior to the Windows counterpart. I think well get a very refined UI with good performance, but a lack of functionality.

OneNote is definitely inferior to its Windows counterpart.

As for the rest of Office, I don't know how much additional functionality you need.

The "core" applications (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) are already very functional, and the main differences are in the interface, I guess. Some additional features would be welcome, but I think the basic is there. It would be important to have a better interface and a little more stability.

 

[maflynn]

I must admit, I'm getting annoyed now.

I've long stopped being annoyed and largely given up. Mostly because I think even when we see a new version of Office for the Mac, it will still be inferior to its windows counterpart. I still of have Office for the Mac installed but the majority of time, I'll use Vmware or bootcamp to fire up Office 2013.

As much as I want to believe Office for Mac will have feature parity, I think we'll be disappointed.

The only time Office for the Mac had feature parity is when Excel came out for the macintosh. Excel was originally made for the Mac, and the MS ported it over to windows. Once MS started updating its office suite, it surpassed what was on the Mac and at that point we lost feature parity.

 

[ButteryScrollin]

Will it be released in the beginning of the year (like January) or near June?

At a guess, in the spring.

Do you know the reason for the delay? A delay like this could mean that Apple is really putting an effort on this. Or could mean that the team was focused on the iPad version and the Mac version was left behind.

There is no delay. It's not been announced, so how can it be delayed?

Will there be feature parity with the Windows version? Will any other program apart from Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook be released?

Tough to say as it's still in beta, and new things are being added.

I think well get a very refined UI with good performance, but a lack of functionality.

I think you're on to something here

 

[skaertus]

At a guess, in the spring.

Thanks for the update. You really seem to have some insider information, and I hope you do.

Why do you think it be at Spring?

Is there a chance that Office 2015 for Windows and for Mac come out at the same time, given that people are already talking about the next Office for Windows to be released around April?

There is no delay. It's not been announced, so how can it be delayed?

There is a delay considering the usual schedule of Microsoft Office releases. If Office for Mac is released on Spring 2015, it would be over two years after the 2013 Windows version.

In addition, I remember having read of some Microsoft representatives saying that Office for Mac would be released sometime during the second half of 2014.

Tough to say as it's still in beta, and new things are being added.

There is a beta version then? I guess it has not yet been leaked, as I saw no photos of it.

Did you have access to the beta version? Did Microsoft remove some features or at least seems to be keeping all of them?

Do you think there will be a public beta before the final release?

I think you're on to something here

Oh yeah? About what? Refined UI? Good performance? Or lack of functionality?

Do you think it will look like OneNote for Mac? Or that it would be somewhat similar to Office 2013 for Windows?

 

[mattjohnson78]

I am betting that Microsoft is waiting for Yosemite to be released. Yosemite will allow Office to so much more, less sandboxing and more extensions to use, as in Handoff. And this would coincide with a 2nd half of 2014 some have heard of.

I would also say that it will include an update version for the iPad to allow for Handoff.

 

[skaertus]

I am betting that Microsoft is waiting for Yosemite to be released. Yosemite will allow Office to so much more, less sandboxing and more extensions to use, as in Handoff. And this would coincide with a 2nd half of 2014 some have heard of.

I would also say that it will include an update version for the iPad to allow for Handoff.

After the release of Yosemite, in October, developers will also be able to release programs for OS X developed in the brand-new Swift language. Perhaps the new Office has part of its code in Swift.