Yes, that is the question here. I am not using the Mac version anymore, except for short works. Windows version is so much better.
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Microsoft Office 2015 (2016?)
- Thread starter skaertus
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Yes, that is the question here. I am not using the Mac version anymore, except for short works. Windows version is so much better.
I'd be pretty steamed if I had outright purchased the Mac version. With an Office 365 subscription, I've only reached the level of being irritated... access to the Android, iOS, and Windows versions make up for it.
Wow, your posts are really depressing. You come across so negative and closed minded. Bet you're fun at parties!
Well, that's what they are touting and I can see it happening. Not meaning that Mac will get MS Access or whatever. Just mean that Word, Excel, Powerpoint, will be the same across all devices, on Windows 10, on Android, on iOS, on Mac. Otherwise, them touting it just sets them up to be abused.
Additionally, it would also explain the length of time since the last version of Office was released for the Mac. Them making the Mac version of Office is not going to lose them users on Windows. Just look at Satya Nadella, he's made a point of embracing getting MS stuff on other platforms. He's pretty much responsible for iOS getting Office.
We'll get an idea for sure once the beta comes out. Then Microsoft is either gonna get abused or praised....
The fact that many people here are missing is that "Office", meaning Excel, PowerPoint and Word specifically were all originally on the Mac first and after the release of Windows 3.1 were ported over to Windows. Now Microsoft, believing that Windows was the better OS (because it was theirs), started pouring all their resources into the Windows version. They had to win this war against Apple. They wrote 3 great pieces of software for the Mac, and on the Mac they were the standard while on the PC people were using Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect and Harvard Graphics. 3 different programs by 3 different companies. With Windows 3.1 they finally had a decent (by PC standards) graphical operating system so they ported the popular Mac versions. Over the years Apple was having it's own problems (the years after they ousted Steve Jobs) and it seemed like Apple may be a dead company and on the way out so Microsoft stopped developing "Office" any further. After Steve Jobs returned and the Mac was "reinvented" with the iMac, then Microsoft saw that they needed to update "Office" further.
Now here we are many years later, Macs, iPads and iPhones are flying out of Apple Stores and Windows PC's are losing ground year after year. Windows tablets, well are barely selling and now there is this other thorn called Android. Office has become the "standard" in business ousting the three previously mentioned Apps long ago. There is even new leadership at Microsoft that understands that the world doesn't revolve in a Windows only world. They know that everyone loves and has most likely used Office, so now they are making Office for everyone. They understand that everyone does not use Windows, they use, Mac, Android, iOS etc, so why not make Office available to all those platforms too. I am pretty confident that there will be a universal Office with feature parity across platforms.
Won't happen over night, but it will happen. I have been very pleased with the iOS version of Office and for that reason have kept my Office 365 going, Outlook was a nice surprise on iOS as well and the new Mac version is good, but until it can sync with iOS as fluidly as Apple's Mail, Calendar and Contacts, I'll stick with those. Overall I think Microsoft is headed in the right direction now. Putting more emphasis on OFFICE rather than trying to make everyone switch to Windows.
I agree, they pushed iOS users to office365 subscriptions to use it on their iPad, promised newer versions of office for the Mac and only to get the ported iOS version would be a slap in the face.
Many/most here were watching The Rug Rats when that happened. Besides, that fact is irrelevant.
You don't know that it will happen. It may happen. I hope it happens. But I've been at this far too long to simply take Microsoft at their word, again.
I've bolded what Microsoft wants us to believe, but scratch under the surface and you'll see that there is still that hook to draw people to Windows. They're just being more subtle about it. That is why OneNote in iOS and OSX don't support inking or freehand drawing. It is reasonable to conclude that they did so in order to showcase their Surface Pro 3 running.... Windows.
Office for iPad had more to do with hooking people into Office 365 subscriptions than with being platform agnostic. The subscription gives people access to MS Office... for Windows. Those who are on OSX generally have no need for the Windows version (yes there are some who run it in a VM), would never have purchased the Windows version, but now have access to it.
Many were eagerly awaiting Office for iPad for so long that any disdain for software subscription took a back seat. It worked.
The attempt at cross-platform parity could backfire big-time on Microsoft if they don't attain it pretty quickly. What sounds great in the theoretical can be a pain in the practical.
The current version of Office for Mac is pretty sad (at least for what I need to do). For people who need to get work done, time is running out for waiting. This thread may be a microcosm of what is happening on a larger scale.
Those who use OSX and rely heavily on MS Office may end up returning to Windows... if not in a migration from OSX to Windows, certainly as a second system. Which may very well be a part of Microsoft's plan.
When and what Microsoft produces for OSX will tell me all that I need to know about their commitment to cross-platform Office.
You seem pretty closed minded in your attitude to Microsoft. Or just so anti-MS that you're blinding yourself to what's happening. Satya Nadella being CEO has eased off the anti-expansion to other platform mentality the Microsoft used to have.
Microsoft are making a big thing about Office being the same across all devices, they wouldn't be idiotic enough to claim this and not follow through.
If Office for iPad was purely about making people sign up to Office365, then why change and open it up for the general user? Yes you need an office365 subscription for advance stuff, but then a lot of that advance stuff is stuff that Pages, etc, cannot do.
I don't see myself as negative and closed minded.
What I don't see is Word, Excel and PowerPoint being the same software and having the same functions across all devices. I can understand that someone would not need very advanced functions on their iPhone. Perhaps one would not need Microsoft Word with grammar check, indexing and cross-references on an iPhone or an Android Phone. And this is perfectly fine.
But then when we think of Microsoft Office as the über-powerful suite it is, well, it makes perfect sense when we think of the PC version. The Windows version of Office has it all. The Mac version comes behind, but is powerful as well. Now, these mobile offerings are not the same software. Office for iPad or iPhone may be good and suitable for the devices they are designed for, but that doesn't mean it's the same software. Office for iPhone doesn't hold a candle to Office for Windows.
Then, if one of the reasons why Microsoft Office for Windows is the top office suite out there is because it has so many features, what does make Office for iPad or iPhone the best office suite for mobile if they have less features? Why is Office for iPhone any better than iWork for iPhone, for instance?
I understand Microsoft's strategy and I think it's correct. Microsoft has the most powerful office suite out there, which is Office for Windows. And it sells. Now, there are several devices that are selling a lot, and there are office suites for these devices that are not half as good as Office for Windows, but they are being used anyway, as people insist on taking their iPads to meetings and to airplanes. Microsoft is making Office for mobile, keeping it compatible with Office for Windows, and then suddenly Office is everywhere. You don't need anything else.
It's a good strategy and I buy it at certain point. I am an Office 365 subscriber. But I see little use in having Office 365 if you don't have the flagship Office for Windows. Office 365 is just too expensive just to use Office for iPhone, iPad, Android, and the clould, and even Office for Mac. For me, Office 365 can only be justified if I use Office for Windows, which is the real thing. The others are just niceties and they go well along, but Office for Windows is still the only real one.
It's not a matter of changing my mind, actually. I can certainly embrace Office for mobile. But the fact is that it won't do everything I need it to do. The reality is that Microsoft has matured Office for years on Windows, and made it a very good product. It is just unfair to compare it to anything else, including Office for mobile. And Microsoft is using the "Office" tag, which connects to a very developed product under Windows, to sell lesser office suites.
I use office suites so rarely/lightly nowadays just tapping into the tail of this topic I imagined that Office 2011 was already outdated; that a more modern version for OS X was already released.
I doubt it.
Access has been a PITA (I can't share the details sorry).
I know Microsoft Office was born on the Mac. But it was developed on Windows. And it's been, what, twenty years? That's a lot. Lots of code written.
Microsoft still spends more in developing Office for Windows than Office for anything else. That should not come as a surprise, given that Office for Windows is the flagship product.
I don't think there would be one Office with feature parity for every platform. I doubt Office for iPhone will ever be as fully-featured as Office for Windows.
Microsoft is right in not giving away the new markets to competition. It is right in using its "Office" brand to advertise these new lesser office offerings. But that doesn't mean these platforms are the future. Office for Windows took years to be developed and is a very mature product. The iPad may be great, but, hey, it's not selling like before, and maybe it won't replace Windows PCs after all.
As of now, and for years to come, Office for Windows will remain as the real deal. Microsoft has to play in every market so it offers a view of the future and keeps up with everything that comes out.
I found Office for iOS good, but nothing out of this world. I appreciate Office for its advanced features that are not found anywhere else. Office for iOS is nice, but it lacks those features.
I don't see Microsoft making everyone switch to Windows by offering a better Office there. No. What I see is Windows being the most popular platform. It is just natural that Microsoft spends more time and effort on development of Office for Windows than any other platform. Microsoft can spend billions in development of Office for Windows because Office for Windows sells billions of copies. If Microsoft doesn't spend this kind of money in Office for Windows, then somebody else will, and will take over the market. Microsoft cannot spend that amount in Office for Mac because it won't pay off.
So, for me, it comes out as natural that Office for Windows is superior to anything else and will continue to be. Microsoft's strategy of Office ubiquity is nice and welcome, but it doesn't change the fact that the only real thing in the package is Office for Windows.
I'm not close minded, I use MS products all the time, one of my main computers is a Surface Pro 3. Still, I'm very cynical when it comes to MS support on the Mac. The mentality of MS succeeding by seeing Apple fail is still prevalent in MS, regardless of what Nadella said about being the same across all platforms.
I hope they really do make Mac Office on par with its windows version, but history and past experience indicates this may not be the case.
I don't even know if this is the case. Microsoft spends a lot of money developing Office for Windows, and the end result is a premium package. As the Mac market is just a fraction, it may just not make economic sense for Microsoft to spend so much in development of Office for OS X.
Agreed, Macbu is a small division in MS, and as such they probably have limited resources. Yet with that said, it seemed more then economics that drove the decisions on prior releases. MS seemingly removed or chose not to include features found in its windows sibling.
Nadella is already showing he means what he says. Ease up on the cynism.
Office for Windows will no doubt be bigger than other devices, in the sense that Access, etc, will remain Windows only, for obvious reasons. Word, Excel, PowerPoint & Outlook is where there will be the universality. Have people considered that maybe they've been building Office for Mac from the ground up for this? Or maybe now they can port the windows version over. We will get a better idea when the beta comes out.
I was cynical about MS, but Ballmer going and Nadella coming in, has brought a new mentality to Microsoft.
We have already seen the result of the new Outlook, its pretty much the same as 2011 with a new skin on it. Very few new features have been added. From the leaked presentation of the other apps, it looks like they have done the same with them.
I don't think Office will be rebuilt from ground up. People who had access to the beta already said that Microsoft is only updating the previous version, i.e., using the same code. And the new Outlook is an update to the previous one, not a brand new thing.
Why - I'm so far not seeing anything different from MS. Yes they rolled out Office for android. Before that they rolled out to iOS, which technically was on Ballmer's watch. That is, they started this work before Nadella was running things. It was Ballmer who gave the initial go ahead on that.
I'm not blinded to what MS is doing. I'm simply not gullible to hype and spin.
"Closed minded" is the type of accusation that is supposed to make the speaker feel superior and the hearer inferior. Only a fool chooses to keep their "mind open" when there is sufficient information to draw a conclusion. I have conclusions about Microsoft that are based on their history and my experience with them. When new information arises, then I reassess my conclusions to see if they're still valid.
I know that it is popular to boil things down to a binary love-em, hate-em, but my attitude about Microsoft is different based on what it is being talked about. We happen to be talking about MS Office. My opinion about Microsoft on this subject is one thing... my opinion about the Surface RT / 2 is different. My opinion about their fitness band, yet another.
Perhaps you are new to all things Microsoft, but they have made this claim in the past over the years and failed to follow through.
Why change and open it up? Two reasons... first, there was a significant bump in Office 365 subscriptions as a result, and second, to address some of the complaints. You seem to be ignoring the fact that Microsoft STARTED OUT making Office 365 a requirement.
Just like Microsoft required the KINECT for the XBOXONE, and later backed off. They try to push their agenda and if there is sufficient push-back, they back down. That is Microsoft's modus operandi. If one sees reality for what it is, that doesn't make them anti-Microsoft.
Both the new Outlook and Onenote for Mac - released in 2014 - are still 32-bit applications.
Microsoft still recommends that people run the 32bit version of Office on Windows...Why would they even consider going 64bit on the Mac?
The reason for their recommendation is that many plugins for Outlook in Windows run only on the 32bit version. On the Mac of course, this is a completely different case since there are no plugins available.
Because for OneNote and Outlook, it doesn't matter.
People who use Word for desktop publishing might find use for a 64-bit Word; and Excel most certainly needs to be 64-bit, but none of the other apps really have any useful purpose being 64-bit.
Agreed.
Microsoft released a preview of the Office 2016 for Windows a few years ago. I installed it and it seems much similar to Office 2013 so far. However, I haven't seen a preview of the next Mac Office yet.
