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Microsoft Office

M

migulic

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 25, 2008
76
0
I just got an offer from my school to get Microsoft Office 2007 (only the Windows version) Enterprise for only 70 euros. I currently use iWork and I'm alright with it, although Office would be nice to have for compatibility, especially with Word and PowerPoint (I'm not a heavy Excel user - in fact, I prefer Numbers to Excel for what I do). As I don't have a Windows license yet, I would have to buy an OEM copy of Vista Basic/XP Home for another 70 euros. This would be 140 altogether.

Now, this brings me to my point. For those same 140 euros I can get the Home and Student edition of Office 2008. The big difference between the two would be that with Office 2007, I would get Access, Publisher and OneNote, as well as the (IMO) superior interface, speed and functionality - but I would need to reboot to use it or buy something like Fusion or Parallels, for another 80 euros. With Office 2008, I would only get Word, Excel and PowerPoint (I don't use neither Outlook nor Entourage), as well as the (from what I've heard) slower version with the worse interface and functionality, but I would be able to use it in OS X without problems.

Is Office 2007 that much better than Office 2008 to guarantee either rebooting to use it or buying extra virtualisation software? Or is Office 2008 not as bad as people say?

I wouldn't be using Office that much, mainly to open files I get from people and when working together, as well as PowerPoint. For most of my daily work I would still use iWork.

Thanks for reading through my wall of text :)
 
Quick answer : Office 2008 isn't that bad.

Don't expect it to be the same as 2007 though, the interface is somewhat different. But all of the major features are there. You can't do anything in Office 2008 that you can't do in 2007.

That being said, Office 2008 doesn't have any direct match for Access, Powerpoint, or OneNote. So you'll have to decide on the features/applications you need. It sounds as though virtualisation is the way ahead for you. Parallels will suit your work very well (since you won't have to reboot to get it into Windows and will be able to use the Mac and Windows concurrently).

Also, since the latest service pack for 2008, the interface is running a lot quicker and smoother.
 
I have Microsoft products shoved down my throat because my employer uses and pushes Microsoft SharePoint (collaboration server software similar to Google Apps/Sites).

Office 2008 for Mac has zero support for SharePoint. Office 2007 has very nice and tight integration with SharePoint (sharepoint calendars can be viewed in Outlook, one can "check out" office documents from sharepoint, edit them, and save them back to sharepoint automatically, etc).

Unless you need something like that, Office 2008 is just fine IMHO. As a stand-alone program I have no complaints.

If you choose to run Windows in a VM, you can save some money buy getting the free VM software from www.virtualbox.org instead of buying Parallels or VMWARE Fusion. Virtualbox is written by Sun Microsystems and is very good.


Regarding the Windows version of Office - I prefer the "classic" UI over the new Office 2007 UI.
 
PeteB said:
Quick answer : Office 2008 isn't that bad.

Don't expect it to be the same as 2007 though, the interface is somewhat different. But all of the major features are there. You can't do anything in Office 2008 that you can't do in 2007.

That being said, Office 2008 doesn't have any direct match for Access, Powerpoint, or OneNote. So you'll have to decide on the features/applications you need. It sounds as though virtualisation is the way ahead for you. Parallels will suit your work very well (since you won't have to reboot to get it into Windows and will be able to use the Mac and Windows concurrently).

Also, since the latest service pack for 2008, the interface is running a lot quicker and smoother.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. However, you said that Office 2008 'doesn't have any direct match for PowerPoint'. I thought Office 2008 included PowerPoint?

I don't really need Access or OneNote. I never used them actually, if I ever needed a database I could probably use OpenOffice.org and for notes, I guess Word 2008's Notebook View is similar to OneNote? The only program I could miss is Publisher, because I sometimes get Publisher files. I use Pages myself, and I guess I could probably just open those rare Publisher files somewhere else.

So, is Office 2008 for 140 euros a worse deal than Office 2007 + Parallels for 220 euros (70 for Office, 70 for Windows, 80 for Parallels)?
 
My apologies, I confused PowerPoint with another Mac product (that I forget the name of at this point).

If you're after a Publisher replacement, you might want to look into what Microsoft Expressions can do for you.

http://www.microsoft.com/expression/

You may be able to wangle a package deal when you buy certain versions of Office 2008.
 
PeteB said:
My apologies, I confused PowerPoint with another Mac product (that I forget the name of at this point).

If you're after a Publisher replacement, you might want to look into what Microsoft Expressions can do for you.

http://www.microsoft.com/expression/

You may be able to wangle a package deal when you buy certain versions of Office 2008.
Click to expand...

But I've already found a Publisher replacement: Pages. The only thing I need Publisher for is opening Publisher files people send to me, and I can just as well do that on my old Windows laptop with Publisher XP.
 
Any other opinions? Is Office 2008 on par with Office 2007 when it comes to stability and speed (comparing Office 2008 on an Intel Mac and Office 2007 running inside Parallels Coherence/Fusion Unity)?
 
migulic said:
But I've already found a Publisher replacement: Pages. The only thing I need Publisher for is opening Publisher files people send to me, and I can just as well do that on my old Windows laptop with Publisher XP.
Click to expand...

My question is; aside from pages, is there another replacement to Publisher? I tried using Neo Office to open a publisher file but no dice....anyone?!



:apple:
 
migulic said:
I just got an offer from my school to get Microsoft Office 2007 (only the Windows version) Enterprise for only 70 euros. I currently use iWork and I'm alright with it, although Office would be nice to have for compatibility, especially with Word and PowerPoint (I'm not a heavy Excel user - in fact, I prefer Numbers to Excel for what I do). As I don't have a Windows license yet, I would have to buy an OEM copy of Vista Basic/XP Home for another 70 euros. This would be 140 altogether.

Now, this brings me to my point. For those same 140 euros I can get the Home and Student edition of Office 2008. The big difference between the two would be that with Office 2007, I would get Access, Publisher and OneNote, as well as the (IMO) superior interface, speed and functionality - but I would need to reboot to use it or buy something like Fusion or Parallels, for another 80 euros. With Office 2008, I would only get Word, Excel and PowerPoint (I don't use neither Outlook nor Entourage), as well as the (from what I've heard) slower version with the worse interface and functionality, but I would be able to use it in OS X without problems.

Is Office 2007 that much better than Office 2008 to guarantee either rebooting to use it or buying extra virtualisation software? Or is Office 2008 not as bad as people say?

I wouldn't be using Office that much, mainly to open files I get from people and when working together, as well as PowerPoint. For most of my daily work I would still use iWork.

Thanks for reading through my wall of text :)
Click to expand...

I was able to get Office 2008 via my school for $70 USD, so you might be able to get the same deal.
 
Also, for the OP, if you need to use VBA from Office 2007, then Office 2008 on the Mac won't help ... it has no support for VBA. And note that Office 2004 on the Mac has VBA, but it is based on VB 5 (like Office 97 on Windows side), whereas Office 2003, et al, is based on VB 6.

Bottom line, if you need VBA at all, then Office 2007 through virtualization is the only way to go.
 
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