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(snip) I hope I'm wrong... and that the next Office release is as good as 07 for Windows. Something tells me I'm dreaming though.

As good as Windows 07? I hope they can do better than that! The ribbon was a huge step backwards in functionality. Ever try using it without having your window maximized to full screen? Horrible! :confused:
 
As if this wasn't part of the plan all along. Look at how M$ has treated Office - They knew in 2006 that releasing Office 2008 without VBA/Macros was going to be a problem, yet they still forged ahead with it even though they had two years to figure it out. They released Office 2008 with its bloody damn "open xml" files and then dragged their heels on a (still crappy) Office 2004 converter for an entire year, which forced people into buying Office 2008 just to open the damn files that were suddenly default in both the Mac and Windows worlds.

The only reason M$ behaves this way is because they know they can get away with it.

Yep! Easy answer, Just Say NO! Find an alternative or continue using the older version or pay for the always new Office version! Me, I just say no! It works well for me--)))) Im tired of this constant cycle, so I handle it this way. I use what ever version I have and Pages and Neo Office. Might not be perfect but it suits my needs and it's a hell of a lot cheaper than playing their game. ;)
 
Violation of Microsoft's Lifecycle Policy

Microsoft is violating its own Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy if it tries to end support for Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac in October, 2009. Here's their policy:

http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy

It's not clear whether Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac is a "Business" or "Consumer" product. It's hard to imagine that a product with the name "Professional" in its title would be a "Consumer" product, but let's look at the latter case anyway since it offers the shortest support period:

"Microsoft will offer Mainstream Support for either a minimum of 5 years from the date of a product’s general availability, or for 2 years after the successor product (N+1) is released, whichever is longer."

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac was released on January 15, 2008. (Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac was released on May 11, 2004.) Thus Mainframe Support for Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac falls under the 2 year rule and must not end until at least January 15, 2010.
 
Wait what?! Office for Mac is pathetic. To be honest, I wonder if it's deliberate. If MS has no Mac support, they risk being boycotted for a more open standard. If they have good Mac support, people have one less (major) reason to stick with Windows.

I hope I'm wrong... and that the next Office release is as good as 07 for Windows. Something tells me I'm dreaming though.
Sadly, while I do think this is changing for the better, only people who don't use Windows will actually care about this. Most are too stupid and/or short-sighted to see the problem for what it is.
 
Even if Microsoft provides "support" for Office 2004 to the end user will they publish any patches needed for changes in the OS? Even if they don't pay attention to Snow Leopard I need it to work with 10.5.7 since I know my users will upgrade without thinking. I know it is old but Office X seems very unstable on 10.5, but I have users who do not want to upgrade. Seems like 2004 is going down the same road. I don't need another mess like when Adobe dropped support for Photoshop 7 and it would not work with 10.5.
 
Of course they don't...even Ballmer said that when he talked about the "betterness" of Office for Windows against the Mac version...it's clearly a deliberate and illegal strategy to keep Windows users from migrating to the superior OS, as millions nowadays do.

Of course they don't...even Jobs said that when he talked about the "betterness" of iTunes for OSX against the Windows version...it's clearly a deliberate and illegal strategy to keep Mac users from migrating to the superior OS, as millions nowadays do.
:apple:
 
I swear by iWork; it's a brilliant little set of applications. I find them so much easier to use than Microsoft Office on Windows or Mac.
 
Of course they don't...even Jobs said that when he talked about the "betterness" of iTunes for OSX against the Windows version...it's clearly a deliberate and illegal strategy to keep Mac users from migrating to the superior OS, as millions nowadays do.
:apple:

In my own personal experience- itunes for mac and pc are the same- even down to the ui and you get the same features on both versions.

On the other hand, ms office for the mac just doesn't cut it for me- the interface is awkward (as described by someone else, they have attempted to combine the new ribbon with the inspector). There is no inbuilt feature to search for office clip art online. There is also no Access included and i also rather like OneNote, however this too is for the Windows version only.

Thank goodness for iwork:)
 
I'm a pretty experienced Office user from version 2 on on the PC. I recently switched to the Mac and I personally like 2008 better than any PC version I've used. I like the fact that they've preserved the White on Blue option, which has been removed from the PC version. I also like the fact that you can close off all toolbars and pallets and just have a clean editing window. You can use Isolator and put up however many floating windows. Also, unlike the new ribbon in 2007, you can customize everything in Word 2008. I think most Mac folk that complain about Office probably don't know how to use it. I realize that it's been a bit of a bug fest with 2008, but recent iterations appear to be getting stable and less glitchy. I haven't used 2004 but was toying with giving it a try. From what I've heard most folks think it was the best version of Word released to date and was superior to Word 2003 for windows. Word is simply the most powerful thing going for words. Sure you can use Neooffice, but let's see you do a decent collapsible outline with styles and headings. You don't have a word processor yet if you can't do collapsible outlines. It's just a text editor.
 
Wait what?! Office for Mac is pathetic.

Your quote thing made me cry in laughter. Awesome.


As for the illegal claim by BRLawyer....wait what? How is it illegal to make an inferior product? I didn't know companies had to try their very best on everything..that's why there is class distinction right? Hmm...I would like you to explain that hopefully the "Lawyer" part of your user name is right.


I did have a comment on the whole "microsoft does it because they can" thing and it sparked up a part of my brain ...rather hip pocket, when it comes to Apple and charging more for their parts but I thought I'd leave that alone and write it like this...not the thread for that argument!

OSX <3


Oh and I must agree with everyone, Office 2008, at least, is rubbish. OneNote is my most used Office app and it doesn't even get a sniff. Word..eurgh, maybe I'm not quite yet used to the whole OSX taskbar (mac newbie too) but I love my 2k7 Ribbon and the general UI just seemed so ...WordPad...
 
As good as Windows 07? I hope they can do better than that! The ribbon was a huge step backwards in functionality. Ever try using it without having your window maximized to full screen? Horrible! :confused:
Yes I agree, I definitely do not like Office 07 for windows, it was extremely confusing to get used to compared to Office 03, with all the changes.
 
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