Microsoft to Extend Support for Office 2004 Until 2012

[Mattie Num Nums]

So Microsoft has to once again expand compatability for their old stuff because it's better than the new crap they're selling everyone?

Bravo, Microsoft.

False. People just are slow to buy newer versions making docx transmission difficult. Office 2008 has been solid for my company.

 

[fastred]

Good management matters....

Has anyone else noticed how much the situation at the Mac Business Unit of Microsoft has improved under new management?

Many of the decisions Mac users have complained about have been reversed / addressed since change occurred at the management level (removing VBA, data analysis tools, Entourage vs Outlook, "full" Exchange connection, etc), while the previous senior management has gone on to glory running the Mobile units of Microsoft (into the ground...)

Yes, "Microsoft" is a large, often 'faceless' corporation, but in this case its pretty clear that the individual managers involved have made a massive difference (for good or ill). That in itself is interesting, I find.

 

[twoodcc]

well that was nice of microsoft. i'm actually surprised that they did this. glad to see it all the same though

 

[lamadude]

For showing Apple customers what real support looks like. It means standing behind your product for a serious period of time, not just until the next year's fashion show.

Exactly, people are just bashing this because it's microsoft, but in reality apple drops support for products very fast while updates for both windows and ms office last for ages. You still have support for win xp and it works great for me, try to do that for macos 10.0

And allthough I miss VBA support, word for mac is still far better than pages. The docx file extension is annoying, I agree, but at least it's not forced upon people, you can still save in doc, and it allows extra features such as automatic bibliographies, that are sorely missing in pages.

But yeah office is crap and microsoft is hypocritical for continuing support etc...

 

[zw-gator]

Say what you want about MS, but at least they support the products they make for a good few years, unlike say, Adobe, who drop support for a 2 year old program that cost $1K+

 

[Trek2100]

And now you know why I run an XP partition and Office 2007 Enterprise on my MBP. I wish Apple would spend the funds necessary to fully develop Pages and Numbers.

 

[Compile 'em all]

Last time I used MS Office was 3 years ago. Here is hoping I never have to in the future!

 

[ravenvii]

Has anyone else noticed how much the situation at the Mac Business Unit of Microsoft has improved under new management?

Many of the decisions Mac users have complained about have been reversed / addressed since change occurred at the management level (removing VBA, data analysis tools, Entourage vs Outlook, "full" Exchange connection, etc), while the previous senior management has gone on to glory running the Mobile units of Microsoft (into the ground...)

Yes, "Microsoft" is a large, often 'faceless' corporation, but in this case its pretty clear that the individual managers involved have made a massive difference (for good or ill). That in itself is interesting, I find.

I must say that I agree. Now the only thing they have to do to make me very happy: OneNote! Pretty please with cherries on top!!!

And no, the Notebook view in Word does NOT cut it! One flaw that I saw immediately? No top tabs! In OneNote you can categorize your stuff into tabs (class, work, home, vacation, whatever), then inside the tabs, there's multiple tabs on the side (homework, schedule, whatever).

And it doesn't have true drag-anywhere and write-anywhere like OneNote. And it doesn't have the awesome tablet support OneNote does.

ONENOTE FOR MAC PLEASE!!!

Office 2008 isn't as bad as some people say. I still use Pages and Keynote for most of my stuff, but Excel owns Numbers, and Word is very useful when people send me .doc files. I had Office 2007 previously, but got rid of it after I got 2008 because it serves all my purposes. Less reboots into Windows is always a good thing!

 

[MWPULSE]

i admit that its a good thing, but i do however just see one issue, are they not just keeping up the support and updates because the last coupla versions of Microsoft office-mac have been naff. The last one i remember being half decent was 04, which i have and even then its a bit sluggish..

I find the situation the same myself.. the only reason that i can see that microsoft have extended support for XP is cos no-one took up vista within the enterprise and they are not about to jump ship without hearing the reports of its "improved compatibility, system responsiveness and better drivers" My personal opinion

PTP

 

[xIGmanIx]

microsoft has demonastrated time and time again that they continue to support older versions of their products either OS's or office suites.

i admit that its a good thing, but i do however just see one issue, are they not just keeping up the support and updates because the last coupla versions of Microsoft office-mac have been naff. The last one i remember being half decent was 04, which i have and even then its a bit sluggish..

I find the situation the same myself.. the only reason that i can see that microsoft have extended support for XP is cos no-one took up vista within the enterprise and they are not about to jump ship without hearing the reports of its "improved compatibility, system responsiveness and better drivers" My personal opinion

PTP