More Details on Next Version of Office for Mac Include Planned Launch in First Half of 2015

[brianvictor7]

As someone who is forced to live through the hell using of Powerpoint at work, I am begrudgingly "looking forward" to this release.

What I'd really be looking forward to would be a Windows-based viewer for Keynote presentations so I could sell my employer on using better presentation tools, but it really looks like that will never ever happen.

Honest question: what bothers about PowerPoint?

I like the breadth of features. I don't like the cluttered mess that they make. I feel that there should be two modes when using the thing: Streamlined and Advance. Streamlined would have the nice functional feel of Keynote with the most commonly used features. Advanced would have everything else. And, of course, it should be all packed into a customizable sidebar within minimal top bar.

 

[RightMACatU]

These endless delays or lack of development got me very comfortable in using MS Office on my VMware'd Windows 7 with a shared link to my OS X.

/moves on

 

[Nickerbocker]

Office for Mac 2011 is just good enough for my needs so that I do not need to install Windows in bootcamp to do the occasional report writing from home.

Looking forward to this next update!

 

[brianvictor7]

Office for Mac 2011 is just good enough for my needs so that I do not need to install Windows in bootcamp to do the occasional report writing from home.

Looking forward to this next update!

This has been my experience as well. I detest wasting valuable hard drive space on a copy of Windows.

 

[Gudi]

I'm really tired of waiting for Microsoft to update their damn software! But at the same time, I tried Pages and its lack of important features prevents me from using it!

Such as? If you don't tell us, what important features you miss, there is no way for us to understand your frustration.

Here is my main feature I miss in Office for Mac: It's not free. And I could life with a onetime payment, but Pages is a free update released on the same day as Yosemite. My wait was 30 minutes, most of that for downloading. The features I care about are OS features and Pages includes all of them.

Pages is the most Yosemite application one can (not) buy, because it's free.
Microsoft would need to pay me (a lot) to make me switch back to Word.

 

[FaustsHausUK]

My number one feature request: Outlook should remember that it is, in fact, an email client and allow me to read email.

The 2011 edition is absolutely horrid and prone to various weird issues. Chiefly, it doesn't let me browse folders consistently, search sometimes returns zero results for a term I know will return many messages, and other shenanigans. I don't even get that much email on my work address.

I also hope they are going to use the built-in notifications. 2011 uses two completely different notification styles - one for messages, one for calendar alerts. I know Mac is an afterthought for a company already known for its wonky design, but it seemed sloppy.

 

[Tom-Create-Pro]

About time...

 

[brianvictor7]

Such as? Such as! If you don't tell us, what important features you're missing in Pages, there is no way for us to understand your frustration.

May I list some features I would like? I have asked Apple for some of these repeatedly.

1) A button on the top bar that starts a bulleted or numbered list. Mail has it. Heck, even this forum has it, but not Pages and I use lists all the time.

2) A grammar checker that catches the basics. Right now Pages can't see when I've put two spaces between words in a sentence or warn me if I have written a fragement.

3) A mobile version of the app that lets me actually edit the text without it scrolling all over my 4" display. It is hard to write anything on the go if I can't see my whole sentence. For now, I am using the Plain Text app instead.

 

[rvinny]

Welcome to Mac Office Subscription Model.

Not with me!

For some it could be cheaper. I currently use Evernote ($45 pro version),Dropbox ($99) year and $20 iCloud upggrade > $165yr.

If I could reliably replace those with OneNote & OneDrive it's a win - plus the Office apps end up being $0 just like Apple.

 

[dragje]

About damn time. Office for Mac was really getting long in the tooth. Unfortunately, no matter how much I love Pages, I just can't rely on it exclusively, because I can never ever be sure that if I finish something in Pages and export it to doc it will look like exactly the same in MS Word... and yeah, there are documents that you are kind of obliged to send in .doc (not in PDF), that is the sad truth...

So true. I love working with Office 365, it has so much more possibilities. But Outlook on the Apple desktop looks very much outdated alltough it has way more possibilities then Apple's Mail it's the look and feel that is really turning me away for using it. If it will get the same look and feel as Yosemite and less functionality up front (*) then I'm all back for supporting it.

(*) I don't mean less functionally as in less options but less options directly in the graphical user interface.

 

[blue22]

this is taking waaaaaay too long to develop...

First, a 2013 updated release. Then 2014. Now 2015?! Any year now "Office for Mac" team...

 

[tokichoi]

I wonder if you need to create a Microsoft account to install Office. Such a frustrating requirement with so many issues.

If it's for O365, then, that means you can only download/install it from your MS account.

 

[HowieIsaacks]

Meh. Not interested. I've only barely used Office 2011 over the last two years. We don't need Microsoft Office anymore. There are a lot of alternatives out there.

 

[Gudi]

1) A button on the top bar that starts a bulleted or numbered list. Mail has it. Heck, even this forum has it, but not Pages and I use lists all the time.

If you type "• " followed by some text and hit ↩ a bulleted list is created automatically. This behavior is even faster than having a dedicated button. If you want to start a numbered list, just type "1. " followed by some text and ↩. It couldn't be easier. All kinds of lists are created this way, which spares  a multitude of needless toolbar buttons.

2) A grammar checker that catches the basics. Right now Pages can't see when I've put two spaces between words in a sentence or warn me if I have written a fragement.

Solution: Learn your grammar.

3) A mobile version of the app that lets me actually edit the text without it scrolling all over my 4" display. It is hard to write anything on the go if I can't see my whole sentence. For now, I am using the Plain Text app instead.

Solution: Buy a bigger phone.

 

[street.cory]

This is where Microsoft tends to shine.

 

[DeanL]

Y'all seem to forget what Office is

Y'all keep saying "we don't need Microsoft anymore" blah blah, but you forget that Apple is providing three apps: Pages, Numbers and Keynote where the Office suite has Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook & OneNote.
And the latest software is really useful (and on Windows) well integrated with the other programs. Not to mention that some teachers requires you to use Word because they can directly annotate it (and you need to see them, and it's a feature that Pages lack).

Moreover: at school, there's a proficiency test using Office, not iWork. You need to know every single feature of the Office suite (well in my school, in Canada).

So sorry, but we're nowhere near of not needing Microsoft Office on our Mac.

 

[B2k1977]

If it's for O365, then, that means you can only download/install it from your MS account.

I was going to use OneNote on my mac until it asked me to create an account after I downloaded it. I'm drowning in usernames and passwords. This cloud stuff is BS.

 

[Parasprite]

Let us hope they update the spell-checker so that it spans words. I get tired of manually correcting 'tot he' to 'to the'....

I just wish it gave you the option of using OS X's (though I'd probably lose being able to add medical dictionaries, etc.)

 

[brianvictor7]

If you type "• " followed by some text and hit ↩ a bulleted list is created automatically. This behavior is even faster than having a dedicated button. If you want to start a numbered list, just type "1. " followed by some text and ↩. It couldn't be easier. All kinds of lists are created this way, which spares  a multitude of needless toolbar buttons.
Solution: Learn your grammar.
Solution: Buy a bigger phone.

Nice trolling Gudi. Really, that was profoundly useless advice.

Well, maybe the suggestion to type a bullet character on a Mac isn't useless, though you might have been kind enough to tell me it was Option 8 (I just looked it up).

 

[VulchR]

Nice trolling Gudi. Really, that was profoundly useless advice.

How do you type the bullet character on a Mac? "•"

alt-8 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

 

[itguy06]

I'm probably in the minority here, but I think Microsoft is slowly turning in the right direction under Satya Nadella. It's a big ship and there's a lot of Ballmer to undo, but I am hopeful.

Personally I want Microsoft to sink like the Titanic. They have been a cancer on technology since they were founded and should go the way of the Dodo bird.

 

[Monique1]

I would say Microsoft's business model is stupid and Apple's makes more sense.

Apple's <cough> business doesn't make sense for people with very little memory in their devices for storage. MS on the other hand with 1TB of storage works on most anything.

Why would you rather have OneDrive only save to the cloud

Why would anyone buy 200gb of Apple's iCloud storage for a device with only 16gb.

Redundant backup is your friend. If you would rather trust the cloud and not backup your files locally then you'll see in the long run that way of thinking was a big mistake.

I'd rather trust multiple server backups in Redmond and elsewhere than I would the drive I'm carrying around. Or an Apple Time Capsule sitting in my house waiting to catch fire.

You cloud haters crack me up.

 

[itguy06]

Y'all keep saying "we don't need Microsoft anymore" blah blah, but you forget that Apple is providing three apps: Pages, Numbers and Keynote where the Office suite has Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook & OneNote.

Apple has Mail and Calendar that are better than the Garbage that is Outlook. OneNote is better served with Evernote.

Not to mention that some teachers requires you to use Word because they can directly annotate it (and you need to see them, and it's a feature that Pages lack).

Pages supports comments/annotations.

Moreover: at school, there's a proficiency test using Office, not iWork. You need to know every single feature of the Office suite (well in my school, in Canada).

Great. Education turning mindless drones that, rather than learning how things work and how to adapt, memorize some clunky software that will be outdated before they graduate!

So sorry, but we're nowhere near of not needing Microsoft Office on our Mac.

I do a fair amount of business work on my Mac and I can't remember the last time I opened Office.

 

[arkmannj]

I wonder how this will be handled in Micorosft's Home Use Program... Right now our HUP through work does not have Office 365, we get the latest version of MS Office (PC & Mac Available) but they are not on the subscription model.

 

[brianvictor7]

alt-8 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Thanks. I'll try that.