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More Screenshots and a Hands-On of Microsoft Office for Mac 2011
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Absolutely. Plus the additional analysis and simulation tools, like the ones from Palisades, simply make Excel indispensable.
I use Evernote all the time and like it quite a bit. But frankly, OneNote is absolutely superb. If it worked in the cloud like Evernote, and across different platforms, there would be no contest.
They have feature parity only because Apple has no other choice if they want to sell iPhones and iPods to Windows users. When it comes to apps not attached to hardware, Apple doesn't stop at gimping apps, they go much further. German music software maker Emagic had a perfectly functional Windows version of Logic, it had been around for years and had a fairly large user base. Then Apple bought eMagic, and *bam*, Logic for Windows was pulled overnight.
As for MS gimping Office for Mac... well, they're a business, not a charity organization. They have an enormous user base and they've grown accustomed to selling XXX million copies of Office for Windows, and invest in development accordingly. Since the Mac user base is much smaller, every dollar spent on Office:Mac development will at best generate 1/10 of what every dollar spent on Office for Windows will. Therefore they're not going to make a full blown Mac version of Access to make 150 people happy.
When Apple makes stuff for Windows it's the other way around, they step out of their little world and tap into a market 20 times larger than their own.
Companies like Adobe and music software companies like Steinberg, Propellerhead etc divide attention equally between Mac and PC because the Mac part of their respective user bases is disproportionately large, probably close to 50/50. Therefore they're happy to deliver as far as feature parity goes. That's not the situation for Microsoft.
I've tried evernote, I tried circus ponies, and I tried a few others (and don't tell me notebook view in word). None come close to what I need. the closest one is Circus ponies, but you cannot write or paste anywhere on the page. you can't annotate freely over typed text (either hand written, typed, arrows, etc). you can't have sub-sections, etc. you have to work with OneNote to actually understand its value.
Attachments
I'm so with you, there's nothing like it. I'm not even a student, I use it for professional business. You'd think they combine it, a lot of students use macs, a lot of students use OneNote, hey why not combine the two? More $$ in their pockets.
That might be coming. Office 2010 on Windows is going to offer a lot for collaboration from remote locations. I know OneNote has (or had - I never used it) a feature about sharing on a web-server in readonly mode. Plus MobileNoter is going to fill the gap for iphones, ipod touch, iPad.
http://www.mobilenoter.com/
http://workspace.officelive.com/en-us/FAQ/thumbnails/onenote#edit
http://www.liveside.net/main/archiv...pp-and-onenote-web-app-technical-preview.aspx
http://content.zdnet.com/2346-17923_22-369478-1.html?tag=content;col1
Edit: -Forgot this link too....
http://onwebber.codeplex.com/
I think this "ribbon" invention of Microsoft is a GREAT idea for OSX because for some STUPID reason, Apple chose to NOT allow a 2nd menu bar on multiple monitor setups so if I want to access a function from the menu for an application on my 2nd monitor with OSX, I have to move my pointer all the way over to the OTHER monitor to select it and then move it all the way back over to the other monitor to go back to using the application. For an application that is heavily menu based, this can be downright MADDENING. Why oh why didn't Apple simply have an option to have a 2nd duplicate (or applying to just that monitor) menu bar installed on the 2nd monitor? For that matter, I would also like a copy of the Dock on that monitor so I don't have to leave it to start a new app on that side. This is VERY UNINTUITIVE on Apple's part and I simply cannot believe that they haven't done anything about it in all these years with OSX....
The menu/function problem simply does not exist on Windows since Windows puts its menus on each individual window instead of at the top of the screen. Windows (or at least XP; I don't know about Windows Vista or 7 since I don't normally use them) also shares the lack of an option for a taskbar and start menu on both sides. This is one area where I do like Linux as I can configure it to appear any way I want, for the most part. Linux does have application issues (at least with older apps) using the spread two monitor mode, however (two separate displays solves that but you cannot move windows between desktops then).
At least the ribbon would allow one to continue working on the 2nd monitor without having to access the menu bar on the other monitor to achieve basic functions....
The menu/function problem simply does not exist on Windows since Windows puts its menus on each individual window instead of at the top of the screen. Windows (or at least XP; I don't know about Windows Vista or 7 since I don't normally use them) also shares the lack of an option for a taskbar and start menu on both sides. This is one area where I do like Linux as I can configure it to appear any way I want, for the most part. Linux does have application issues (at least with older apps) using the spread two monitor mode, however (two separate displays solves that but you cannot move windows between desktops then).
At least the ribbon would allow one to continue working on the 2nd monitor without having to access the menu bar on the other monitor to achieve basic functions....
Eh... tried to Google?
Not that you'll get any legal ways to download it...
Yeh tried Google but could only find torrents.
Thought there might have been a legit public beta as a couple of people on here seem to be running it
Agreed 100%. It looks like a pretty faithful copy of 2007/2010 beta on Windows, which is great for switchers and a big improvement on 2008, even with the vertical-space-hog ribbon.
It looks like they're taking some good cues from iWork with the template gallery look and feel - I just hope they really are following that example well. I hope they are using the built-in quartz anti-aliasing and all that stuff rather than carrying on with their own engine!
I hope that graphs in Excel translate to Windows properly - that cells are the same size as in Windows by default, 9 columns fitting across the A4 page rather than 6, and so graphs don't completely change their shape when going across.
I hope that including videos in PowerPoint works properly and consistently cross-platform. I hope that all of the Mac apps have 'customise keyboard shortcuts' not just Word and Excel. I hope Excel and PowerPoint get live window resizing 10 years late, and that they properly remember window size and position, and pane sizes in PowerPoint!
So pleased to see the formula bar docked in Excel, about time, rather than trying to take up the whole top of the screen just because it forgot my preferences. Good to see some screenshots confirming the return of macros. Man I hope that code is optimised for Excel to make big complex spreadsheets work just as fast as in Windows - I have some I can't even open on Mac; calculation is ~10x faster on Windows.
I hope that you can select cell ranges in Excel with the mouse using the scroll wheel rather than just dragging down the screen which can take a really long time (true it is better than the bonkers methods of Numbers), though I don't want to return to the insane scrolling days of ≤ Excel 2000.
Since Mail.app got Exchange support I don't intend to use Outlook but I wish it well and it may be tempting if it works properly syncing tasks and public folders and the rest of what Mail.app fails at. The interface looks like a big improvement over Entourage.
Finally I hope that they help Apple out with their hideous fail attempts at 'export to MS office' from Mac/iPad iWork apps. Keynote fails at masters, Pages fails at fonts & tables, Numbers fails at gridlines, fonts, graphs, and so on.
Damn I wish they'd open this beta. They have the opportunity to make Office:Mac 2011 awesome!
You are definitely an ultimate fanboi when you put what Mac products you own in your signature!
That's interesting that it is not available..... Windows version 2010 beta is available for download and free use until October 31st. I tried it temporarily, but had to delete it. took up 6 gigs, and found my onenote really got confused (only app that seemed too, and it is because of the caching) with having both the 2007 and 2010 versions installed.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/download-office-professional-plus/default.aspx
Other than that, what I did use for about a month seemed to work pretty good....
Apple had loose plans to drop the antiquated menu bar solution when they moved from OS9 to OS X, but luddite crybabies talked them out of it by threatening to stop wearing Birkenstock.
I don't mind the menu bar (although the larger the monitor, the more of a pain it becomes as the menu bar is further and further away from the windows that you are using at any given moment), but having it an entire SCREEN away is ridiculous. I can't believe there hasn't been more of a stink about it over the years. Either no one uses two monitors with a Mac (or only use it for things like full screen previews) or they sing Apple's praises regardless if something is cumbersome or not.
I hate Apple's mail program, so I am looking forward to this.
No, they won't allow it.
No, they won't allow it.
Let's talk about the Ribbon
Unlike some vocal people here, I don't dislike the ribbon. In fact, I actually kind of like it. Once you get used to it, it's easy to figure out where to go, although it does require some relearning of muscle memory and (eek!) some keyboard shortcuts.
However, the point of the Ribbon was to replace the menu bar and the toolbar. Astonishingly, judging from the screenshots, Microsoft has done neither in this implementation on OS X! There are all three: menu bar, toolbar, Ribbon. I realize they have no choice in the menu bar, but they certainly do for the toolbar and ribbon. This takes up too much space, and there's no reason they can't either leave this functionality in the menus (most Mac apps don't have Open and Save buttons on the toolbars, anyway), move them to the appropriate tab in the Ribbon, or create some sort of small "quick access" toolbar as in the Windows version.
If this is what they're going to do, I'd rather just have all the toolbars back. On the bright side, at least they're getting rid of the only thing that could possibly be worse: floating palettes. (At least, I hope that's the plan...)
Unlike some vocal people here, I don't dislike the ribbon. In fact, I actually kind of like it. Once you get used to it, it's easy to figure out where to go, although it does require some relearning of muscle memory and (eek!) some keyboard shortcuts.
However, the point of the Ribbon was to replace the menu bar and the toolbar. Astonishingly, judging from the screenshots, Microsoft has done neither in this implementation on OS X! There are all three: menu bar, toolbar, Ribbon. I realize they have no choice in the menu bar, but they certainly do for the toolbar and ribbon. This takes up too much space, and there's no reason they can't either leave this functionality in the menus (most Mac apps don't have Open and Save buttons on the toolbars, anyway), move them to the appropriate tab in the Ribbon, or create some sort of small "quick access" toolbar as in the Windows version.
If this is what they're going to do, I'd rather just have all the toolbars back. On the bright side, at least they're getting rid of the only thing that could possibly be worse: floating palettes. (At least, I hope that's the plan...)
I've used OneNote before switching to a Mac, and EverNote and EverNote has no where near the folder structure that OneNote has. I'm currently using SoHo Notes but it too does not stack up to OneNote.
6gb? Then I wouldn't have been able to install it on my computer. I just check in the program files and it's exactly 1gb.
I'm with you 100% on this. I use SoHo notes, but it too pales in comparison to OneNote. And why is it just about all of these note taking programs look pretty much the same? Won't some software developers break out of the "all look the same, but have a different name" note taking program. I think Circus Ponies is the only one that looks different, but it isn't no OneNote.
I don't need new features, I just need support for existing documents in other languages - Hebrew in my case.
It is absurd that so many iterations of this product, and they never considered adding a "feature" so critical as multi-language support. That would make me buy it in a heartbeat, because Apple's iWork suite such just as well in Hebrew.
It is absurd that so many iterations of this product, and they never considered adding a "feature" so critical as multi-language support. That would make me buy it in a heartbeat, because Apple's iWork suite such just as well in Hebrew.
The screen shots seem to show Office adopting more OS X conventions, which is good. I wonder if Office apps will be able to...
Have a simple window with no menu bar items at all, and just the essentials in a custom-made tool box, and the quite-good (vertical!) formatting palette down one side?
Use my system-wide spellings?
Use my system-wide replacements?
Work with Spaces?
Have Excel not crash constantly requiring you to manually verify that all 17 recovered documents are in fact the exact same ones that you saved? (and you soon learn to save frequently...)
Show documents in the same way on more than one computer?
Behave in many ways like apps made in 2010, not 2001.
Have a simple window with no menu bar items at all, and just the essentials in a custom-made tool box, and the quite-good (vertical!) formatting palette down one side?
Use my system-wide spellings?
Use my system-wide replacements?
Work with Spaces?
Have Excel not crash constantly requiring you to manually verify that all 17 recovered documents are in fact the exact same ones that you saved? (and you soon learn to save frequently...)
Show documents in the same way on more than one computer?
Behave in many ways like apps made in 2010, not 2001.
Ok, I got that. Really. Why in the heck wouldn't you use parallels and the windows version. It would work MASSIVELY better. And the compatibility would be 100%.