Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MS Office 2008 for Mac is a Dog

Wicked1

Wicked1

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Apr 13, 2009
3,283
14
New Jersey
Has anyone also used Office 2008 and realized it is an absolute dog, I prefer to use OSX Mail although it is plain and simple, and I am using iWork 09 with no issues.

I can not believe how long Entourage takes to open on my uMB 2.4 with 4GB adn 320 HDD 7200 RPM with 16MB Cache, holly cow is it really slow.
 
From a quick google search, it seems that Entourage is slow for a lot of people.

I guess this is another "Don't like it? Don't use it!" deal.

Maybe Outlook for office:mac 2010 will be faster. :rolleyes:
 
Funny ...

I was a long time Win/Office user and Entourage is much faster than Outlook 2007 was for me. It always killed me that Outlook would stop echoing keyboard input when it polled the e-mail server. (Single threading?) Seemed pretty brain dead when running on a modern dual core CPU. For those of us forced to need full Exchange integration, Entourage works well enough. (Of course MS is now threatening to replace it with a true version of Outlook in 2010!) It does not appear that the Exchange integration in Snow Leopard is going to be the full version ...

Having switched from Office 2007 (Win) to Office 2008 (Mac) on the same Early 2008 MBP, not having to run a VM with Windows has been a boon. Office 2008 has some cool features that I did not have in Office 2007 ... the biggest/best is the alignment markers in PowerPoint. For those of us stuck cranking out software architecture slides, it makes it easy to keep things lined up.

Now on the bad side, I have had to kill Powerpoint a few times because it appeared to lock up. Adding a slide format from another deck has done it to me most of the time.
 
Clearly Office 2010 will be superior, but I have a question.

Should I install Office 2004 on my new MBP when I get it, or should I upgrade to 2008.

I will likely install Excel from 2004, because VBA support was dropped in the 2008 version (I'll probably also use Office in Bootcamp or VM, mostly for Excel 2007), but I really want to know if I should install 2008 version of word, entourage, and powerpoint.

One of the so-called "Geniuses" at the apple store said I should install 2008 instead, because 2004 could cause problems with the Intel-based Macs, but I am skeptical. Any insights would be truly helpful!!
 
Hal1980 said:
Clearly Office 2010 will be superior, but I have a question.

Should I install Office 2004 on my new MBP when I get it, or should I upgrade to 2008.

I will likely install Excel from 2004, because VBA support was dropped in the 2008 version (I'll probably also use Office in Bootcamp or VM, mostly for Excel 2007), but I really want to know if I should install 2008 version of word, entourage, and powerpoint.

One of the so-called "Geniuses" at the apple store said I should install 2008 instead, because 2004 could cause problems with the Intel-based Macs, but I am skeptical. Any insights would be truly helpful!!
Click to expand...

I was using 04 on my current MBP as well as my previous G5 - both ran it OK. Now I am using 08 on my MBP and I prefer 04, I think. I am not a heavy user of it but for general usage I don't notice a value in 08 - it is just a flashier interface to me. I wouldn't even burden my G5 with it...
 
I run 2004 on my machines but I have 2008 to install sitting on my desk. I'm hoping I can have both just in case I hate 2008 on my Mac. I did it once and hated it. I use it at work in Windows and hate how bloated it is.
 
Entourage is crap and I don't use it, but have you installed the SP2 update for Office? The other apps seem to run better after I installed it, I noticed they definitely load quicker than they did before SP2.
 
jessica. said:
I run 2004 on my machines but I have 2008 to install sitting on my desk. I'm hoping I can have both just in case I hate 2008 on my Mac. I did it once and hated it. I use it at work in Windows and hate how bloated it is.
Click to expand...

Please keep me posted, I'm very curious as to whether it makes any sense to use '08, and would rather not install such a bloated piece of software if I don't want or need it.
 
I have both '08 & '04 running on different computers. Vastly prefer '04. Runs fine on my MBP & MBA's. It doesn't lock up any more or less than '08. They both cause proc. hogging and a force quit if left open for too long. Won't touch entourage or outlook though. They open the door to evil.:p
 
messedkid said:
From a quick google search, it seems that Entourage is slow for a lot of people.

I guess this is another "Don't like it? Don't use it!" deal.

Maybe Outlook for office:mac 2010 will be faster. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

It's not just Entourage - Outlook 2007 for Windows is the slowest, most frustrating piece of crap I've ever used. Whatever the Microsoft email application developers were smoking during the 2006-2007 time period, I hope it's out of their system now. I've been testing Outlook 2010 for Windows, and it is so much faster and responsive than 2007, so I can only hope that the Mac version of Outlook will be as well. I simply refuse to use Entourage for anything other than troubleshooting issues that our Entourage users here at work may have.
 
I personally still say if Microsoft gets its way soon in the future you will not buy the software but you will be renting it and using it over the internet, I think MS will be going away from selling software except OS and you will use the software like you were on a Citrix server, just my thought.


I absolutely hate Mac Office 2008 and Windows Office 2007, I still use Office 2003, it is much faster and better to use.
 
Entourage is a bad egg, and with Snow Leopard there will be no more need for it, even if the native Exchange support is severely lacking and buggy. Tasks don't sync either way so not much is lost.

The rest of Office '08 has its moments but it is indeed a slow suite for the most part. Excel absolutely crawls with calculations - I have some files where it just gives up after trying to load for 5 mins. In Windows, it loads and calculates in <30 secs.

I don't have that many gripes with Word beyond slowness, crashing and the display not keeping up, or often not updating at all until I scroll away and scroll back ... but if I do that more often than not half of the invisible character graphics get messed up, so it's a delicate balance.

I'm thinking I might download the iWork trial before SL and maybe go for the box set when it comes out and not even install office '08 again. I can always boot camp '07 (not Outlook) if I need to. Compatibility really is the most important thing though, outside of Apple's insulated view of the world, so I'll have to put Pages especially through its paces. Also last I saw, Numbers was possibly even slower than Excel, so it's quite the decision to make.
 
Heb1228 said:
My dog is insulted by your thread title.

:D Just kidding, Nadine, I actually like MS Office for the most part.
Click to expand...

:p

;)

MartiNZ said:
Tasks don't sync either way so not much is lost.
Click to expand...

If you're on an Exchange 2007 server, you can sync tasks (as well as notes and categories) if you upgrade to Entourage for Web Services. Entourage for Web Services is a free upgrade for users of Office 2008 Standard Edition or Special Media Edition. (Office 2008 Home and Student Edition users can't use it, since H&S doesn't include Exchange support.)

Aside from additional Exchange functionality, Entourage for Web Services has a bunch of under-the-hood improvements. Overall, it's faster for working with your Exchange account.

Entourage for Web Services will not work with Exchange 2003 or earlier. This version exclusively uses Exchange Web Services to communicate with Exchange, which was introduced in Exchange 2007. If you're on Exchange 2003 or earlier, stick with Entourage 2008.

Regards,
Nadyne.
 
Hal1980 said:
Should I install Office 2004 on my new MBP when I get it, or should I upgrade to 2008.
Click to expand...
I say stick with Office 2004 (Mac).

A buddy gave me an "evaluation" copy of Office 2008 (Mac). Tried it then deleted it and went back to Office 2004 (Mac). With XML converter, thankfully I don't need Office 2008 (Mac) or Office 2007 (Win)

Interface wise, I much prefer Office 2004 (Mac) and Office 2003 (Win)

No problem running Office 2004 (Mac) on my MBP. Works fine.
 
One word
Open Office (or Neo Office)

I use them and I've not missed MS office
 
Never used 2004, but 2008, student edition, works perfectly, and I do like entourage with all its features. I'm running a mid-grade macbook, with 2gb ram and from the get go, it's worked like a charm. And yes, it has all the current updates installed. Not sure why it would work differently on other machines, unless there are program conflicts.
 
rwilliams said:
It's not just Entourage - Outlook 2007 for Windows is the slowest, most frustrating piece of crap I've ever used. Whatever the Microsoft email application developers were smoking during the 2006-2007 time period, I hope it's out of their system now. I've been testing Outlook 2010 for Windows, and it is so much faster and responsive than 2007, so I can only hope that the Mac version of Outlook will be as well. I simply refuse to use Entourage for anything other than troubleshooting issues that our Entourage users here at work may have.
Click to expand...

I used Outlook 2007 at my last job for 2 years, and it worked flawlessly. It took some time getting used to some features, but worked great 99% of the time.

When I installed it at home, well that's a different story. Gave up after awhile and just installed Google Apps. :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back