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Office 2008 bugs/features/annoyances
- Thread starter Glenny2lappies
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I'm generally pretty happy with the upgrade. It seems to run faster (and definitely monopolizes WAY less system resources now that it's not through Rosetta, so everything runs smoother). I also think the interface is better.
My big complaint, though, is that it doesn't seem to play nicely with spaces. My Word windows hop back and forth between spaces at times when I switch to a different space. Also, I tried to set Word to always be in Space 1, but sometimes it jumps to other spaces regardless.
Is anyone else finding it really buggy in how it works with Spaces?
My big complaint, though, is that it doesn't seem to play nicely with spaces. My Word windows hop back and forth between spaces at times when I switch to a different space. Also, I tried to set Word to always be in Space 1, but sometimes it jumps to other spaces regardless.
Is anyone else finding it really buggy in how it works with Spaces?
This was one of the bugs mentioned on macfixit with regard to world 2008. There was no fix listed, aside from disabling spaces.
Holy crap?
It still does that?This has been a pet peeve of mine since Office first appeared on the Mac (I use the British standard.) How many versions will it be until they fix such basic issues?
I bet this also means that it won't pick up the system Dictionary as well, which is another long-standing complaint for all non USA users.
I will never understand why MS doesn't fix these internationalisation issues. Unless they are just not competent enough to translate back and forth on the fly.
Other than Safari, (frowns and wags finger in Apple's direction), every other major Mac application can do international formats now. Even FileMaker finally fixed this in version 7 for cripes sake!
It's no wonder that outside of the grand old USA, Office is much less enthusiastically received and used.
Keynote 2 Powerpoint export problem
I have a Powerbook G4 with 1.67 GHz and can confirm some of the complaints. One of them is the slow start. Others might be there too but I din't come across them yet.
One thing that I have noticed though is that if I export slides from Keynote into Powerpoint I cannot open them with Powerpoint anymore. This was a pretty cool feature that worked with Office 2004.
Any ideas?
I have a Powerbook G4 with 1.67 GHz and can confirm some of the complaints. One of them is the slow start. Others might be there too but I din't come across them yet.
One thing that I have noticed though is that if I export slides from Keynote into Powerpoint I cannot open them with Powerpoint anymore. This was a pretty cool feature that worked with Office 2004.
Any ideas?
Ive been having a crash issue with word08 as well. It seems to happen on occasion right after i spell/grammar check. Very annoying. Happened twice today. Good thing it was not a 30pg essay.
oh and startup is pretty slow but still faster than office 04.
oh and startup is pretty slow but still faster than office 04.
word is buggy in expose and spaces as ell
In expose, putting your cursor over the window does not correctly highlight the window nor does it display any information about it
Very buggy in spaces...if you exit the space word is open in, clicking on the icon in the dock will transfer you to the space word was open in, but will transport the document window into the space you are coming from.............weird.
In expose, putting your cursor over the window does not correctly highlight the window nor does it display any information about it
Very buggy in spaces...if you exit the space word is open in, clicking on the icon in the dock will transfer you to the space word was open in, but will transport the document window into the space you are coming from.............weird.
Here's something that doesn't seem like it's affecting performance, but it's still very annoying if you need to look at your logs. I have a thread about it here: https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=4848292
Basically, running any Office app and I get tons of these errors in the console log:
Jan 28 15:49:57 computername Microsoft Excel[35241]: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
Jan 28 15:49:58: --- last message repeated 29 times ---
Jan 28 15:49:58 computername Microsoft Word[35225]: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
Jan 28 15:49:59: --- last message repeated 14 times ---
Jan 28 15:49:59 computername Microsoft Excel[35241]: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
Jan 28 15:50:22: --- last message repeated 49 times ---
Jan 28 15:50:22 computername Microsoft Word[35225]: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
Jan 28 15:50:30: --- last message repeated 100 times ---
Jan 28 15:50:30 computername Microsoft Excel[35241]: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
Jan 28 15:51:00: --- last message repeated 189 times ---
Jan 28 15:51:00 computername Microsoft Excel[35241]: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
Jan 28 15:51:14: --- last message repeated 59 times ---
Jan 28 15:51:14 computername Microsoft Word[35252]: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
Jan 28 15:51:44: --- last message repeated 324 times ---
-Kevin
Basically, running any Office app and I get tons of these errors in the console log:
Jan 28 15:49:57 computername Microsoft Excel[35241]: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
Jan 28 15:49:58: --- last message repeated 29 times ---
Jan 28 15:49:58 computername Microsoft Word[35225]: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
Jan 28 15:49:59: --- last message repeated 14 times ---
Jan 28 15:49:59 computername Microsoft Excel[35241]: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
Jan 28 15:50:22: --- last message repeated 49 times ---
Jan 28 15:50:22 computername Microsoft Word[35225]: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
Jan 28 15:50:30: --- last message repeated 100 times ---
Jan 28 15:50:30 computername Microsoft Excel[35241]: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
Jan 28 15:51:00: --- last message repeated 189 times ---
Jan 28 15:51:00 computername Microsoft Excel[35241]: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
Jan 28 15:51:14: --- last message repeated 59 times ---
Jan 28 15:51:14 computername Microsoft Word[35252]: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
Jan 28 15:51:44: --- last message repeated 324 times ---
-Kevin
Wow. Thank you.
The other annoyance I've had with Word is a scrolling issue.
Sometimes when I scroll up (using a mouse) and then back down some of the text looks all jumbled.
It's hard to explain, but it looks like the words have been just slightly shifted and appear layered on top of the same words.
I just installed it, it's alot faster than 2004. In entourage, you can customize your tool bars. But one thing that is annoying is the "Elements Gallery" Is there any way to get rid of it?
Mac Office 2008 is so bug ridden would someone please send Microsoft an exterminator!
1. it constantly crashes
2. Previous versions (Office 2004) are incompatible with the 2008 version which means I need to buy an upgrade for my entire office even though their 2004 copies I bought only 6 months ago.
3. The excel spreadsheet is nothing more than a page with boxes on it. It cannot do calculations, they just show up as 0, and crashes constantly.
4. The Entourage search feature works some of the time, but it didn't work with 2004 either.
Microsoft, how much longer until a patch for this piece of crap you sold us?
1. it constantly crashes
2. Previous versions (Office 2004) are incompatible with the 2008 version which means I need to buy an upgrade for my entire office even though their 2004 copies I bought only 6 months ago.
3. The excel spreadsheet is nothing more than a page with boxes on it. It cannot do calculations, they just show up as 0, and crashes constantly.
4. The Entourage search feature works some of the time, but it didn't work with 2004 either.
Microsoft, how much longer until a patch for this piece of crap you sold us?
User Data Folder
Do you mean the "Microsoft User Data" folder? Just move it to the Preferences folder in your user library.
I haven't got it yet, but can anyone tell me whether they have stopped storing the settings in the Documents folder?
This is something I find so completely insensible and annoying that it would stop me from using the thing altogether.
Do you mean the "Microsoft User Data" folder? Just move it to the Preferences folder in your user library.
Shoot! I just got Office 2008 and Endnote X1. Now i'll have to stick to Office 2004 until they fix this. I was already pissed that i can't use iWork with Endnote, now i'm still stuck with 2004 too!
I finally got my copy today and have a problem (big surprise). I tried to register the software and it did not accept the PID number (even though I tripled checked it to make sure I had entered it correctly). I saw that I had only two free times to contact MS about this software, and so I was wondering if anyone else had this problem before I used up half my credit on one of their errors.
I hate how typing in Word 2008 feels laggy, feels like i'm running it through rosetta, quite annoying!! Also It also seems to take much longer to save in this new .docx format compared to the old format, really annoying when trying to take notes in lecture. Also, occasionally it will beachball for a good 30 seconds when saving... Not happy at all. If the whole world used Apple Pages, i would dump Office so fast...
Office 2008
There seems to be a trend where Office:2008 is working better on Intel based Macs than their PPC counterparts.
Office:2004 was slow and buggy, even on my Power Mac G5. Office:2008 on the other hand is much more responsive (IMHO). I have never liked Entourage and so won't comment on it. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are all better, but could still use some work.
There seems to be a trend where Office:2008 is working better on Intel based Macs than their PPC counterparts.
Office:2004 was slow and buggy, even on my Power Mac G5. Office:2008 on the other hand is much more responsive (IMHO). I have never liked Entourage and so won't comment on it. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are all better, but could still use some work.
Dumb question...
In Word, how do you change the default font back to Times New Roman? It always opens up with Calibri.
In Word, how do you change the default font back to Times New Roman? It always opens up with Calibri.
What is that supposed to mean? Microsoft releases fixes and patches for their software all the time. They had a fix for Office 2004 not too long ago, actually.