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Office 2008 for the mac is JUNK

G

Germwise

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 2, 2009
148
15
I recently switched to mac 3 months ago. I really enjoy some of the features of the mac though I still occasionally use my PC desktop and enjoy doing tech support on PC for friends/fam etc. So what I'm about to say, has nothing to do with me loving/hating MS.

OFFICE 2008 for the mac is a total pile of crap!

I had been using open office and because of some compatibility issues with co-workers I decided to finally purchase the MS version.

My experience now is with excel that is :

1)SLOW to respond. Sometimes I'll click something and its 2-3 seconds before it responds (and this is on a 2009 MBP with 4 gig of ram)

2)has menus that go outside of the screen and are NOT adjustable (formatting pallette)

3)IS BUGGY. For example if I have a chart and try to edit the title, by adding a letter. "money vs time" or whatever to "money vs time part 2" IT freezes up and all I get is "part 2"

4) when highlighting source boxes you get a faint grey dotted line. I can't see what I'm highlighting!!!! what happened to the bright red or blue box?


WTF? I had less issues with a free open office. These are things i've found in only 3 hours of using it. Is it just me? are my files somehow at fault?

I really want to contact microsoft and get my money back. I'll boot windows to use office if this is what MS provides to macs.

--Marcelo
 
I need compatibility! If I make a ppt on my mac I need it to work on multiple macs/pcs
 
What I don't understand, is why would Apple put in their ads that you can run Office? Just say that it runs iWork, which is a cheaper and better version of Office...
 
I have been using Office 2008 since release day and I have NEVER had any issues with it on both iMac and MBA machines!

I used to have issues with the 2004 version when I open PC Excel created files. They would take forever to open and such, but not with the 2008.

Office is the best compared to the rest. However, NeoOffice is an alternative for some other secondary tasks. As for iWork, that should have been FREE.
 
I quit using Entourage because it crashed on me 10 times a day even after rebuilding my system and setting up a new account. I was going to wait for Snow Leopard but I ended up getting a MobileMe account and switched to Mail. I like Entourage's views better, particular the reading pane but Mail is faster and crash free.
 
That is strange because Entourage NEVER crashed on me once and I use it for Exchange and regular mail!

It is either that I am lucky or MS is attracted to me :p
 
mhnajjar said:
... or MS is attracted to me :p
Click to expand...

In that case be very very very scared and RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!! :eek:

Microsoft has made some extremely weird decisions with Office 2008 (like removing the Excel chart wizard!), but it does seem to work ... or at least work as well as any Microsoft application ever does.

And if you want proper Microsoft compatibility, you do need Microsoft Office (although you may need to wait for the next version for full compatibility) or know what does and doesn't work with iWork. It's rather pointless spending hours building a presentation in Keynote (for example) only to find half of it disappears when you save it in PowerPoint format ... although that can equally happen with proper PowerPoint thanks to people having all sort of different versions.
 
I hate Office for the Mac too. As a newbie I tried NeoOffice ad did not like it (this was over a year ago) so I bought Office. I finally deleted Entourage, it sucks, I have been looking @ iWork and even going to Office under Windows in VMWare. Now I use the Web access for email.

I really like my Mac and am about to purchase another one. Although I really like the stability of the Mac, these compatibility issues suck. I guess nothing is perfect.
 
nadyne said:
Have you updated? The most current version of Office 2008 is 12.2.1. SP2 had a lot of performance improvements, especially in Excel.

Regards,
Nadyne.
Click to expand...

+1. Massive performance boost with the latest update.
 
I'm one of the apparently few users who prefers MSO over iWorks. Just can't get the level of detail necessary for formatting documents in Pages.
 
Office 2008 for Mac is great on my system, I can't fault it. Even typeset a novel on it last year, you'd have thought it was done on InDesign. I have iWork as well, and it's really nice to use, but could do with some more features, or maybe I just need more time to discover it...
 
iWork is a joke. None of the "save as MS office documents" really work as advertised. The formats are always off in KeyNote and Pages. Let alone the real junk Numbers.

It seems that some people here really believe that Apple would re-invent what MS has been doing for decades in few years!!!
 
Neotyguy40 said:
What I don't understand, is why would Apple put in their ads that you can run Office? Just say that it runs iWork, which is a cheaper and better version of Office...
Click to expand...

Perhaps you need a little more time thinking about this one. Most windows user don't venture out of the software realm other than the Microsoft Office Suite, when people think about the switch to Macs, Office is a "comforting" factor, something that is familiar, something they know how to use, thus another way Apple will win over a customer.

I have iWork and Microsoft Office for Mac, I have been using Office more because I still have trouble with saving files to ppt or doc in iWork, there is always someone at the other end of the email telling me they can't open my ppt or doc file saved from iWork. So I kinda gave up on iWork, unless I need to make a pretty spiffy newsletter in a jiffy.
 
miles01110 said:
Other than the expected minor compatibility issues, I've never had a major problem with Office 08. iWork is an Office wannabee with less functionality and even less compatibility with the rest of the world.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't call the formatting bar randomly jumping to other Expose windows a "minor compatibility" issue. I'd call it a major PITA. iWork isn't perfect, but it does behave nicely with Expose and it produces output that's readable by most applications. Anyone who says otherwise is merely spreading FUD.
 
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