Office for Mac 2011 - It's Amazing!

[Schwieb]

I have been running Office for Mac 2008 and syncing contacts, e-mail and calendar between Entourage and (i) my iPhone, (ii) Outlook (Windows version) on my computer at work, and (iii) all of my Macs using our Exchange 2003 server software at work.

I have been looking forward to getting Office for Mac 2011, but the review in PC Mag says that you need to have Exchange 2007 (or later) software in order to sync contacts, e-mail and calendar for the new Outlook that is included in that software. It won't sync under the Exchange 2003 software. Does anyone know if this is correct? I am told by our office IT guy that it would cost almost $2,000 to upgrade the server software (software plus installation) and that is not in the cards.

I appreciate your help.

Yes, you do need Exchange Server 2007 or later in order to use Exchange accounts in Mac Outlook 2011. Mac Outlook 2011 requires the Exchange Web Services protocol to talk to the Exchange server, and that protocol doesn't exist in ExchSvr 2003. The WebDAV protocol that Entourage 2008 and earlier used was deprecated by the Exchange server team and removed from recent versions of Exchange.

Schwieb
MacBU Dev Lead

 

[priest19]

So far I have liked Office 2011. Being able to go between a PC and Mac with documents with better results has helped.

 

[nadyne]

I will be recieving the Home student upgrade and would like Outlook as well. Will there be the ability to purchase outlook separately?

You'll be able to upgrade to the Business Edition, which includes Outlook, online.

How do you figure that? I know that is what Microsoft is saying, and yes they do have a new single license Home & Student edition for $119, but the equivalent 3-license pack as last year is the exact same price at $149. The other versions are also the exact same price as 2008.

For Office 2011, the two-license pack of Business Edition is $279, whereas the Office 2008 Business Edition only had one license and was $399. You can see this for yourself at the Apple Store or Amazon.com.

In Outlook, why have the Ribbon part and then above it the Send/Receive and Redo/Undo icons etc. separately?

We wanted to be consistent with OS X applications by using the standard toolbar. As in any other OS X application, you can hide the toolbar by using the little pill icon in the upper-right corner.

Regards,
Nadyne.

 

[heyholetsgo]

I'm sorry but I didn't read the last 200 posts. All I want to know is if Office for Mac finally looks and feels like Office 2007 for Windows. I embarrassed myself at my last internship when I couldn't find some easy commands in Office 2007 for Windows...

Further, can I get a cheap upgrade for my student edition?

THX!

 

[DoFoT9]

I'm sorry but I didn't read the last 200 posts. All I want to know is if Office for Mac finally looks and feels like Office 2007 for Windows. I embarrassed myself at my last internship when I couldn't find some easy commands in Office 2007 for Windows...

lazy

in my opinion, it doesnt not feel like the Windows version at all. it is still lakcing quite a bit, and just feels buggy overall. time will tell, as will personal opinions.

 

[revelated]

I totally disagree. Apple Mail and Entourage are better. They have dropped critical features in Outlook that make it unusable.

People aren't listening, probably because they're looking at using Outlook from a consumer perspective (which I find pointless, since Mail.app is superior for such a simple use case) and not a business perspective. Any business is going to be passing this up as a blatant attempt by Microsoft to get people to spend money upgrading Exchange when they would not have otherwise. Excuses about WebDAV support and all this other stuff are rendered moot by the fact that every version of Office supports filetypes all the way back to Word/Excel '97. The excuse that Exchange 2003 is "no longer supported" is just a copout. They want people to spend money on the new Exchange and saw an opportunity to attempt to force the issue.

Again, doesn't affect most of you consumer-side folks. Does affect business users, and until this functionality is there or whenever my company decides to justify the upgrade - which likely won't be until its official EOL - there won't be a purchase from me.

 

[Thunderbird]

Does anyone know if you can custom install specific programs? I only want Word and Outlook.

 

[wilflare]

anyone having problems with the spelling checker in Word?
I get this recurrent error when opening some of my files...

"Word cannot start spelling checker"

 

[Sky Blue]

Does anyone know if you can custom install specific programs? I only want Word and Outlook.

Yes, you can.

 

[danny_w]

People aren't listening, probably because they're looking at using Outlook from a consumer perspective (which I find pointless, since Mail.app is superior for such a simple use case) and not a business perspective. Any business is going to be passing this up as a blatant attempt by Microsoft to get people to spend money upgrading Exchange when they would not have otherwise. Excuses about WebDAV support and all this other stuff are rendered moot by the fact that every version of Office supports filetypes all the way back to Word/Excel '97. The excuse that Exchange 2003 is "no longer supported" is just a copout. They want people to spend money on the new Exchange and saw an opportunity to attempt to force the issue.

Again, doesn't affect most of you consumer-side folks. Does affect business users, and until this functionality is there or whenever my company decides to justify the upgrade - which likely won't be until its official EOL - there won't be a purchase from me.

Exactly why I won't be upgrading either. Every version of Outlook for Windows still supports Exchange Server 2003, but MS didn't bother putting this support into Office/Mac purportedly because it would be too difficult supporting old technology; I think you hit the real nail on the head though. I think MS is going to find that there are many, many businesses that are perfectly happy with Exchange Server 2003 and are not going to be forced into upgrading just to support a few Mac users (I know my company won't), when the Windows users don't need it. Businesses have much more pressing needs for their funds in this economic climate. If they tried this with Windows they would run more businesses toward competitors and they know it.

 

[Mal67]

lazy

in my opinion, it doesnt not feel like the Windows version at all. it is still lakcing quite a bit, and just feels buggy overall. time will tell, as will personal opinions.

oh no! I'm looking forward to getting my copy and using word on mac again rather than word with windows. Should I be concerned?

 

[K3mp]

I am not in a corporate environment so I chose not to install outlook. I like Word and Excel but Keynote is still better than PowerPoint. I already typed a paper in Word and everything went smoothly. I like having all the features of the Windows version on my Mac. With Office for Mac this good and steam bringing great games to mac I might not need my parallels VM soon.

 

[pckeenan]

Can the excel toolbar (and bottom "SUM") be shared in 2011?

A big problem I have with Excel 2008 for Mac is that on a 13.3 screen with two excel files open there is no way to see the “SUM” subtotal in the bottom right-hand corner of either file. Also there are “duplicate” toolbars for both files thus using up a TON of limited screen space. In the PC world there is just one toolbar/header and the files are genuinely “split” so I can jump between files and see the SUM change based on the active file. Does 2011 correct this issue? Please see the two attached jpg screen shots with notes identifying the issue/differences.

 

[milbournosphere]

lazy

in my opinion, it doesnt not feel like the Windows version at all. it is still lakcing quite a bit, and just feels buggy overall. time will tell, as will personal opinions.

I agree. It's still quite sluggish in certain ways, and I still HATE how office handles line spacing.

How did you two rapscallions get your hands on that?

couldn't resist...

 

[jamied95]

A big problem I have with Excel 2008 for Mac is that on a 13.3 screen with two excel files open there is no way to see the “SUM” subtotal in the bottom right-hand corner of either file. Also there are “duplicate” toolbars for both files thus using up a TON of limited screen space. In the PC world there is just one toolbar/header and the files are genuinely “split” so I can jump between files and see the SUM change based on the active file. Does 2011 correct this issue? Please see the two attached jpg screen shots with notes identifying the issue/differences.

In Excel 2007, it does what 2008 does, there are no internal windows, so the issue of space probably is the same, and it occurs in the Windows Version...

 

[3030]

First post. Cool. I'm not sure if these have been posted yet, but here they are. Let me know what other screenshots I should post.

Hitting upload would help

 

[jamied95]

First post. Cool. I'm not sure if these have been posted yet, but here they are. Let me know what other screenshots I should post.

Hitting upload would help

Hey, could you post some screenshots of Messenger? Does it work properly now, or, well, not?

 

[Hellhammer]

Hey, could you post some screenshots of Messenger? Does it work properly now, or, well, not?

Basic things work but so far I've had no luck with audio or video

 

[jamied95]

Basic things work but so far I've had no luck with audio or video

Cheers for that, I really don't understand the design, why on earth do they have that thing sticking out the side for the display pictures?! Why isn't it incorporated into the design :S the Windows one looks quite nice, THAT looks like a horrific mess.

 

[Hellhammer]

Cheers for that, I really don't understand the design, why on earth do they have that thing sticking out the side for the display pictures?! Why isn't it incorporated into the design :S the Windows one looks quite nice, THAT looks like a horrific mess.

You can get rid of the display pictures if you want to, just click the Display Pictures button ("Näyttökuvat" in that pic as it's in Finnish)

 

[N-Y]

i know there is no uninstaller for office 2011, but has there been one that has been released?

also whoever is using msn 8, are u getting recovered files in your folder every time u start ur computer after using messenger in the previous session?

 

[G-Force]

Basic things work but so far I've had no luck with audio or video

Wow... it looks like it still is using that 1000 year old clunky interface? A drawer is not cool...

 

[jon08]

i know there is no uninstaller for office 2011, but has there been one that has been released?

also whoever is using msn 8, are u getting recovered files in your folder every time u start ur computer after using messenger in the previous session?

I think I am getting them too... btw, does importing custom emoticons work for you?

 

[N-Y]

I think I am getting them too... btw, does importing custom emoticons work for you?

haven't tried to be honest. not something that really interest me... but this whole recovered files thing annoys me

 

[graham1971]

I can't find a way to see email headers and source, in Outlook 2011. That is a critical feature that I can't be without. Has that feature been removed?