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Office for Mac 2011 Previewed Ahead of Launch Scheduled for Later This Year
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Hope word is more stable. 2008 crashes all the time when you search for text that isn't found a few times.
My only gripe is companies calling stuff "2011" when it's clearly "2010". I think they believe it will make them sound ahead of the game and/or they think that we're stupid enough to think that it will be only one year old when the update doesn't arrive in 2012.
I have to use Office 2007 in Word for some client work, and although I had a week or two of "where the heck is (insert menu item here)", and occasionally still do, I actually don't mind the ribbon anymore. It will be interesting to see what they come up with. The current interface in the Mac version could use some improvements. I'm looking forward to this!
Edit: Forgot to add that even though I don't mind the ribbon, I can understand why some people don't. Not saying everyone should like it.
Edit: Forgot to add that even though I don't mind the ribbon, I can understand why some people don't. Not saying everyone should like it.
From what I have read, and heard from our MS rep, Outlook is a complete rewrite, as the article suggests. And Exchange Web Services works well, but you have to have Exchange 07+. They implemented it into Entourage Web Services Edition, which is working well for some others orgs.
After using the ribbon for a week, I began to love it. Now I hate using Mac Office 2008 at home now with its ribbonless interface. I just hope the Mac Office ribbon is more or less exactly like the Windows ribbon in order to live comfortably on both platforms.
Hate the ribbon. Years of muscle-memory out-the-window, and now I have to take my hands off the keyboard. (How do you assign a keyboard combination to something that only appears in a ribbon?)
I'm looking forward to this release. I just don't like Pages or Numbers at all, and end up going back to Word and Excel, although Keynote is far superior to PowerPoint. And ANYTHING has to be better than Entourage. It's not possible for something to be worse.
As the article says, VB macros are back.
Equation editor? Not sure. There is an add-on for that now - I use it but it crashes a lot.
Ugh... can't stand office. If it weren't for the fact that we have clients who insist on having their brochures be editable in Word (or who send us their supporting documents in Word), I'd ditch Office in a heartbeat.
The only thing in Office I like is Excel (but only on Windows). Outlook is a horrible email client, Word sucks at anything other than general page layout, and every PPT presentation I've ever seen looks like 1995. IMO, there's much better programs to do what Office does.
The only thing in Office I like is Excel (but only on Windows). Outlook is a horrible email client, Word sucks at anything other than general page layout, and every PPT presentation I've ever seen looks like 1995. IMO, there's much better programs to do what Office does.
I have an unnatural love for iWork. I simply love how it is focused on making beautiful and persuasive documents.
But this release of Office for the Mac is great news indeed. Bringing Outlook to the Mac is important for many of Microsoft's customers who use and pay for exchange, or who love Microsoft Office and the integration.
The one thing missing from the announcement which is critical is scripting. Microsoft promised this feature for the 2010 release, so let's hope it's included.
Anyway, great job Microsoft. This is smart business and what looks like a great product for many of your customers.
But this release of Office for the Mac is great news indeed. Bringing Outlook to the Mac is important for many of Microsoft's customers who use and pay for exchange, or who love Microsoft Office and the integration.
The one thing missing from the announcement which is critical is scripting. Microsoft promised this feature for the 2010 release, so let's hope it's included.
Anyway, great job Microsoft. This is smart business and what looks like a great product for many of your customers.
It looks like Gizmodo has a couple screenshots:
http://gizmodo.com/5469570/office-for-mac-2011-first-look-ribbons-sharing-and-outlook
Doesn't look all too terrible, actually.
http://gizmodo.com/5469570/office-for-mac-2011-first-look-ribbons-sharing-and-outlook
Doesn't look all too terrible, actually.
I tried Office for Mac and I've been using Office for Windows before, I really hate it, both versions, it's a mess, all those toolbars and styles and all... I only use text editors to write essays and dissertations, nothing fancy, so I need simplicity, iWork is totally for me. Well, Pages, to be specific. I don't use spreadsheets so I can't say anything about that. But the fact that Office for Mac just couldn't work together with Spaces really made me mad. I didn't like the interface either. Pages reads and writes Word documents perfectly, and it's so simple, I love it!
Dear MacBU:
I know there are Office for Mac haters out there (even on this very thread); however I'm not one of them. Office for Mac means I don't have to run Windows at home (like I do at work). So you know where I stand, I'm a fan. A big fan.
That said, I do NOT love the ribbon on Office 2007 at work. I think it's a huge impediment vs. the menu interface. I'm asking that you NOT REPLACE THE MENU! If some people (new users, for example) want the ribbon, fine, but make it possible to run Office -- specifically Word and Excel -- the old way via the standard menu in addition to the ribbon. That is important to me and probably to most Office for Mac users (again, ignoring the haters who don't count anyway as they aren't actually customers).
Who knows, maybe the Office for Windows team could learn a thing or two from you guys?
The only other thing I need is for macro support to be added back in Excel.
Thanks for your consideration.
John.B
Put me down as another Ribbon hater. Ugh, what a terrible interface. Ever try working on two documents side be side? The ribbon becomes nearly unusable.
What I'd really love to see if if they could put a search box on the ribbon like what Apple did with the control panel in OSX. Then users could type in what they want to do and have the appropriate spot on the ribbon highlight so they know where to find the tool.
What I'd really love to see if if they could put a search box on the ribbon like what Apple did with the control panel in OSX. Then users could type in what they want to do and have the appropriate spot on the ribbon highlight so they know where to find the tool.
Now if they can optimize the load times that would be good. On my Core2 Duo Macbook, it takes like 10-20 seconds to load Office 2008. That is utterly unacceptable. I tend to use Pages more often as a result.
I wonder why they bother
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-microsoft-operating-income-by-division-2010-2
That's why. Note, they make their money on Office, number 1, then the OS, then their servers. The Xbox, Zune, etc., are just breaking even after years of losing money.
I've got to admit, in many contexts it will be good to have, after seven years or so, a Cocoa implementation of Outlook that can just import and export .pst files from and to Windows. Although it perpetuates the monstrosity that is Outlook.
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-microsoft-operating-income-by-division-2010-2
That's why. Note, they make their money on Office, number 1, then the OS, then their servers. The Xbox, Zune, etc., are just breaking even after years of losing money.
I've got to admit, in many contexts it will be good to have, after seven years or so, a Cocoa implementation of Outlook that can just import and export .pst files from and to Windows. Although it perpetuates the monstrosity that is Outlook.
I agree, it looks nicer than I thought. I still prefer Office for Mac over iWork. iWork is great for simple type of work but for advanced stuff, it sucks. Excel is far more powerful and intelligent than Numbers.
Hopefully Office 2011 is fully Cocoa-ized to the point that they can do optimization work to make it as fast as iWork. '08 SP2 was a major improvement but still slow.
I'm still not happy with the fact that MacBU isn't working on OneNote for the Mac. That's all I want, OneNote for Mac. Outlook is coming, so why not OneNote?
Office 2008 for Mac works great for me. I also do like the Office 2007 ribbon and can't stand the old menu bars that preceeded it. I will certainly be upgrading to the next Mac version. I never missed using visual basic, but am more excited about the PST support as well as the Time Machine support they have revised.
I do ask of one thing however. It needs more cowbell.
I do ask of one thing however. It needs more cowbell.
Or you could have simply got the PowerPoint viewer for those occasions, rather than switching to the dark side
That link is to the powerpoint viewer for windows. Funny that you said "rather than switching to the dark side". The viewer for mac, doesn't run on OS X, so if you want full compatibility you need the dark side (though even Office for Mac doesn't always look exactly like the windows version).