Office for Mac - Retina Resolution Issue (pic)

[nope7308]

I'm using Office for Mac 2011, but the resolution is inconsistent throughout. I have all of the updates installed.

Referencing the attached screenshot, you can see the poor resolution in the 'Styles' portion of the ribbon toolbar, in addition to the 'check for update' dialog box. This is on a 13" retina MBP. You may have to fullscreen the image to properly see the issue.

Is this common to all editions of Office for Mac, or is mine somehow messed up? It's minor cosmetic stuff, but it's driving me nuts!

 

[torchy]

It's standard behaviour. From what I recall different parts of Office (different parts of each program) render things in different ways. Some elements of the UI are text, others are essentially images (like the styles examples in the ribbon) and don't scale properly.

I'm hoping Office for Mac 2015 does a better job.

 

[nope7308]

It's standard behaviour. From what I recall different parts of Office (different parts of each program) render things in different ways. Some elements of the UI are text, others are essentially images (like the styles examples in the ribbon) and don't scale properly.

I'm hoping Office for Mac 2015 does a better job.

Wow, I know it's Microsoft, but that's pretty pathetic given how long Office 2011 has been out. You'd think they would have corrected this by now, but I guess not.

And so the wait continues...

 

[seasurfer]

That is the reason despite having the Office 365 subscription, I refuse to install Office on my retina iMac and retina MBP. The pixelted interface is simply ugly.

 

[maflynn]

Wow, I know it's Microsoft, but that's pretty pathetic given how long Office 2011 has been out. You'd think they would have corrected this by now, but I guess not.

And so the wait continues...

Updating Office for Mac is a process of frustration, they rarely seem to do it. I wonder if they'll ever update it to be Retina optimized/compatible. Look at google they're playing the same game, refusing to update their products for the retina display.

I don't think Office for the Mac is as good as its window's counterpart so I run the Windows version in bootcamp/Vmware. I get a better product that is more robust.

 

[petvas]

Most of the UI looks ok in Retina Macs, but the Microsoft Update app is not optimized for retina. In your screenshot you are showing exactly that..

 

[nope7308]

Most of the UI looks ok in Retina Macs, but the Microsoft Update app is not optimized for retina. In your screenshot you are showing exactly that..

It's much more pervasive than simply the update screen. Just look at the Ribbon toolbar -- the 'Font' icons are rendered correctly, but the icons for 'Paragraph' and 'Styles' are not. They're literally right beside each other, too.

If I didn't rely on MS Office for work, I would have ditched it years ago. It's a powerful program, but the UI is absolutely terrible and the overall design is just plain fugly.

I still hate the Ribbon toolbar -- it offers a cluttered view that doesn't improve my workflow one bit. I swear, the harder MS tries, the harder they fail.

 

[maflynn]

I still hate the Ribbon toolbar -- it offers a cluttered view that doesn't improve my workflow one bit. I swear, the harder MS tries, the harder they fail.

The band on the windows version is more useful and less obtrusive, but I agree with you. I don't like that whole setup. I much would rather have just a small toolbar which will leave more space to have my work.