Office v.X or Office 2004?

[india349]

Hi guys.

I posted a while back about a PowerBook G4 867 Mhz 12" that I had recently acquired. I am now wondering which version of Office I should install. I have all three OS X versions and I installed all three just for kicks. I'm running Leopard 10.5.8.

Office 2008 was as slow as molasses, even with the RAM maxed out. Hehe, so that one is a definite no go.

On the other hand, Word 2004 and v.X run at...nearly the same speed. It's almost imperceptible, except v.X is slightly faster, as I would predict because it is older. It launches faster, keeps up with typing faster, and didn't seem to be too finicky about running on Leopard, which is good. v.X also uses half the RAM and half the CPU cycles of 2004 with the same documents open. But, for all intents and purposes, that's sort of a moot point, as it's not really perceptible, and on the surface, they look nearly identical.

I'm wondering which of the Office suites (primarily Word) I should keep. I'm not at a premium for space, but it doesn't make too much sense to install two versions of Office unless you really need it. While the obvious answer is to keep 2004 for the security updates, DOCX compatibility, and Unicode support (which I do require, on occasion), this isn't my primary machine and the PowerBook is definitely NO speed demon with Leopard and a processor not measured in gigahertz.

Does anyone have any experience with the older versions that would like to share?

Thanks
- india349

 

[MisterMe]

Hi guys.

...

Thanks
- india349

Is this a serious question? Office v.X is not part of a serious discussion. Office 2004 was the most compatible version of Office on any platform. Entourage 2004 was the first version to include Exchange server compatibility [beyond IMAP]. It was the last version of Office to include VBA.

Office 2008 includes support for Microsoft's XML-based formats. It does not support most older Office formats. It also does not support VBA. Support for Exchange server is improved except for Entourage 13. With Entourage 13, it is Exchange 2007 or no Exchange.

My advice to you is to install Office 2004 and Office 2008 to cover all of your bases. When Office 2011 becomes available, then you may install it to replace Office 2008. Office 2011 will support VBA. Office 2004 is your best bet if you deal with older Microsoft formats. Keep it.

 

[india349]

Had you actually read my post, you'll notice a few problems with your "idea".

I have no need for Exchange support in Entourage. Nor VBA in any Office app. So I can safely ignore your first two paragraphs.

Office 2008 runs unbearably slow. I mean, it takes a minute for Word to open a document, even after the app has been launched on the system a few times prior. That's not going to cut it, I think, for anyone who just wants to jot something down.

Finally, Office 2011 is Intel-only. Not that if it was Universal, it'd be any faster than 2008. It won't run on my PowerBook, not now, not ever, not even if I had rocket engines on the CPU.

My "serious question" is whether or not Word X is still useful today and if I could get away with it on a non-primary computer for light word processing on an older Leopard-running machine or if 2004 really is a better deal.

-india349