I am using Office X now, but I am wondering if I should get Office 2004 or not? I am getting a new computer and will get Tiger. But I only use Office for Word, and very rarely for Excel or Powerpoint - very rarely. I think I'll be fine with the previous versions. Anyone have any advice on the differences?
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Office X vs Office 2004
- Thread starter indigoblu
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To my understanding it's just a bunch of bug fixes. I don't think they're are any real features, and if you have to ask about the difference, you probably don't need them
Not worth the upgrade IMHO.
Not worth the upgrade IMHO.
The only think I like more is that Equation Editor doesn't seem to have any trouble starting up when I try to use it (used to be a problem on Office X for me), and you're not limited to 32 character file names. I'm a file name junkie, and I hate being limited to 32 characters. Its stupid. That feature alone is worth $50 to me.
But for most people, the upgrade isn't worth it. However, it might be nice to get it for the sake of compatibility. Office 97 (if there's such a thing) on a PC technically works just as good as Office XP, but hey, I don't want to be behind in terms of compatibility.
But for most people, the upgrade isn't worth it. However, it might be nice to get it for the sake of compatibility. Office 97 (if there's such a thing) on a PC technically works just as good as Office XP, but hey, I don't want to be behind in terms of compatibility.
Apparently the latest version of EndNote doesn't work well with Office 2004. But if u dont use it then who cares!
I use Office 2004 (havent used Office X) and its great. No probs at all. I use word all the time. Havent used exel much this year because Im not doing an econometrics this year.
Don't upgrade if u dont need to but if u do im sure u wont have any issues.
I use Office 2004 (havent used Office X) and its great. No probs at all. I use word all the time. Havent used exel much this year because Im not doing an econometrics this year.
Don't upgrade if u dont need to but if u do im sure u wont have any issues.
Take notes, yo.
I find Office 2004 to be more responsive than X. One feature I use a lot is Word Notebook, which has tabbed pages and the ability to take dictation. I find it very useful when organizing/annotating my notes. Headers/sub-headers (etc) can be collapsed and expanded. I also enjoy the ability to track my progress by utilizing "note flags" which are just boxes you can check/uncheck.
Although you can link and record your comments (separately and a multiple number of times) to a specific line/paragraph/header (whatever) as needed, you cannot export dictation by section. You can only export the entire session for that page. Also, I find it essential to type out all my notes/outline before recording comments. It gets buggy otherwise (ex. the recording does not attach itself where you THINK it should be). Other than that, this feature is FANTASTIC in my opinion.
I find Office 2004 to be more responsive than X. One feature I use a lot is Word Notebook, which has tabbed pages and the ability to take dictation. I find it very useful when organizing/annotating my notes. Headers/sub-headers (etc) can be collapsed and expanded. I also enjoy the ability to track my progress by utilizing "note flags" which are just boxes you can check/uncheck.
Although you can link and record your comments (separately and a multiple number of times) to a specific line/paragraph/header (whatever) as needed, you cannot export dictation by section. You can only export the entire session for that page. Also, I find it essential to type out all my notes/outline before recording comments. It gets buggy otherwise (ex. the recording does not attach itself where you THINK it should be). Other than that, this feature is FANTASTIC in my opinion.
indigoblu said:
Do you use Entourage? That seems to be the most improved. But I don't use too many advanced features in Word or Excel.
busasa,
can you elaborate on the unicode implementation in 2004? i've been using word x., and i do some work that mixes japanese and english in the same document. most of the time it seems to work fine, but every so often i get formatting problems opening up files others have worked on. i hadn't thought 2004 would be worth it, but this is a feature i'm very interested in...
can you elaborate on the unicode implementation in 2004? i've been using word x., and i do some work that mixes japanese and english in the same document. most of the time it seems to work fine, but every so often i get formatting problems opening up files others have worked on. i hadn't thought 2004 would be worth it, but this is a feature i'm very interested in...
I would get the 2004 version. It seems a little faster to me, and I don't think it's a good idea to invest in old technology, unless your buying it as a secondary thing, not something you rely on.
Between the Notebook view in Word, the much-improved toolbar in Powerpoint, and the Project Center in Entourage, I'm very happy with 2004. It's also nice to finally be able to see the page layout in Excel.
i only use word and excel, and have found the improvements in both worth it. excel's new views are very useful, and i like the note layout feature in word...not a huge improvement from a technical standpoint, but the aesthetics are better. does NOT work with endnote 6.x, so you have to upgrade to 7 (i didn't...three upgrades in 5 years!?).
I must say spend you cash on something else worth wild! However, I have 2004 and entourage is suprisingly very useful! The calandar and e-mail feature rock!
Well, since the language I'm working with the most is Chinese, I'm not too familiar with how things work for Japanese. However, my guess is that in the window's world all the foreign text are being coded in unicode, which is now the universal standard for all word documents. Before in Office X, it did not use unicode as its coding system, and that's why anything you typed in Office X may not display correctly in the window's version. I didn't know that until I found out I could never open any chinese doc. successfully in Office X created by Office Suite in Windows. While OS X does support unicode natively as proved by its Textedit program, Office X did not incorporate that feature as it was one of those early OS X releases that didn't fully take advantages of the OS X. Hope the above information helped you.
PS: Openoffice does support unicode as well, but then I didn't feel it will provide the universal compatbility that Office 2004 brings.
PS: Openoffice does support unicode as well, but then I didn't feel it will provide the universal compatbility that Office 2004 brings.