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On PowerPC, Should I upgrade MS Office?

Heb1228

Heb1228

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Feb 3, 2004
2,217
1
Virginia Beach, VA
My wife has a MacBook, so we got Student/Teacher Office 2008. I already put it on her machine, but I am wondering if I should upgrade on my Powerbook as well. Can anyone relay their experience going from 2004 to 2008 on a PowerPC machine? Is it worth the upgrade or am I better off staying with '04?
 
According to Engadget/TUAW it is a little slower on a PPC machine, but it supports the nex docx and xlsx file types from Office '07 so if you do any work with PC users, it is almost a requirement.

I'm upgrading just so I have the compatibility.

TEG
 
I'll go ahead an answer my own question, just for the benefit of anyone wondering the same thing I did. I went ahead and installed Office 2008 on my Powerbook and left the 2004 version installed in case I wanted to go back. Within 24 hours, I was back using version 2004. Here were my reasons:

1. The apps take too long to load compared to the older version.
2. They save to xml format by default, making it more difficult to share documents with other people (who may not have an up-to-date version or the conversion tool... ie read 'my grandma').
3. They make poor use of screen real estate with those new tabs at the top of each window.
4. The icons are ugly in my dock.

That said, I'm leaving 2008 installed for when I need to open a .docx or .xlsx file, but for little other than that. I'll only use them when absolutely necessary.
 
I dont think there is compelling reason for PPC users to upgrade office 2008.
 
I have to say that from simply seeing it being used in Leopard on Intel that it seems 'clunkier' shall we say than 2004, so I wouldn't be too optimistic about getting to much out of it on a PowerPC (re: my iBook). I could have it, but simply don't need it. I think Heb's solution is the best; simply keep it if you really need and have space/ etc. Also apparently it's very clunky with Spaces and Expose.
 
Just FYI... it is possible in Word 2008 to set the default document type to .doc rather than the new .docx version. Also, MS has a free XML file converter for Mac that will convert the new XML docs to the older format which is 2004 compatible. The link for it is here
 
soctechnologist said:
Just FYI... it is possible in Word 2008 to set the default document type to .doc rather than the new .docx version. Also, MS has a free XML file converter for Mac that will convert the new XML docs to the older format which is 2004 compatible. The link for it is here
Click to expand...

I would do that.

The new formats offer many benefits, but compatibility will come first for many people.

You can do the same in Office 2007 for Windows if you use it.
 
Daveoc64 said:
The new formats offer many benefits...
Click to expand...

All benefits are completely negated by the poor quality of the applications.

It's as if the Mac Business Unit is down to a handful of developers who are working with a terrible code base.

Of the 4 applications, only Entourage is working acceptably. And that's probably because they did very few 'enhancements' to it. Word and Powerpoint have too many bugs to be of use. For that reason I'm not letting Excel near anything important.
 
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