I am starting college in less than two weeks. My school recommends that all Mac users use MS OFFICE 2004 for Word and Powerpoint and Excel and whatnot. My school also sells Office 2004 for $75. I was planning on buying it in two weeks when I went up there. So should I buy it in two weeks or wait for the Mac verison of Office 2007 (when is the release date?) ? Is it possible that if I buy OFFICE 2004 now that I will be able to get an upgrade to 2007 for free? Thanks.
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Should I buy MS OFFICE 2004 for Mac or wait?
- Thread starter jason2811
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MacsomJRR said:I thought we'd see an updated version of Pages at WWDC that would provide better native word processing on the intel macs. No luck thoughMS is taking their sweet ass time with a universal version.
Apple uses Macworld to roll out their new versions of iLife and iWork, so you're going to have to wait until then. January actually isn't that far away. It feels like iLife '06 just came out... time goes WAY too fast.
Edit: I just re-read your post. I believe Pages is already native... I may be wrong, though. I couldn't imagine Apple releasing their first Intel Macs and not making iWork Intel-native ahead of time.
Edit again: Yep, it's native:
Edit for the last time: Bah! I re-read your post again! You said Microsoft is taking their time... I misread it.
Move on, people. Nothing to see hear... just someone who obviously needs some rest!
If you have an Intel Mac, I'd be very reluctant to buy Office 2004 right now, I would wait for the next release which will be Universal. Saying that, Word seems to run well through Rosetta.
If I was in your situation, I'd try what kainjow suggested and use NeoOffice, at least until Microsoft finally releases a Universal version of Office.
If I was in your situation, I'd try what kainjow suggested and use NeoOffice, at least until Microsoft finally releases a Universal version of Office.
Get it, it's worth the price and it just makes school easyer.
People, often PC users, are always wanking about compatability.
The accademic pack comes with 4 licence keys.
People, often PC users, are always wanking about compatability.
The accademic pack comes with 4 licence keys.
Depending on your classes, I'd echo the wait it out with NeoOffice or OpenOffice suggestion, except -
Office 2k4 has a lot of nice features and I like the layout. There is only one surefire bug that I had a habit of triggering while I was in school (it's in the notebook view on Word, which I haven't used since graduation). 2k7 for the Mac is supposed to look like 2k7 on the PC. Checking out the screenshots on Thurrott's site doesn't make me too happy. I prefer Word/Excel as is. Also, none of the new features is especially compelling. So, if it was me, I'd get Word 2k4 and be done with it. If you like the look and the expected features, then opensource until 2k7 (or iWork 07) is released
Office 2k4 has a lot of nice features and I like the layout. There is only one surefire bug that I had a habit of triggering while I was in school (it's in the notebook view on Word, which I haven't used since graduation). 2k7 for the Mac is supposed to look like 2k7 on the PC. Checking out the screenshots on Thurrott's site doesn't make me too happy. I prefer Word/Excel as is. Also, none of the new features is especially compelling. So, if it was me, I'd get Word 2k4 and be done with it. If you like the look and the expected features, then opensource until 2k7 (or iWork 07) is released
should def go with Office:mac 2004 because you will be needing it right away.
iWork '06 is amazing, but i dont think it is always 100% compatible with windows. Keynote (iWork's powerpoint) can view Powerpoint slideshows i believe... but i know for a fact Powerpoint cannot view slideshows created in Keynote.
this is why i went with Office:mac, because i need to present slideshows in class, and none of the professors at my university use macs. So it would be pointless to creat a project with Keynote, only to have a "unable to view file" error pop up when it is my turn to present.
but if you have the money to blow (or have other ways of aquiring which we will not discuss) give em both a try and see what you like better.
hope this helps
iWork '06 is amazing, but i dont think it is always 100% compatible with windows. Keynote (iWork's powerpoint) can view Powerpoint slideshows i believe... but i know for a fact Powerpoint cannot view slideshows created in Keynote.
this is why i went with Office:mac, because i need to present slideshows in class, and none of the professors at my university use macs. So it would be pointless to creat a project with Keynote, only to have a "unable to view file" error pop up when it is my turn to present.
but if you have the money to blow (or have other ways of aquiring which we will not discuss) give em both a try and see what you like better.
hope this helps
The university i just graduated from and now work At (LSU) had a deal with Microcrap to offer free software to all the students & Staff, so we are able to download it free. nah nah nah hehe
I hate Office so much, but its hard to go without.
ive been using pages recently and its nice.
nah nah nah heheI hate Office so much, but its hard to go without.
ive been using pages recently and its nice.
NeoOffice is definately your best bet. I use it on my MacBook Pro. It's free, open source and it can handle MS Office files: Word, Excel and I think even powerpoint. Go for neooffice it kills MS Office.
I'd buy it, because MS Office 2007 is going to take a while... Apps like Word adn Exel, only really slow down when there opening, after that i hear there pretty speedy
Buy it. Who knows when Office 2007 will actually be for sale and how good it'll be. iWork '07 may or may not be very good for what you want either. '04 will be fine for awhile. When '07 comes out, buy it or don't, no biggie.
bep207 said:
everything that I been reading is the office team has been on track and not having in delays that are there fault. Office 07 only delay is because of vista. Office 07 release was pushed back to line up with vista other wise it is still on track and not having delay issues.
kainjow said:
Yeah, I would suggest the same thing. I used OpenOffice on my linux laptop all through college and never had any compatibility problems. I am now using neo office on my mac since it is a native app (unlike OO). Try neo first, if you don't like it you could alway pick up MS Office or iWork. The apple education store has MS Office student edition for $99 (discount of $50).
bep207 said:
in all seriousness, though, doesn't MS release a Mac version a year after the Windows version? or was this just the case with Office 2003 (Windows) and Office:mac (2004)? i'm not sure about any releases before then.
MS has said they will release Office in the middle of next year for Windows, who knows how long it's going to take for them to get the Mac version out? Let's remember their track record for releasing new software (coughVistacough).
My advice: get both iWork '06 and Office:mac. Pages and Keynote are great but sometimes you'll need to share files with Windows users. If you can afford only one, Office is the way to go.
Office worry, quite concerning
Hi guys n' dolls,
I am new to all concerns Mac. I am going to be buying a Mac (my first one) in a couple of weeks time. Getting the MBP 17".
I am due to start Honours year at university (4th year) here in Scotlland, UK early September. MS Word is what I need more than anything else right now. It will be a crucial and extremely important application for my university year but all these concerns over Office is worrying me. I dare say that not having a good running MS Word will shatter any point in having a Mac right now.
I have read what you's have to say and I have also seen such issues about font corruptions etc. I simply cannot wait for 2007 and whenever a native version is due because uni is on my doorstep right now!!!
Main concerns;
1. Will I be able to save Office:Mac 2004 file and open it up on a Windows PC at university and print any essays etc? (don't have printer at home)
2. will deleting fonts for office to work (if this is the case as I have read) make them disappear in all other applications?
TS
Hi guys n' dolls,
I am new to all concerns Mac. I am going to be buying a Mac (my first one) in a couple of weeks time. Getting the MBP 17".
I am due to start Honours year at university (4th year) here in Scotlland, UK early September. MS Word is what I need more than anything else right now. It will be a crucial and extremely important application for my university year but all these concerns over Office is worrying me. I dare say that not having a good running MS Word will shatter any point in having a Mac right now.
I have read what you's have to say and I have also seen such issues about font corruptions etc. I simply cannot wait for 2007 and whenever a native version is due because uni is on my doorstep right now!!!
Main concerns;
1. Will I be able to save Office:Mac 2004 file and open it up on a Windows PC at university and print any essays etc? (don't have printer at home)
2. will deleting fonts for office to work (if this is the case as I have read) make them disappear in all other applications?
TS
Should work fine as long as you don't have any weird formatting. The Mac and PC versions both export to the same .doc files. Even then. Try typing something up in TextEdit though, and see if that works just as well. I use it to type up quick .rtf files, and they work fine on my PCs in Word 97-2003, sometimes even in Wordpad.tartansparkle said:
Go buy a printer though, they're cheap.
I don't really know why you would have to bother with Fonts. I never have a problem with them with the standard install. You don't want to go deleting anything, but if nothing else OS X has a built in Font management program called Font Book. Don't mess with it unless you have to though.