Third Office for Mac 2011 Beta Reveals New Icons, Splash Screens, and More

[Steve Ballmer]

This is Word in its four main levels of Ribbon-ness.

Ribbon open.
View attachment 227660

Ribbon closed.
View attachment 227661

Ribbon off.
View attachment 227662

Toolbar off.
View attachment 227663

If you genuinely can't find a Ribbon level that you can live with, then there's very little hope for you. (You can also turn off the toolbar independent of the state of the Ribbbon for even more combinations.)

That's looking quite nice, much better than what Beta 2 looked like. I'm hoping I can come across a copy of Beta 3 somewhere, since I'm really looking forward to trying it out. I never cared much for Entourage, but I'm hearing good things about Outlook.

 

[iMat77]

as long as it's FAST

Personally I would only consider Office as long as it is WAY faster than the current version and much less crash prone.

My guess is that the next version of iWork will get closer to Office than the current one. I also guess that the next version of OSX will have some major enhancements in mail.app, calendar.app and address book. They are largely unchanged since I have switched to Mac (OS 10.4). After the "under the hood" changes I think it will be time for some major changes in the OS...

That said, I wonder if Office will still be a must have. I find myself using it less and less (particularly appreciated is Pages in the current version). The only really, truly great software Microsoft ever produced is, in my opinion, Excel. That is basically the only software I currently need of the Office suite. Numbers is still inferior in many aspects.

iPhone/iPad OS 4 will show how Mail, Calendar and Address book are going to be on the new OS version. And, from what I have seen in iPad, it seems a nice implementation.

The main current issues I have with Office are:
- biblical load times
- no macros

I also found myself appreciating more the "many small programs" approach Apple has (Mail, Calendar, Address book) compared to the "one programs rules it all" that Microsoft has with Outlook. But I guess others will disagree.

All in all, Office better be FAST, RELIABLE and integrated in other iDevices if it wants to be successfull. I guess that Microsoft backing HTML 5, together with their Office Online idea, has something to do with that. Store all on the "Microsoft cloud" and access it on every iDevice, PC, Mac... (sort of like iWork.com now has).

 

[batchtaster]

The fact that you're bothered by a splash screen is quite reaching.

And a splash-screen you'll see for all of 2 seconds, at that. I can barely read anything on any of the splash screens: http://screencast.com/t/NWVlMmJjOGMt

Personally I would only consider Office as long as it is WAY faster

See above.

 

[applevx]

And a splash-screen you'll see for all of 2 seconds, at that. I can barely read anything on any of the splash screens: http://screencast.com/t/NWVlMmJjOGMt


Thanks, that's the point!

 

[batchtaster]

Thanks, that's the point!

So, it's not a problem then.

Did you know that Mac OS X 10.4's startup progress bar was a placebo? It didn't actually measure the progress of anything. But it made you feel better, secure in the knowledge that something was happening.

 

[Ex2bot]

Couldn't Resist!

Re: my last post

The icons are fine. After reading all the comments, I couldn't resist being a smart-Alec.

 

[Tanguyvd]

I love how the majority of comments and discussion is about the icons and not the programs themselves feature,speed and usability wise. Typical mac users only caring about looks just has to be nice and Shiny. But seriously I like the icons reminds me of fingerprinting back in the day except the ugly Messenger icon come on time for a update. But do people still use messenger on mac? except for the corporate OCS stuff?

speed and features have been discussed... not much i agree, but since the only thing we c now are the icons, and we mac-users do like some good ol' M$ bashing... let's aim on the icons. they actually do remind me of a previous Office Mac version... a little '04 in there?

on the application itself... i'm looking forward to the performances and memory drain being solved since '08,...

(but i can do what i want on Pages, so i'm curious - not thrilled)

 

[bigjnyc]

Read my mind. Even going back to 2001 and Office v.X the icons looked decent. Until now.

As for productivity, I'd love to be able to give up the sluggish and non-intuitive Office suite but sadly can't because of enforced compatibility with my knuckle-dragging PC colleagues.

Much prefer the Apple equivalents. Pages is superb, Numbers the equal of Excel (don't use much regardless) but the killer app is Keynote, which is a pterodactyl-sized pigeon to Powerpoint's statue.

Numbers can't even tie excels shoe laces

 

[impierced]

Please explain how EWS is broken, particularly as iPhone and Windows Mobile devices use the same interface.

EWS and Mail.app both use WebServices, iPhones, Windows Mobile, and Android devices use ActiveSync. Two completely different APIs. ActiveSync is intended for short bursts of data, sync'ng a few email messages at a time, it's not used for desktop applications.

Getting hung up on MAPI or not-MAPI is stupid. As long as you can get out of the thing what you need, who cares if it's MAPI or little mice running back and forth between between your computer and the server? And more specifically, you don't know what's involved in accomplishing what you're suggesting, particularly when it comes to porting to the multitude of platforms that access Exchange. It's all very easy to say they should be throwing all their resources at doing it when it's not you who needs to actually do it. So, once it's on the Mac, what about Android? iPhone? Everything else? Everyone will be crying poor. Never mind the fact that it's a closed box that was originally built years ago. Web Services is HTTP (natch). As long as they progress Web Services to feature parity, that's all that matters.

You're absolutely correct on people getting hung up on MAPI. MAPI is a dated protocol and is depreciated with each new release of Outlook for the PC (I believe all new calls use WebServices).

However, and it's unfortunate, but the reality is that MAPI is (currently) a more feature rich set of calls.

My biggest problem is that Outlook for Mac is essentially Entourage with a new skin. All the dialog boxes are from Entourage, as are all the old bugs that seem to have come along for the ride. Though I believe they've changed the error code of other users calendar items not syncing to -19999 though so that's different.

No side by side calendar viewing.
No server side rules.
No linking of .pst files (importing is not the same thing).
No archiving to .pst files (compatibility reasons, and what the hell is .olm).
No business card view for contacts (ok, that one is just me nitpicking).
Attachments are still encoded prior to uploading, which means when size restrictions are enabled, Mac users are limited to 75% of the true limit.


WebServices is a great improvement over WebDAV for sure, but this still isn't Outlook... and not because it doesn't use MAPI.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

Numbers can't even tie excels shoe laces

Numbers is not even in the same dimension as Excel. Excel is more than just spreadsheets.

EWS and Mail.app both use WebServices, iPhones, Windows Mobile, and Android devices use ActiveSync. Two completely different APIs. ActiveSync is intended for short bursts of data, sync'ng a few email messages at a time, it's not used for desktop applications.



You're absolutely correct on people getting hung up on MAPI. MAPI is a dated protocol and is depreciated with each new release of Outlook for the PC (I believe all new calls use WebServices).

However, and it's unfortunate, but the reality is that MAPI is (currently) a more feature rich set of calls.

My biggest problem is that Outlook for Mac is essentially Entourage with a new skin. All the dialog boxes are from Entourage, as are all the old bugs that seem to have come along for the ride. Though I believe they've changed the error code of other users calendar items not syncing to -19999 though so that's different.

No side by side calendar viewing.
No server side rules.
No linking of .pst files (importing is not the same thing).
No archiving to .pst files (compatibility reasons, and what the hell is .olm).
No business card view for contacts (ok, that one is just me nitpicking).
Attachments are still encoded prior to uploading, which means when size restrictions are enabled, Mac users are limited to 75% of the true limit.


WebServices is a great improvement over WebDAV for sure, but this still isn't Outlook... and not because it doesn't use MAPI.

Though you bring up good points calling Outlook Entourage with a new skin is far from the truth.

 

[lewis82]

The icons are really the least Mac-like they could make.

They're not even better than the previous ones.

*Copies the .icns of office 2008*

 

[w.yaqoob]

Don't understand why the fuss about the ribbon

Someone said it earlier. You can customise the interface easily, to your hearts content, to the point where you can barely see anything other than the page.

Word 2008, despite all its sluggishness, has some features and so much flexibility that made it impossible for me to switch to Pages.

- the autocorrect and spellchecker functions are brilliant. Fast and easy to use. Real timesaver.
- you can customise the menus as much as you want. I only have 5 menubar options with no more than 5 commands in each. Together with disabling the font menu, it now has a less cluttered GUI than pretty much all the other workflow apps I use on my mac
- unlike most other os x apps, you can set keyboard shortcuts for all functions, down to the most obscure, and regardless of whether they're displayed in menus. e.g. I use cmd+ctrl+a to add a word to the autocorrect library, or using Bettertouchtool, I can map a three-finger tap on my mbp touchpad to a keyboard shortcut to paste plain text, a three finger click to add comment, etc etc

forget the icons. for my purposes, my main problems with word 2008 were its painfully slow startup time, lack of integration with os x services, poor fullscreen and note-taking mode.

2011 appears to have solved the first (rapid startup), works great for the second (can use it with Launchbar, finally!), and is ok on the third. the last doesn't look like its going to be remedied - nowhere near as good as onenote (or circus ponies notebook and scrivener!)

 

[bigjnyc]

This looks pretty nice and I love that video showing how fast it is. Has anyone found the beta 3 yet? I am running beta 2 and got the expiration extended. Can't seem to find the beta 3 in the usual spots yet. If anyone can point me in the right direction please PM me.

 

[Cougarcat]

Thanks for the videos. Looks like Office has (finally) caught up to iWork in speed.

 

[impierced]

Though you bring up good points calling Outlook Entourage with a new skin is far from the truth.

Fair enough, I'd argue just how far from the truth it actually is, but I might have been a bit harsh in my wording.

Keep in mind that Exchange 2010's Outlook Web Access appears to be more feature rich than the dedicated Mac client. That makes me sad.

 

[jc1350]

No server side rules.

Still? That really irritates me.

I don't see any mention of sharepoint integration, either. Sharepoint gets shoved down my throat at work.

Looks like I won't be giving up my Windows VM after all.

 

[MikhailT]

And a splash-screen you'll see for all of 2 seconds, at that. I can barely read anything on any of the splash screens: http://screencast.com/t/NWVlMmJjOGMt



See above.

Is that on a SSD or what HD?

 

[chugg]

How did they manage to make the icons worse than 2008?

Still no Access, Visio, Project, OneNote... ugh.

 

[Analog Kid]

Please explain how EWS is broken, particularly as iPhone and Windows Mobile devices use the same interface.

That is a matter of opinion. As I already said, Entourage was built out of Outlook Express for Mac, so the UI was naturally expanded from that. And now they've thrown the whole thing away and started again, and people are still not happy. If you want them to keep on with the Entourage/Outlook Express 5.x codebase, then I'd write Microsoft now before it gets any further along.

Getting hung up on MAPI or not-MAPI is stupid. As long as you can get out of the thing what you need, who cares if it's MAPI or little mice running back and forth between between your computer and the server? And more specifically, you don't know what's involved in accomplishing what you're suggesting, particularly when it comes to porting to the multitude of platforms that access Exchange. It's all very easy to say they should be throwing all their resources at doing it when it's not you who needs to actually do it. So, once it's on the Mac, what about Android? iPhone? Everything else? Everyone will be crying poor. Never mind the fact that it's a closed box that was originally built years ago. Web Services is HTTP (natch). As long as they progress Web Services to feature parity, that's all that matters.

You completely sidestepped my question: why two protocols? The only reason one company would implement two different protocols over this many years is in order to differentiate. As in to make different.

If EWS was really the greatest thing since sliced bread, and we should all be thrilled to have it, then Win Outlook would use it.

And don't give me this "oh it's so hard to port" argument. It's data on a wire. You can port MAPI to a dozen different platforms, or you can port EWS to a dozen different platforms.

So what's broken about EWS? It's not what Windows Outlook uses. Plain and simple. Until both applications use the same interface, they'e different. "Improved compatibility with Exchange" has been an Mac Office selling point for generations and I've learned that it's the carrot in front of the horse.

I'm glad to hear they're "progressing" towards feature parity, but that statement in itself admits that they aren't there. That, in summary, is my point.

(And, since I do have other things to do in my life, let me say now that if you don't hear from me again it's not because I'm just here to snipe at MS, it's because I'm done.)

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

And a splash-screen you'll see for all of 2 seconds, at that. I can barely read anything on any of the splash screens: http://screencast.com/t/NWVlMmJjOGMt



See above.

Thank you for finding this.

 

[lewis82]

Again, my question is: will it support Office 2007 equations?

These are really important to me (chemistry lab reports), and it sucks because they are not compatible between school computers and mine.

 

[xgman]

I've just installed beta 3 and it seems miles better than beta 2, both in looks and functionality.

 

[TheSlush]

Looks like Microsoft ripped off the Network Solutions logo: http://www.networksolutions.com/

 

[-SD-]

I'm really looking forward to Office 2011, although I do have to agree the icons are a bit crap. I replaced my '08 ones with the '04 ones.

I've never used OneNote, but the way you lot go on about it, I feel that my life is incomplete without a Mac version.

 

[wjcapehart]

Add me to the list of people who wants OneNote and Visio in a native Mac Form... I've tried a lot of the alternatives but there is still no substitute for OneNote.

The Icons? Bleh. I'll take the ones from Office 2008 and replace the 2011's with 'em, but will Outlook's dock icon do the bouncywouncy mail notification with the envelope with the old entourage icons (and does it do it with the new version with the Outlook Icon)? I hate to admit it but I like that little annoying little "feature."