What version of Office has smallest footprint

[cheekyjeremy]

With disk space being at a premium on the new MacBook Air, and with myself being a very basic user when it comes to office applications, I was wondering what Microsoft office version takes up the least space. Over the years I have accumulated 2004, 2008 and was considering the new version. Only interested in excel and word installations. Any idea which one takes up the least space ?

thanks in advance

 

[Matthew Yohe]

I assume software just bloats and gets larger with new versions, but there's no way that you want to run 2004 on an intel machine.

 

[iPhone1]

If you're that worried about space, try Google Docs.

 

[RedTomato]

In the Office installer, look for the advanced / custom install button (will be on one of the screens near the start of the install process). You can deselect everything except the core components and Word / Excel to save some space. IRRC the main hogs are clip art, help files, grammar checkers, dictionaries etc.

If you deselect all dictionaries, OSX may use its own spell checker, maybe not. You can probably re-run Office install and install one of the Word English spelling dictionaries if you need it.

 

[cheekyjeremy]

Thank you for the suggestions

 

[MacDawg]

Office 2011 is really the only choice here

2004>2008 in so many ways even though it ran in Rosetta

2011 is a big improvement over both
Install 2011 and do the custom install and cut all you do not want

 

[RedTomato]

Office 2011 is really the only choice here

2004>2008 in so many ways even though it ran in Rosetta

2011 is a big improvement over both
Install 2011 and do the custom install and cut all you do not want

I run 2008 here and it's fine. The OP said he's a very basic user of office apps, so I would suggest installing whichever is the latest version he already owns, (minus the unneeded components) and not worry too much over which version is marginally better or marginally smaller.

OP, you can also save several gigs by deleting Garage Band sound tracks (if you have GarageBand installed) and deleting all printer drivers for printers that you don't own or use.