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Why is Powerpoint 2008 so slow on the new Macbook Pro? Old Sony VAIO is faster!

V

vader1990

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 23, 2008
220
2
Hi,

Do you guys know why PowerPoint 2008 is so slow on the new Macbook Pro. I am a new Mac switcher, and my old Sony Vaio [2.0 GHZ and 3GB DDR2] is much faster than the Macbook Pro [new 2.4 GHz model]!

Why is this? IS it because its "micrsoft"?

Anything I can do?

Thanks!!
 
That would be on Microsofts side, there version of Office for the mac is from what I hear, a joke.

I think it relies on emulation to run.
 
The office 2008 on Mac is horrible! Why can't they do a direct port of Office 2007!
 
It runs fine on my computer. I would have rather have gone with iWork, but due to work requirements I went with the horribly overpriced MS Office suite for like $350. Ugh.
 
polaris20 said:
It runs fine on my computer. I would have rather have gone with iWork, but due to work requirements I went with the horribly overpriced MS Office suite for like $350. Ugh.
Click to expand...

Not to repeat myself from another thread, but I bought iWork and wish I had just stuck with OpenOffice. It reads and writes the MS Office files well, which is important to me.
 
TheHoff said:
Not to repeat myself from another thread, but I bought iWork and wish I had just stuck with OpenOffice. It reads and writes the MS Office files well, which is important to me.
Click to expand...

Well, too late for me anyway. Oo_O is a nice suite though. If I was paying for everything, I'd have stuck with that.
 
NT1440 said:
That would be on Microsofts side, there version of Office for the mac is from what I hear, a joke.

I think it relies on emulation to run.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's running on emulation, it's just terrible software. I hate my life for using it.
 
If you need to use Office formats for work - i.e. send/receive business critical documents DO NOT be tempted to use iWork or OpenOffice or anything else for that matter. They do not work 100%, there will always be some incompatibilities/funnies.

Its not perfect - even Office 2008 has a few funnies e.g. fonts that look terrible in Windows etc - but it does 'work' and lets you collaborate on MS Office files to a point where you can be 99.9% sure that the guy running Vista receiving those files can see what you wrote.

I am a .Net developer writing sections of a large HLD with track changes/comments/custom styles etc etc and I would not trust that too another app.
 
Why would anyone pay bow-kew $$ for MS Office when OpenOffice is free???
 
RealEvil said:
If you need to use Office formats for work - i.e. send/receive business critical documents DO NOT be tempted to use iWork or OpenOffice or anything else for that matter. They do not work 100%, there will always be some incompatibilities/funnies.
Click to expand...
Uhm that is exactly what I have been doing for years, never had a single issue, and meanwhile OpenOffice keeps getting better.
 
2008 is buggy, slow, unreliable, and crashes. And to think it's UB! Even the PowerPC Office 2004 runs faster on Intel machines. Had it not been for compatibility issues, I would've gone with 2004. But I have iWork anyways, so... yeah...
 
macrem said:
Why would anyone pay bow-kew $$ for MS Office when OpenOffice is free???
Click to expand...

Or when most of the office compatibility requirements are covered with the home/student edition.

Unless you really need the Exchange support for work.
 
macrem said:
Uhm that is exactly what I have been doing for years, never had a single issue, and meanwhile OpenOffice keeps getting better.
Click to expand...

And it's free! :D

I mainly use iWork for stuff that I don't need to give to Windows users, where I just need a hard copy. Otherwise I use OpenOffice, which is great!
 
Office 2008 substitutes...

I'm thinking about getting a new MBP. I currently have a PowerBook G4 and running Office 2008 is absolute torture. One thing I was looking forward to was finally being able to run the MS Office suite apps smoothly. Can anyone else report that it is as sluggish as the thread starter states on the new machines?

Also, I'm open to using new office suites, but are iWork or OpenOffice really viable substitutes? I'm a student and am constantly accessing documents originally formatted on PCs and for the file formats to be slightly different would be a huge issue. Is Pages really as good as Word? The Macworld software review says, a not so definite, no.
 
I'll confirm for you that yes Office 2008 is slow, it is painfully slow, when you can open Illustrator quicker, that is saying something. Go for Open Office
 
Office 2008 for Mac is totally crap. The programs within it take ages to open and the package overall has less functionality than its Windows counterpart. Office 2007 is blazingly fast as Microsoft worked hard on it but sadly they don't care about Mac users. Constant massive updates show how crap it is. It's nothing to do with the Mac itself, if you put Windows on VMWare or Bootcamp and install Office 2007 it will be fast.
 
nitewolfgtr said:
The office 2008 on Mac is horrible! Why can't they do a direct port of Office 2007!
Click to expand...

They've never done a direct port. Office 2007 also sucks.... but then I don't particularly like 2008 either.

I like 2001 and 2004 on the Mac side.... and 2003 on the PC side. 2007 is distracting as hell with that obnoxious little pulsing thing.... ugh. When I get a MacBook I'm running 2004 under emulation, I don't care.
 
M. Malone said:
I don't think it's running on emulation, it's just terrible software. I hate my life for using it.
Click to expand...

Hmmm Ill have to look further into that, i can recall reading on these forums that is uses something to translate the code and then run it on OSX (im vaguely recalling the word rosetta or something of that nature for some reason)

I could be wrong tho, it could just be terribly coded.
 
yup, 2008 seriously blows. I currently have 5 options though, which makes it nice :D
1) Office 2007 under parallels (guarantees it will work with windows)
2) Office 2007 under CrossOver (some wonkiness with the fonts, but doesn't chew battery like running a whole other OS does...)
3) iWork (this is great when only you need it, but you must export to .pptx, etc. an such, and it doesn't work quite the same)
4) OpenOffice (works great, but not as pretty / not as many bells and whistles)
5) Office 2004 for Mac. (Not as pretty, doesn't like xml formats)
6) Office 2008 for Mac. (only use when I absolutely have to which is... oh wait, NEVER! :D)

Ya, I have my options open! One of the things that is making me lean towards a PC in the future is the fact that it can run Office 2007 "normally". In my opinion, 2007 is the best office ever, and Microsoft more or less vomited something out and released it as 2008 for Mac. It is the biggest POS software in the world, and sticks you between a rock and a hard place if you NEED halfway decent office software for wrok/school...
 
NT1440 said:
Hmmm Ill have to look further into that, i can recall reading on these forums that is uses something to translate the code and then run it on OSX (im vaguely recalling the word rosetta or something of that nature for some reason)

I could be wrong tho, it could just be terribly coded.
Click to expand...

haha you hit the nail on the head. :D

One forum member, nadyne, I believe, seems to work at Microsoft and has said that a lot of the problems come from Apple's side. I disagree though, seeing as Office '08 is the only program that is anywhere near it's own level of crap-ness...
 
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