Office 2008 - What is it like?

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what is the new office 2008 like in your opinion?

Is it much better than 2004? I have 2004 but Im using pages as I prefer it. I think I will probably get 2008 if its a big upgrade as all the systems in my university are windows and use office and having to export the documents all the time is a pain.

If i save an office 2008 document on a mac, to get it to run and display correctly exactly how it should do in office 2007 on windows, will I have to export it or save it as a set format or will it just work straight out the box so to speak?
 
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Office 2008 documents will work just fine with Office 2007, no conversion necessary.

I just got Office 2008 yesterday and while I haven't spent much time with it (will be spending quite a bit of time with Word once the semester starts next week), it definitely seems snappier than Office 2004. It also looks more refined and fits in quite well with Leopard. Also, the Ribbon is very nice, but then again, I like the Ribbon in Office 2007 as well. From the reviews I see that you can customize it, so I'm gonna go give that a try eventually.

Overall, I think it's a worthy upgrade for those with Intel Macs.
 
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thanks, I'll get it.
 
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what is the new office 2008 like in your opinion?

Is it much better than 2004? I have 2004 but Im using pages as I prefer it. I think I will probably get 2008 if its a big upgrade as all the systems in my university are windows and use office and having to export the documents all the time is a pain.

If i save an office 2008 document on a mac, to get it to run and display correctly exactly how it should do in office 2007 on windows, will I have to export it or save it as a set format or will it just work straight out the box so to speak?

Entourage is ALOT faster and it just feels more stable. It copied my settings over from 2004 with no issues.

Like the previous poster...it fits (the looks) tons better.
 
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Is there an Office 2008 trial?
 
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No trial version, at least not listed on Mactopia (Microsoft's Mac page).

In the screenshots I saw, between the menubar and the ribbon it's seems like a LOT of the upper part of the screen is taken up compared to '04 where you just have the top ruler. Is there a way to customize so not so much screen real estate is taken up?
 
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If you are running an Intel mac, then Office 2008 is a no brainer. It is so much faster than the previous one. Otherwise, there are a lot of UI changes and features that make it look more like a Mac application.

However, I use iWork :)
 
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I use iWork too, but I have been toying with the idea of getting Office 2008.
 
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Office only makes sense if you are working with many PC users, that is, exchanging word files and such. Pages can open the occasional word file or even export it, but doing it regularly is really ideal. As for me, I work start to finish in Pages outputting it as a PDF.
 
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Too bad they didn't add visual basic macros back. Its still not compatible with its own counterpart with excel or word macros that were encoded with the Windows Office VB macro set. I have lots of excel and word macro loaded workbooks and document forms from my job created with Office 2003 and 2007 for Windows and none of them work in Mac Office 2004 or 2008 which truly sucks. Thats the only reason I spent the money was to see if they would work at home where I wouldnt have to lug the office Windows laptop back and forth. The interface in excel and word is different. Not really better, just different. Functionality is basically the same as 2004 unless there is something hidden that I haven't found yet. I definitely will not be wasting my money on Office 2012 for Mac.
 
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I have it now and I have had a quick play with word.

I have to say I prefer office 2007 on windows to this mac 2008 vershion but it is an improvment over office mac 2004 and its similer to the windows vershions than iwork.

Im not sure im to keen on the weird equivalent to the ribbon bar that mac office 2008 has and I find the one on windows to be much better.

Im sure I will get used to it and it has replaced iPages in my applicational arsinal.
 
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You cannot open Entourage 2008 in two separate windows like you could 2004. I would open a window for email and one for my calendar, but not any longer.
 
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Office only makes sense if you are working with many PC users, that is, exchanging word files and such. Pages can open the occasional word file or even export it, but doing it regularly is really ideal. As for me, I work start to finish in Pages outputting it as a PDF.

While working with PC Users is important, I disagree that that is the only reason to use Office over iWork.

IMHO, Pages is still not fully ready for prime time yet. Word dances circles around Pages in ease of use and flexibility. If all you want to do is use a pre-made iWork template or write a simple letter, then Pages can do that easily. Anything more difficult/demanding and Pages just isn't as good as Word.
 
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Which is better is really a matter of opinion.

But neither are that great if you don't have money. I vote NeoOffice ^_^
 
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If you are running an Intel mac, then Office 2008 is a no brainer. It is so much faster than the previous one. Otherwise, there are a lot of UI changes and features that make it look more like a Mac application.

However, I use iWork :)

I used to use iWork primarily because it was faster and better looking than Word. However, now that Office is a Universal binary, I don't think I'll be using iWork as often (with the exception of Keynote, it's much better than Powerpoint).
 
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Different people, different opinions. I just find pages easier to work with than Word. And this is not just coming from a macboy. I honestly feel that way. Maybe cause I'm very used to it. I just know that I never got good looking output from Word, the way I do with pages. The way you can drag and drop images, move them around, move text boxes, access iLife Media, it all just works for me.
 
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You're right about Pages being better in its ability to handle more than just text. Which is why I will use Pages when something I'm working on calls for it. However, when it's just text, I'm going to use Word.
 
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To me, when it comes to 'just text', I find no differences in TextEdit, Word or Pages. It's the same thing.
 
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Anyone think MS purposefully left out VB macros to cripple the Mac version of Office so many people would be forced to continue using Windows and Office on their Macs? I think it's a pretty low thing to pull. I don't have any use for it yet, but I know I will in the near future in my career, and I'm not happy that there will be yet another reason why I have to have this partition and other OS on my already too small 120GB drive.
 

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I just installed Office 2008 on my MacBook yesterday and while it does look great, I haven't really notice any difference in speed. PowerPoint does seem a little snapier, but Word shows no improvement on my machine... :Grimmace:
 

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