Word 2008 Question

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So first, let me say that Word 2008 sucks. OK, now on to my question...

Whenever I press enter to go to the next line it creates like a half space between the new line and the one right above it. I have to go into Format- Paragraph and put a check in the box for "Don't add space between paragraphs of the same style." -Is there any way for me to check that box once and have it be my default?
 
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I had the same problem. I went into a blank document, made that change and saved over the default template. Good luck!
 
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Sounds like 1 1/2 spacing has been set
 
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So first, let me say that Word 2008 sucks.

What a wonderfully scientifically backed statement out of the blue.
The internet is indeed such fine a tool for those seeking civilized exchange of opinions and ideation.
 
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After much internal debate I've switched back to the old version as well. Missing Sync does no support Entourage 2008. I'll have to deal with the lag issues in 2004 for the next while I suppose.
 
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I jumped out and purchased it right away since I work with reports in Word format. I must admit, I prefer Pages at this point. Personally, my biggest complaint is Office 2008 takes forever to load (Word). The interface took a bit of fooling around with, and I had the same spacing problem mentioned (the solution offered here works). I also use Entourage for my exchange email at work. I feel Entourage 2004 & Entourage 2008, are essentially the same.

I debated heavily to purchase the Office 2008, although I don't regret it. I keep saying, "This is my last office purchase," over the years I have always purchased the new office for Mac. In my opinion, the alternatives out now (NeoOffice & Pages) offer great features.

I use Pages, it has the features I need. Load quickly, and is stable. Although I feel Pages needs to mature a bit, and I sure it will. Also I have not had any trouble with people reading my documents (exported into Word format). I share my reports in a Windows dominated work environment, and I am sure most don't even know I have Mac.
 
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I have no complaints about Office '08 at all, though I would probably be a little more critical if I actually had to pay for it. (it's so nice being a student sometimes!)
 
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I'm also curious to hear from Office 2004 users about their experience with 2008. I bought the 2004 with the option to upgrade to 2008, and am still waiting for MS to send me the software.

The reviews that I've read aren't exactly effusive with praise. Did MS do a Vista on the Office 2008?

http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/office_2008.asp

http://reviews.cnet.com/office-suites/microsoft-office-for-mac/4505-3524_7-32659647.html

I have also found that Word takes a while to load but I'm enjoying the notebook feature with the tabs and being able to change the background so it looks like I'm writing on different desks (not really a feature that would make me buy it but nice anyway). I would love it if I could get rid of that tab bar below the regular toolbars that has document elements, etc in it but haven't found a way to do it yet.
After fixing the spacing issue its been alright...no other major complaints so far.
 
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The issue is usually between the chair and the keyboard.

On some other questions.

Office 2008 is significantly better than 2004, especially if you're on Intel. Entourage 2008 works equally well with Missing Sync as 2004. My Calendar, notes, tasks and address book sync to my Blackberry perfectly.
 
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funny. the space between the keyboard and chair is definitely not the issue. when i first started using word 2008 it would automatically do 1.5 spacing, see the above posts.
 
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funny. the space between the keyboard and chair is definitely not the issue. when i first started using word 2008 it would automatically do 1.5 spacing, see the above posts.

I've not seen that issue - you're talking about a new blank document, no templates or pre-formatting? Did the formatting palette show 1.5 lines spacing?

If someone opens a thread with "xxxx sucks", it's a bit difficult to follow it with a serious answer.
 
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Yup, new blank document. It says 1.5 lines spacing and I could change it but it would do it with every new document. The only way I found to fix it was to save the default template again.
 
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The issue is usually between the chair and the keyboard.

On some other questions.

Office 2008 is significantly better than 2004, especially if you're on Intel. Entourage 2008 works equally well with Missing Sync as 2004. My Calendar, notes, tasks and address book sync to my Blackberry perfectly.

Yeah, the issue is not "the space between the chair and the keyboard" -cute though.

I installed my Word 08 normally etc. and it had all of these weird defaults- like instead of Times New Roman it's "Cambria" and whenever you press enter to go to a new line it spaces it about 1.5 though it's not shown in the format as 1.5- hence my reason for starting this thread. I'm running intel it's painfully slow to start up on 2 gigs of ram with a 2.4ghz processor- it's word for crying out loud. Not Maya or Avid. On top of that its default saving is a .docx which if you're sending it to someone who doesn't have word 08 they will have trouble opening it.

Also- WHY CAN'T YOU JUST SAVE AS A .PDF? Why can't they just add that in the "save as..." drop-down menu??

If only Apple created Word...
 
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Yup, new blank document. It says 1.5 lines spacing and I could change it but it would do it with every new document. The only way I found to fix it was to save the default template again.

Well I wonder if one of us was picking up something from the previous version. I had 2004 installed before 2008. However, my wife also has Office 2008 and that was a clean install after Leopard, and hers defaults to Cambria and 1.5 line spacing.
 
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Yeah, the issue is not "the space between the chair and the keyboard" -cute though.

I installed my Word 08 normally etc. and it had all of these weird defaults- like instead of Times New Roman it's "Cambria" and whenever you press enter to go to a new line it spaces it about 1.5 though it's not shown in the format as 1.5- hence my reason for starting this thread. I'm running intel it's painfully slow to start up on 2 gigs of ram with a 2.4ghz processor- it's word for crying out loud. Not Maya or Avid. On top of that its default saving is a .docx which if you're sending it to someone who doesn't have word 08 they will have trouble opening it.

Also- WHY CAN'T YOU JUST SAVE AS A .PDF? Why can't they just add that in the "save as..." drop-down menu??

If only Apple created Word...

The slow startup is awful, agreed. Word 2003 on my Parallels install starts up in literally less than a second, and that's on the same hardware but behind a virtual machine!

The .docx is no worse than iWork saving it's own default, and you can easily change the default in the preferences and it will default every document to compatibility mode.

Finally, MS is not allowed to have its applications export to PDF, as this is not an open source format. Apple apps can, because the entire OS is essentially based on the same technology behind PDF. You can just do Print, then Print to PDF to work around it.
 
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Yeah, the issue is not "the space between the chair and the keyboard" -cute though.

I installed my Word 08 normally etc. and it had all of these weird defaults- like instead of Times New Roman it's "Cambria" and whenever you press enter to go to a new line it spaces it about 1.5 though it's not shown in the format as 1.5- hence my reason for starting this thread. I'm running intel it's painfully slow to start up on 2 gigs of ram with a 2.4ghz processor- it's word for crying out loud. Not Maya or Avid. On top of that its default saving is a .docx which if you're sending it to someone who doesn't have word 08 they will have trouble opening it.

Also- WHY CAN'T YOU JUST SAVE AS A .PDF? Why can't they just add that in the "save as..." drop-down menu??

If only Apple created Word...

That's because the setting isn't 1.5 spacing. If you do a little searching on this forum, inside Word's settings, or the internet in general, you will find that the setting causing the spacing issue is the point spacing after a line in paragraph formatting. That and all your other default format issues can easily be solved by saving the normal.dotm file with the settings you want.

As for how you save your document, as Zoolook said, you can set it to always save as the previous office format and it will always save that way by default. Also, you can save a file as a PDF, just not through the "save as" option. Instead, hit "print". When the print window comes up, go down to the lower left where it says PDF. hit that and you get an option to "save as PDF". Easy!!

As for the load time, I just don't see it as a big issue, or even a huge difference between Word and some other programs. For example, I timed Word to load and it took about 22 seconds. Then I timed opening iTunes, which took 19 seconds. Not a huge difference to me. Of course other programs, like Safari, take much less time, but all programs are different. Honestly, I think people get very unnecessarily anal about load times. Is your time so valuable that a few seconds of your day is that significant? I would imagine not since you have time to spend chatting/complaining on forums like this.

As for your very last statement, it's not like apple didn't create a word processor, but it's just not as good as Word. If you want to use Apple's word processor, go out and buy it.
 

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