MS Office 2011

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I'm thinking of switching to Mac for the first time.

Qn 1 - Should I get office 2008 or wait till office 2011 comes out and upgrade (I'm keen to use Outlook). In the interim I could use Open Office or iWorks though not keen on so many different learning curves.

Qn 2 - Would Outlook on 2011 support .pst files?

Qn 3 - A bit concerned about the functionality on Word, because I use the shortcuts and commands extensively. Are there any further issues I should know about in using Word or Excel, so that I can make an informed choice and not be 'surprised' when/if I swop?

Thanks for all the help and advice.

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/switcher-hangout/204713-missing-commands-ms-word-2008-mac.html
 
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1.8 GHz i7 MBA 11" OSX 10.8.2
1)2008 is still using Entourage so if you want to easily use PST files you may want to wait for 2011.
Office For Mac 2011 First Look: Ribbons, Sharing, and... Outlook?
Again this is all beta/speculation - things can change before final release.

3)This may be a dealbreaker - my wife puts up with Excel on Mac but she really doesn't like it as macros are missing and all the keys/toolbars are different. She can use it but she isn't as good on it as she is on the PC. In theory 2011 will put VBA macros back, as well as have the ribbon/same interface/keys as the PC version.

In all honesty - unless I am just taking a quick look at MS documents - I open up Parallels and use Outlook and MS Office from Windows. PITA and resource intensive just to look at powerpoint/excel/word - but since a lot of documents I get have fancy macros I have little choice but to open them in the Windows OS.
 
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alMB, 2.0C2D, 2GB, 500GB, SD, etc
Personally, I'd just hold off till 2011 comes out at this point in time. While it is Office, 2008 (and Office for Mac in general) is slow, unnecessarily resource-intensive, and not as fully-featured (and/or "elegant") as its Windows brethren. I still use it because I don't need all the fancy VBA/macro stuff only available in Windows versions, but I'm definitely not a huge fan. 2011 can't come soon enough.

In other words, I'd just stick with OpenOffice for the time being and save some money.
 
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21.5" iMac, 3.6 Intel i5 w/ 4MB L3 cache, 8GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 5670 ---- 16 GB iPad w/ 3G
just use iWorks..... from my experience with it, theres very little learning curve to it and about the exact same as their Microsoft counterparts. Ive even read numerous reports of many scientists switching over to the new Numbers over Excel because its more intuitive. And many reviews over the software bundle are better than Office and Ive read its a much more flowing stable package. Plus, its 100% forwards and backwards compatible with ALL Microsoft office files (even from past years). Not to mention its significantly cheaper..... Office is way overpriced
 
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Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
Stick with Office as it is the best, and fastest, application and suggest waiting until next year or when 2011 is released or run under PC version under Crossover or with Bootcamp install.
 

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