Office 2008 for Mac delayed

[mac57]

Thanks CWA107. I am going to look that up. A one floppy GUI based OS? It is worth the look just for the fun of it.

I COMPLETELY agree with your sentiments. Software bloat is everywhere. Not more value, just more size. Just ONCE I would love to see a version of Mac OS X or Windows or Linux or... any OS come out with a release that actually ran faster on the same hardware and was more resource (disk, memory, etc.) efficient... just ONCE. Wouldn't that be nice?

Imagine the marketing buzz Apple could get if, in contrast to Vista, Leopard actually was smaller and faster than Tiger, required LESS memory and took up LESS disk space, all while offering new features. You could mount a killer marketing campaign around such a thing, not to mention delighting the entire Mac using universe.

Sigh... I can always dream.

Not to get too far off topic, but ever wondered what happened to *efficiency* in programming? Remember when downloading a program that was more than 5MB in size was a really big deal? Nowadays, a simple printer driver can weigh in at upwards of 10-50MB. Unbelievable...

A couple of years ago, a company called QNX released a version of their UNIX-based real-time OS, called Neutrino. It fit on a single floppy disk, had a full GUI, web browser and much of the standard utility programs that you'd find on modern operating systems. Sure, Mac OS and Windows were and are a lot prettier and come with tons more functionality, but it still peeves me to no end that 1GB of RAM is now considered the bare minimum for modern mainstream operating systems. You can't tell me that they've added that many more features to warrant needing an extra GB of elbow room to run an OS.

 

[jc1350]

Why??? The current Office will do the same thing...its just gonna look prettier and cost waaaaay too much

I don't think it'll look any better. I was forced to upgrade to Office 2007 at work and that ribbon bar really ticks me off. I hate it...they should have included a "classic" interface.

Anyway...the new version for Mac should include native support for MS's open XML file format (.docx for example). They have a free converter in beta right now, but having it built-in would be nice. But, I think I'll try to avoid upgrading, especially with that ribbon bar. Plus, Entourage is pretty bad compared to Outlook (yes...I like Outlook minus the ribbon bar). Despite what people think, Entourage does NOT have native Exchange support. It is a glorified GUI to Outlook Web Access.

 

[Village Idiot]

Does Office for OS X have Access or any programming availabilities? I would think that it wouldn't for some technical reason or another.

I just erased it from my MBP when I got it since I have ultimate 2k7 on my Vista notebook. I use Access at work all the time.

 

[fleurya]

No Access for Mac. It's not possible. Even if they made a true Outlook for Mac, I don't think Apple would approve the name since it has such a negative rep for poor security. Who knows. I don't need exchange, but like all the other features of the Outlook suite, so I can deal with Entourage.

I tried 2007 for a little while. It didn't seem too bad. I like it better than the format pallet in the 2004 Mac version that always gets in my way when I don't want it there and have to go activate when I do want it for something simple. But there's no way I would use 2007 since it's not compatible with previous Office programs. That's just ridiculous!

 

[avv4293]

Don't you know if Word 2008 will act both as Word and Publisher? I've read that. Maybe Microsoft is trying to copy again, making Word like Pages.

 

[schweb]

No Access for Mac. It's not possible.

Yes it is. They choose not to make it.

Even if they made a true Outlook for Mac, I don't think Apple would approve the name since it has such a negative rep for poor security.

Um, Apple doesn't decide what others call their applications. Microsoft could call it Outlook if they chose to do so.

Who knows. I don't need exchange, but like all the other features of the Outlook suite, so I can deal with Entourage.

Entourage does have Exchange support. Where are you people getting your information from in this thread?

 

[Macwillis]

please explain to me why we need office 08 for mac when we have iwork

we have a word processor
desktop publishing
presentation software
spreadsheet app

what does office 2008 have that iwork 08 doesnt? apart from all the bloat?

 

[cwa107]

please explain to me why we need office 08 for mac when we have iwork

we have a word processor
desktop publishing
presentation software
spreadsheet app

what does office 2008 have that iwork 08 doesnt? apart from all the bloat?

Why do we need iWork when we have NeoOffice? Why do we need Honda when we have Toyota? Why do we need McDonnell-Douglas, when we have Airbus? Why do we need California wines when we have French?

What was your point again?

 

[schweb]

please explain to me why we need office 08 for mac when we have iwork

we have a word processor
desktop publishing
presentation software
spreadsheet app

what does office 2008 have that iwork 08 doesnt? apart from all the bloat?

Well let's see:

• Office is the gold standard in compatibility with Windows. Businesses required it.
• If you can honestly say Pages is as mature and powerful a word processor as Word and keep a straight face, I'd be shocked. Pages is decent, but for power users, Word is it.
• Keynote does not have rock solid compatibility with PowerPoint, I've run into issues before
• And again, I highly, highly doubt that Numbers is on par with the power of Excel.

Office and iWork are geared toward different markets and different types of users. Perhaps one day iWork will equal Office, at this point, it doesn't.

 

[Zoolook]

Don't you know if Word 2008 will act both as Word and Publisher? I've read that. Maybe Microsoft is trying to copy again, making Word like Pages.

To be fair, word has had this kind of ability for about 10 years, so it's hardly copying. Word is a pretty powerful application, people who just use it for writing their school essays or the odd letter probably don't appreciate the finer points. Same with Excel... looks boring, but many people's lives depend on it.

Mac Office 04 is quite nice, but very sluggish on Intel Macs, especially Entourage. Excel and word offer 100% compatibility with OfficeXP and Office 2003 or below.

In all honesty, Entourage is the main reason I'd still upgrade. I spend most of last night importing all my most complex spreadsheets and documents from work to see if they'd work in iWork 08, and they do! However there are some seriously lacking editing function, especially for the auto-creation of project documents (headings, smart-tags etc).

If only Apple would give an 'all-in-one' Contacts/Calendar and Mail app, like Entourage/Outlook AND if someone would produce a half decent Finance Package like MS Money or the PC version of Quicken, I'd be able to dump MS once and for all.

 

[Macwillis]

okay thats great cheers.

 

[djames42]

Entourage does have Exchange support. Where are you people getting your information from in this thread?

Entourage has fairly limited Exchange support. For one thing, it communicates via WebDAV rather than MAPI, and there are bound to be some corporate environments that will not provide WebDAV access to their exchange servers. It is also not a persistent connection in the way MAPI is, so messages can often times be delayed in receipt (albeit for only a few minutes).

Entourage also does not support setting Out-of-office notifications (yes you can set up rules for that, but it's very easy to set up a rule that creates an endless loop of responses), nor does it support sending of RTF mail and has limited HTML support (have you ever tried forwarding a message with tables? Entourage will strip the formatting). There are also other limitations, but these are the primary ones that come to mind.

That said, Entourage also has a wonderful feature missing in the Windows version of Office: Project Center. I suspect very few people use it, but if you set it up right, it totally rocks. It's a great way to organize all of your related contacts, emails, calendar entries and mail attachments all in one place.

 

[Zoolook]

That said, Entourage also has a wonderful feature missing in the Windows version of Office: Project Center. I suspect very few people use it, but if you set it up right, it totally rocks. It's a great way to organize all of your related contacts, emails, calendar entries and mail attachments all in one place.

I use it, it is fantastic for exactly the reason you state. I am surprised it is not in Outlook.

 

[fleurya]

That said, Entourage also has a wonderful feature missing in the Windows version of Office: Project Center. I suspect very few people use it, but if you set it up right, it totally rocks. It's a great way to organize all of your related contacts, emails, calendar entries and mail attachments all in one place.

I second that. I use the Project Center to organize my grad school classes and projects and it's great for keeping everything I need organized where I can find it. I can't believe Outlook doesn't have something similar. I thought I just never found it in Outlook or something.

As for Schweb response to my comments: the info I posted on Access and Entourage came from what I thought was a reputable website and a college professor who teaches database architecture and uses a Mac himself. Sorry for the bad info.

 

[Village Idiot]

Yes it is. They choose not to make it.

I understand that they could make it, but would it even be worth it? And how would it work. Does Office for OS X even retain everything from Windows in the programs that are included?

I just see that it would end up being tooooo big of a project. Just to allow all the libraries and resources that Access has er...access...to would probably make it an enormous program in comparison with the Windows version, which uses that stuff that's already built into Windows.

I mean, how would something like a file dialog picker work? I know it's just a simple box that asks for a file, but trying to bridge Windows programming commands to do the same thing on a Mac would take a lot, imo.

 

[technologist]

I understand that they could make it, but would it even be worth it? And how would it work. Does Office for OS X even retain everything from Windows in the programs that are included?

I just see that it would end up being tooooo big of a project. Just to allow all the libraries and resources that Access has er...access...to would probably make it an enormous program in comparison with the Windows version, which uses that stuff that's already built into Windows.

I mean, how would something like a file dialog picker work? I know it's just a simple box that asks for a file, but trying to bridge Windows programming commands to do the same thing on a Mac would take a lot, imo.

Indeed. It would be a project comparable in scale to, say, porting Word to the Mac. Or Excel. Or PowerPoint.

 

[Village Idiot]

Indeed. It would be a project comparable in scale to, say, porting Word to the Mac. Or Excel. Or PowerPoint.

Except Word and Excel are pretty much programs confined to themselves where as Access uses a lot more than just what you see when you open Access.