[bbales]

I was about to order Office 2004, but have not stopped, because there are so many versions, I'm not sure which one to get. I have Office X, purchased two years ago. What do the words "upgrade" apply to? A version as old as mine? There's a "professional" upgrade version coming out in July (vs. the more standard version coming out Monday). Is that upgrade only applicable to people who have already pruchased Office 2004? If you have a previous version, are you buying full price, b/c Microsoft considers this an entirely new application? I'm kind of confused...

[gorickey]

So the "standard" version comes out today, eh? Anybody seen it?

[Boochie]

I have been using a preview version made available to my employer. It *rocks*! Compatibility with Office XP counterparts is much improved. Powerpoint has a mode called "Presenter" that is really amazing. What it does is set up a slideshow mode where the external monitor view is what your audience sees, and the local monitor shows your slides, notes, preview of all slides, and a clock. Very, very, very cool. They've also incorporated some of the neat features of Keynote into Powerpoint (e.g., the cube transition).

[waffffffle]

Originally posted by Boochie:
Powerpoint has a mode called "Presenter" that is really amazing. What it does is set up a slideshow mode where the external monitor view is what your audience sees, and the local monitor shows your slides, notes, preview of all slides, and a clock. Very, very, very cool. They've also incorporated some of the neat features of Keynote into Powerpoint (e.g., the cube transition).

Keynote had all of these features first. I guess it's a good thing that Microsoft is adopting these features, makes both products better in the long run.

[CatOne]

Originally posted by bbales:
I was about to order Office 2004, but have not stopped, because there are so many versions, I'm not sure which one to get. I have Office X, purchased two years ago. What do the words "upgrade" apply to? A version as old as mine? There's a "professional" upgrade version coming out in July (vs. the more standard version coming out Monday). Is that upgrade only applicable to people who have already pruchased Office 2004? If you have a previous version, are you buying full price, b/c Microsoft considers this an entirely new application? I'm kind of confused...

I believe the Professional version includes Virtual PC. If you need that, it's worth it. If not, go with the "Standard" version. Note VPC doesn't currently work on G5's, so I'd suspect the delay is in finalizing/updating it to work on the G5 machines.

[Boochie]

You're quite right about that. I liked Keynote, but found it rather a challenge to use in the ppt-oriented corporate culture. However, its existence does appear to have motivated Microsoft to improve their product. Whether Apple continues to improve Keynote or let it whither remains to be seen (I'm guessing the latter).

Originally posted by waffffffle:
Keynote had all of these features first. I guess it's a good thing that Microsoft is adopting these features, makes both products better in the long run.

[KP*]

I've been looking forward to this release for so long, but I didn't realize until this thread that the professional version would be released later (and so much later!). I'm getting that free upgrade for buying Office X, so I'll just have to wait for it. My order says it's estimated to ship on 7/19. I think that info must be relatively new, I didn't notice that the last time I checked the status. So I'll have to listen to everybody enjoying (or not enjoying) their new Office for two months before I get mine!

[Cadaver]

Originally posted by Boochie:
Whether Apple continues to improve Keynote or let it whither remains to be seen (I'm guessing the latter).

I hope its the former. Apple obviously invested a lot of time & money on that application, they give the option of BTO'ing it preinstalled on new machines, and they give Keynote classes at many of the larger Apple retail stores.
I really hope Apple continues to develop enhancements for Keynote. I personally can't wait for version 2.0 (again, assuming one is in the works).

[Boochie]

I hope so too, if for no other reason than the fact that competition is good. I wonder how motivated MS would have been to jazz up Powerpoint as they have if it weren't for Keynote raising the bar on presentation tools. Who knows.

Originally posted by Cadaver:
I hope its the former. Apple obviously invested a lot of time & money on that application, they give the option of BTO'ing it preinstalled on new machines, and they give Keynote classes at many of the larger Apple retail stores.
I really hope Apple continues to develop enhancements for Keynote. I personally can't wait for version 2.0 (again, assuming one is in the works).

[KP*]

I really hope Keynote is upgraded too. I used it extensively for video projections on a four-month tour of a play I did last year, and it was incredibly easy to use. It's great at what it can do, but I just wish it had more features. I often had to tell the director, "no the program can't do that." I'm very curious to see Powerpoint's presenter mode, because that's the biggest feature I wanted more control over in Keynote. Once I was in performance, I could see my notes at the bottom of the screen for the current slide, and thumbnails of some of the slides in the sidebar, but there was no way to search through the slides or change anything without turning off the presentation. And worst of all, once the bottom slide on the sidebar was active, it would only scroll one at a time, so you couldn't even see the thumbnail for the next slide. That was the only reason I had notes for the slides, to give a description of the current slide, the previous one, and the next one. If Keynote made it easier for the presenter to change or at least inspect things mid-presentation, that would be a big help. It's a shame to see such a nice app lose to Powerpoint just for lack of development.

[mitchell_pgh]

I've used Keynote a few time for presentations... and every time, I get a "how did you do that" look after I'm done.

It may be because I'm a designer at heart, but it's usually the transitions...

[MikeD]

Are the new themes in the PPT2004 unique to mac or do the windows users have them as well?

Mike