[willed]

So MS is going on about Office 11 and how whole corporations will be able to run using this single piece of software... but does this whole XML thing actually make any difference to individuals who use office? What even is XML??
I'm confused...

Oh, and also, any chance of this ever reaching the Mac?

[benb]

$499 upgrade.

[Waltitia]

Originally posted by willed:
So MS is going on about Office 11 and how whole corporations will be able to run using this single piece of software... but does this whole XML thing actually make any difference to individuals who use office? What even is XML??
I'm confused...

Oh, and also, any chance of this ever reaching the Mac?

Probably the .Net stuff.

No thanks, no more.

[echosphere]

Yes, I can understand the wanting of XML, though Word now can do some basic things (real basic).

The thing is, is that I'm starting realize that Word and Office "upgrades" and new releases really don't matter to me that much. The programs are solid, I have Microsoft, but I really do like the MacBU people. They've built a solid suite of apps, Apple should steal this concept for iLife in some kind of way.
I use office 97 on Win98 at work. At home I use about 2% of what Office can do. I agree, no thanks, no more.

[clarkgoble]

XML is a structured way of storing data. It'll make reading Word files by other programs very easy. As for the user, think of it like styles, only more so. (How much MS will use this power is anyone's guess. I've not played with the beta they sent me yet so I can't say much)

I don't know if this will affect that Mac. Are they coming out with a Mac port? Hopefully. There have been musings about a Mac port of a subset of .NET functionality. We'll see.

The big issues for the general user are more subtle refinements. i.e. better spam handling in Outlook / Entourage.

However lets be honest. For the typical user the past two upgrades haven't really added much.

[nobodybutme]

Office 11 is about much more than XML. The XDocs technology is a sample of how Microsoft is trying to make a standard into a proprietary technology.

They also suggested that Office 11 will come with a mechanism for enforcing Digital Rights Management for anything created with it. The result? If you are not a trusted recipient, you cannot access the file contents legally. It kind of puts the whole competition on a different playing field.

The feature can be advantageous, for example, if I wanted to send a document and insure only the person I sent it to can read it for confidentiality reasons, then it would be great. Password protect the document, encrypt it and only recipients that I trusted and are using Office 11 could read it by penalty of law. It's an Enron dream come true. For Open Office and the like, it could be a bad thing, since to be considered a trusted application may mean licensing fees and patent restrictions, etc. It's horrible in this respect.

Office 11 is a significant upgrade. It's probably something to fear, more than desire.

[Mskr]

Actually, what I hope it means to me is that Office v.X will get some deep discounts in the months before hand so I can finally get rid of Office 2001 from my wife's TiBook! It's the only Classic app that she runs regularly, and it's a pain in the A$$ to deal with. I look forward to never having to answer questions such as:

"How do I cancel a print job I just sent from Word?" (Hint: Not through OS X Print Center)

Anyway...

[Brien]

If we do get Office 11, it'll prolly be a while.

[SupahCoolX]

Meh... hopefully by then Apple will have a good word processor and spreadsheet app to go along with Keynote. Hopefully.....

[Sophie]

I also pondered on this but then my mind flew away to the 64bit processor and then the question became if the next office will have to be 64bit too for it to work?

[clarkgoble]

The only thing 64-bit matters to are some people with large files and then large databases. For the vast majority of people they are just faster. i.e. don't worry about it.