[freudling]

Here, you can post all your thoughts and concerns about MS Office 2008 for the Mac: all three versions: Student/Home, Standard and the Media Edition.

Mini Review:

So far, a joy to use versus 2004. I run intel, so was sick of the spinning beachball in Word. Now, it is lightening fast. However, I am staying away from Excel and sticking with Numbers from iWork. As for Entourage, probably not going to use that either. The "My Day" is pretty cool, but not really practical. Why would I want something so dark and distinct populating my screen when all it holds is tasks and appointments? If I want to see that, I will go to iCal. It really seems like just a gimic: an extra arbitrary step in viewing tasks and appointments.

Word...

Great. The Smart Art is very well done, and you can create hierarchical diagrams in seconds that look good. Or, choose from several other types of diagrams, like Process, or Relationship... The quality of the graphics is superb. However, editing them is another thing. It is totally GUI overkill. Also, suddenty, the formatting palette has ballooned to mammoth proportions. It holds the document formatting functions, clip art, your pictures folder, a special citation manager, shapes manager, the project center, the scrapbook, and reference tools. While good for centralizing features, it is bloated as hexx.

And when it comes time to use the formatting palette to edit your smart art, it is clunky. So many tabs that scream to be clicked, too many options all over the place. I can't quite understand the thinking behind Smart Art Graphics Styles panel and the Quick Styles and Effects panel. It sort of frustrates me, but that is MS.

Other than that, we have a choice of 5 views of the document, one being publishing view. This is where you can choose fancy document templates that are categorized into different types. Looking at some of them, they suck, but I am sure there are a few good ones in there.

If anyone knows, I can't seem to hide the Smart Art drop down panel that appears below the formatting toolbar in Print Layout. It is very annoying, one of those MS problems that there is a solution, but it is hopelessly hidden.

[Morpheus]

What's the the version of the included formula editor in Word? I can't find any reference.

[miawj]

Word

Three things still as rubbish as ever:

1. Still not possible to paste sensibly. It takes four clicks to paste in a selection from a different document due to not being able to default to paste as unformatted.

2. Still no straightforward-to-use styles palette. You have to create a customised toolbar to which it is now even more awkward to add style buttons. (The styles tab in the formatting palette is hobbled into uselessness through being a fixed vertical size.)

3. No multiple column wrap to window view.

I don't get it. Surely there must be some people who want (or have) to use Word as a word processor? Why is such a fundamental thing as applying styles still so broken? I just don't understand.

[freudling]

Morpheus:

Not sure what you mean.

[Morpheus]

Originally Posted by freudling 

Morpheus:
Not sure what you mean.

Word 2004 included a formula editor called MathType (which was a light version of a commercial product.)

I wonder if there's a new version included now, as this was the case in Word 2007 for PC.

[freudling]

Nothing under MathType. Don't see anything.

Jmakkar:

So much faster. Insane.

[michael_l]

Originally Posted by Morpheus 

Word 2004 included a formula editor called MathType (which was a light version of a commercial product.)

I wonder if there's a new version included now, as this was the case in Word 2007 for PC.

The Equation Editor (light version of MathType) looks the same as before.

[Cold Warrior]

Got mine today. UPS delivery from an Amazon pre-order.

Entourage's interface is wicked fast on my MBP (C2D 2.16GHz, 2GB RAM). Instant response when clicking folders in the folder list. Instant display in the preview pane of regular and HTML email. Instant opening of a message in its own window. Granted, it's something Mail.app has had in 10.4 and Leopard, but I personally prefer Entourage, so I'm glad it's fast and responsive.

The other apps seem nice too.

[timmerk]

Word is SLOW on a MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM and 10.5. Slow to start up, slow to open documents, slow to update the page count of a 60 page document to 60, slow, slow, slow. :-(

[jmelrose]

Anyone having a problem registering over the website? I can't put in a SN or PID that it will accept. Plus, it seems to be getting my address from my home 8 years ago. Strange.

Anyway, just wondered about the registration. Figured it can't hurt to give MS more of my personal information...

[Cold Warrior]

Originally Posted by timmerk 

Word is SLOW on a MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM and 10.5. Slow to start up, slow to open documents, slow to update the page count of a 60 page document to 60, slow, slow, slow. :-(

Before I installed, I went through my Mac's folders to delete all vestiges of Office 2004 or the 2008 beta. Prefs, caches, Application Support stuff, etc., in order to reduce the risk of upgrade slowness.

[timmerk]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

Before I installed, I went through my Mac's folders to delete all vestiges of Office 2004 or the 2008 beta. Prefs, caches, Application Support stuff, etc., in order to reduce the risk of upgrade slowness.

Same here. Something must be wrong if it's fast for you and other people, though.

[timmerk]

<sigh> the biggest feature I need that is in Word 2007 is not in Word 2008 for Mac. I need the PDF export options, such as create PDF bookmarks based on the style headers. Here are the options I'm taking about:

[tkmd]

Coming from office x.V and office 2004, Office 2008, despite it being intel native, is dog slow. Launching Word takes LONGER than in rosetta with office x.V. Matter of fact if I double click on a word document Word 2008 sometimes actually beachballs for 5-7 seconds!

Unbelievable. And this is on a MP 2.66!

I really dont know where certain "review" web sites get off proclaiming that office 2008 is faster. It isn't. Either MS still has some debugging to do or they continue to bloat their programs.

[Cold Warrior]

Or your install has issues??

[timmerk]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

Or your install has issues??

Then it seems like lots of "installs" have issues.

[tkmd]

No, Initially I thought the same- and uninstalled it deleted the preferences and re installed it.

[BrunoBruin]

Originally Posted by jmelrose 

Anyone having a problem registering over the website? I can't put in a SN or PID that it will accept.

Same problem here - it won't take my PID or serial. I'm guessing MS hasn't updated their registration database to accept the new numbers.

Here's an odd one: is there a way to increase the VOLUME on Entourage's notifications? At my standard volume level, I can't hear the notifications, and if I turn up the computer's volume in order to hear Entourage, every other sound and alert is way too loud! This is on a Mac Pro 3GHz.

[starman]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

Got mine today. UPS delivery from an Amazon pre-order.

Entourage's interface is wicked fast on my MBP (C2D 2.16GHz, 2GB RAM). Instant response when clicking folders in the folder list. Instant display in the preview pane of regular and HTML email. Instant opening of a message in its own window. Granted, it's something Mail.app has had in 10.4 and Leopard, but I personally prefer Entourage, so I'm glad it's fast and responsive.

The other apps seem nice too.

Anything else new and exciting about Entourage besides the speed?

Man, I wish they could just sell it separately. I so don't need PP and Excel.

[JKT]

Originally Posted by timmerk 

Then it seems like lots of "installs" have issues.

Is it possible that the app is running in Rosetta mode by mistake, rather than natively as an Intel app? Try a get info on the app to see if that option is selected or not (assuming that Get info still lets you do this in Leopard/Office 2008).

[timmerk]

No, it doesn't give you that option. :-( On a warm restart of Word 2008, it takes 23 seconds to launch and open a new blank doc. 2.33ghz intel core 2 duo, 2 gb ram, 10.5

[Cold Warrior]

Originally Posted by starman 

Anything else new and exciting about Entourage besides the speed?

Man, I wish they could just sell it separately. I so don't need PP and Excel.

Just some interface tweaks that make it look nicer. No real feature improvements. It seems to handle IMAP transactions faster.

[starman]

Turns out my company's getting a volume license version very soon, so I'll wait until then.

[MDiddy]

Anyone heard of a ship time for Super Suite Deal purchasers? I put my order in back in November

[cgc]

Excel is still slow on my MacPro w/ 4GB memory and Excel crashed... Other than that, I like Office 2008, but not enough to dump using Nisus Writer Pro.

[freudling]

Everything is lightening fast here. The smart art is very good, it will make your documents look way better.

[besson3c]

I'm just amazed that a company like Microsoft is able to keep selling new versions of Office...

[Eug]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

I'm just amazed that a company like Microsoft is able to keep selling new versions of Office...

Why? It's arguably the #2 program people need, after a browser, and previous version of Office have been quite reasonable.

[infowarrior]

Just loaded up 2008 and started playing around with it on a test account first. It's on a PB G4 with 1GB RAM running the current Tiger build.

My initial thought: Is it just me or does the Office 2008 GUI take up more screen space than 2004? And is there any way to get rid of the tabs up at the top of Word? I got rid of the Design Gallery thing, but can I get rid of the tabs too? Just one more group of things I don't really need instant access to.

In related news, what do people think of Entourage 2008?

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Eug 

Why? It's arguably the #2 program people need, after a browser, and previous version of Office have been quite reasonable.

I'm not debating the need for the app, but that MS can find more "stuff" to put into it in order to market and sell upgrades...

[Cadaver]

How is Microsoft's Expressions (is that what its called - can't remember)? Is the media app worth the additional cost? Does it have an Office-like look to it, or does it look like the old version of the app Microsoft bought a couple years ago (again, can't remember what it was called before MS bought it)?

I have the Home & Student version, which is fine for home - 3 licenses and I don't need Exchange server support at home, but I might be able to take advantage of the Exchange features at work, so I may buy (actually have work buy for me) the standard or media edition with the Exchange support for my laptop which comes to work with me frequently. And if I get the more expensive version (which comes with only a single license), I was curious as to if the media edition was worth the extra cost.

[bbales]

[[I have the Home & Student version, which is fine for home - 3 licenses and I don't need Exchange server support at home, but I might be able to take advantage of the Exchange features at work, so I may buy (actually have work buy for me) the standard or media edition with the Exchange support for my laptop which comes to work with me frequently. And if I get the more expensive version (which comes with only a single license), I was curious as to if the media edition was worth the extra cost.]]

The most expensive version comes with 3 licenses as well. (I just double-checked, as I thought I had remembered seeing that.) I BELIEVE all three versions do.

I bought the student/home edition. I MAY, if I think i need it, have my daughter get me the full version when her college gets it in a few months. We'll see. That may be an option for you, too, though I think, as I said, that colleges won't be getting the cheaper versions until March or so. (IT probably will be around the time the people who bought Office with those good deals will be getting their copies.)

[JKT]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

I'm not debating the need for the app, but that MS can find more "stuff" to put into it in order to market and sell upgrades...

The big marketing point of Office 2007 was not that they had added more stuff, but that they had made it easier to use everything that was already there (in other words, "the interface we have been using for the past ten or so versions was shite, so now we are making it less shite... please pay us lots of money to upgrade").

The big selling point of Office 2008 is that it is Intel native and... er, that (and a severe reduction in compatibility with the Windows version) is it.

[timmerk]

I just uninstalled Office 2008. Word and Excel crashed too many times and the long app boot times were just not worth it. On a warm start of Word, it took 33 seconds on a MB Core 2 Duo w/ 2 GB RAM. What the hell?

[freudling]

Help:

Using Smart Art Graphics, a ridiculously large frame handle appears around the smart art. I am trying to edit text in close proximity to the smart art, but when I point my mouse arrow on the text I want to edit, the damx frame handles appear. Anyone know how to solve this? See pic:

Picture 2 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[Cadaver]

Originally Posted by freudling 

Help:

Using Smart Art Graphics, a ridiculously large frame handle appears around the smart art. I am trying to edit text in close proximity to the smart art, but when I point my mouse arrow on the text I want to edit, the damx frame handles appear. Anyone know how to solve this? See pic:

Picture 2 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Put the insertion cursor close by, then use the arrow keys to move the cursor.

[Eug]

Works fine but very slow on a G4 1.07 iBook.

[angelmb]

Originally Posted by timmerk 

I just uninstalled Office 2008. Word and Excel crashed too many times and the long app boot times were just not worth it. On a warm start of Word, it took 33 seconds on a MB Core 2 Duo w/ 2 GB RAM. What the hell?

Too many fonts installed?, it tooks 25 seconds on my single 1,25 MDD Power Mac, but it is RAM hungry as hell…

[tkmd]

I have the same problem 0- from a cold start Word took 18 sec (!) to start : this is on a MP 2.66! There must be something wrong, I am going to uninstall it and try again without the fonts....

[Cold Warrior]

13 seconds cold start for Word on my MBP C2D 2.16 2GB RAM.

6 seconds warm start for Word.

Maybe starting them up just drags? I find them all responsive once they're up and running.

[Eug]

Yeah, it runs fine once loaded, but it's the loading part which is painful.

[neoME]

I have a C2D MB with 1GB Ram and Leopard. Word just eats my ressources... When I type, my CPU Usage goes easily above 50 % and my fans starts running wild after some time... It seems that Word eats alot more Ressources then Word 04....
I deinstalled the old office with the integrated uninstaller....
I hope someone can help me.....

[is not]

Word
5 seconds cold start
1 second warm start

pre-OSX days

And now it is not that snappy!
What were they doing in 7 years?

[tkmd]

In the Arstechnica forums there is a developer from the MacBU team that chimes in every now and then, he said that he has sent a message to the rest of the team about the long startup times. Problem is, everybody who owns a Mac knows the time between problem and fix when it comes to MS products.

[timmerk]

I've just converted all my .doc's and .docx's to Pages.

[starman]

AH! I have a question...

Can Entourage FINALLY search the contents of your emails? 2004 couldn't do that.

[Cold Warrior]

2004 could, but you had to open a search window, then choose advanced options, then select 'message body' to search within messages. 2008 does it the same way.

[carlmuck]

Screen real estate usage is awful.

Problems working with excel and word in Spaces.

Excel is terrible, crashes, won't read files it used to, won't write files that operate the same way on different versions of Excel, loss of VBA (even though it was pretty bad itself).

IF you work in an office that has Office 2007 on the PCs, then Office 2008 may work. But it isn't pretty.

And for this I paid $135.

c.

[skew]

Hi all.

Reading through reviews and forum comments I'm seriously thinking of not only not upgrading but ditching MS Office altogether.

I was about to buy 8 installs of 2008 but I'm thinking of switching to a combination of iWork08, Mail, iCal, Address Book and Bento.

I don't use macros or automation. Compatibility isn't a problem. We never send out MS files to clients. All our stuff is sent out as PDF's. All our old MS stuff opens perfectly in iWork apps. I have been using Entourage as a client relationship manager with an idiosyncratic use of "projects" but I think I can do a much better job with Bento.

I do need to share an address book and have shared calendaring using OSX Server and I don't see a way of doing this in Office 2008.

Can anyone think of any reason to stay with MS. Office?

Thanks.

PS. I'm not dissing MS per se, I've been largely happy with with Office2004 I just don't see any compelling reason to upgrade and their adoption of OSX technologies seems glacial to say the least.

[angelmb]

Originally Posted by is not 

Word
5 seconds cold start
1 second warm start

pre-OSX days

And now it is not that snappy!
What were they doing in 7 years?

Ah!!, my Energy Saver is setted up to put the display to sleep when the computer is inactive for 1 minute… guess what?, my display goes sleep with a cold start (Word)…