![]() ![]() I suspect there is some speed improvement on Intel machines, but I do not know that, and the marginally incremental improvements on Word and Excel, there would be little reason to make the change in my view.Īs far as Entourage is concerned, a few days after installing it, I removed it. Knowing what I know now, would I have spent the money to update from Office 2004? On my PowerPC machines, probably not. Some of the new features (I can cover if you like) are only marginally useful in my view (like Gallery) but in general, it works well enough, and there are some good improvements in layout and formatting. However, I rarely save in the new document format, as it is impossible for most people to open them still, but thankfully there is a default setting to save in the older format. Now as to why Microsoft felt it was necessary to invent and implement a whole new document format for all of Office’s file types is beyond me. A year later, I am used to the interface (but, as I said, still searching for functions from time to time) and I do like that it is compatible with the Windows version. Microsoft has improved the speed in all aspects with recent updates, as well as the stability it does not crash very often now. I have not had to use PowerPoint so I have no experience on that piece. I still use 2008 Word and Excel on a daily basis. And out of the box, this was the slowest version of Word and Excel I have EVER used, both installing and running. Yes, you will learn the new interface elements, but even after using Word for almost a year now, I still have trouble remembering where some of the lesser used commands are or how the new interface applies changes. I found it took me twice as long to do anything in Word or Excel because I was always fumbling around for the functions I needed. For starters, Microsoft has carried their Vista thinking here as well, basically moving all the controls and functions you have come to know and use, and putting them ALL in new places and locations in the program. There are a lot of changes in Office 2008, some good, some not so good. It took forever to install, much longer than any before, so maybe it was full of great new features? When I received my review copy, I quickly installed it. Office X to Office 2004 was a fantastic update, and I was expecting this to make the same great leap. Like you, I was excited about the prospects of a new version of Office. I asked fellow MyMac writer Owen Rubin, who sat in on our Macworld Expo meeting with Microsoft last year and is a power user, to email me his impressions with Office ’08. And at $79, well, Microsoft’s asking price of $399 (or $229 on Amazon) for Office 08 looks less like a good buy. With iWork, you get a very capable word processor (Pages), a better in almost every respect presentation software (Keynote), and a very well done, and much easier to use, spreadsheet. The new version of iWork comes with some really great software for an average Mac user that does most of the things they need at a quarter the price. When a word processor takes that long to launch, something is wrong.Īnother reason I have a problem recommending Office 2008 is Apple. On the same Macintosh, a 2.8GHz iMac, Adobe PhotoShop CS4 launches faster than Microsoft Word 2008. Office 2008 takes way longer to start up than almost any other program on my computer. The first problem I had is one that has still not been addressed. Sadly, a year into it, and I still cannot recommend the newer software. I am often asked by readers of the site, and listeners to our weekly podcast, if they should invest in Office 2008, or continue using the older 2004 version. Still and all, I held out hope that Office 2008 was not as bad as I had been experiencing. I won’t say the meeting was contentious, but there were times when we asked hard questions to which the answers did not really address our concerns. Excitement because I was hoping to hear that the final, in the box version, had been updated to address some of the bugs and overall wonkiness I had experienced. Trepidation because, at that point in time, I had been using the software for a few weeks and was experiencing some problems with the software, Microsoft Word in particular. ![]() When four MyMac Magazine staff members sat down with Microsoft at the Macworld Expo in January, including myself, it was with some trepidation and still excitement on my part. And having read many online reviews, as well as David Cohen’s first-hand reports, on Microsoft Office 2007 for Windows, I had high hopes. I always hope software for the Macintosh platform is great. I won’t pretend that I really wanted this software to be great. It looked promising, an update to a major Macintosh software title four years in the making. I was really looking forward to getting my hands on Office 2008 a year ago.
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