It's disgraceful that Microsoft doesn't put the same marketing effort behind Office 2008 that it does with 2007 for the PC. This is one of the most anticipated office releases on the Mac since Office X nearly 6 years ago.
I haven't seen any information beyond what is on mactopia and the initial info they released in January.
Since the very first MS Word for Mac 512, I've been pretty happy with MS Word/Office. Of course Excel was outstanding-- of course I do NOT include MS Word 6.0.
While I can sympathize with those who would like to damn MS Office to the nether reaches, anyone who works in a environment where interoperability of documents, at least, is essential-- academic, business, scientific research, intelligence, etc. etc. etc. knows that we do not have that luxury. I just hope that MS Office 2008 is a far ahead of MS Office 2007 for the PC as Office 2004 was ahead of the Windows version.
No VBA really sucks. Plus I have a feeling it will be like 2004...barely adding anything. Access and Outlook (or a version of Entourage that actually worked with Outlook) would be nice. But that's a pipe dream.
No VBA really sucks. Plus I have a feeling it will be like 2004...barely adding anything. Access and Outlook (or a version of Entourage that actually worked with Outlook) would be nice. But that's a pipe dream.
1. t will be UB under the hood- meaning much better speed on Intel machines atleast.
2. It will offer an 'improved' UI. Maybe the MacBu will have taken the opportunity to actually improve stuff llike Styles. Anyhow it will be lightyears better integrated with Mac OS X technologies (Applescript, Services, etc) than NeoOffice will for the foreseeable future..
Those two things will be enough to justify a purchase for most people, anything else will be icing on the cake.
The lack of VBA will however force many users to retain a copy of Office 2004 (a decent action for MS would be to include Office 2004 on the Installer dvd).
... Those things said, I really hope that the delay of iWork '07 is caused by dramatic MS Office compability features included.
Why hasn't Apple integrated Mail, iCal, Address Book etc. into one supreme application to not only compete with Office, but make it simpler, sleeker and just plain better like they do with everything else. To this day I'm perplexed why everything is still a stand-alone program... it's not intuitive or functional if you want to check your e-mail, manage your contacts (vCards) and coordinate your calendar using the Apple applications all separately.
1. t will be UB under the hood- meaning much better speed on Intel machines atleast.
The lack of VBA will however force many users to retain a copy of Office 2004 (a decent action for MS would be to include Office 2004 on the Installer dvd).
I find that even though it isn't a universal binary app, the speeds are quite acceptabl. In fact I'm at the point where I will take a wait and see approach on upgrading. I will see if the lack of VBA will affect me and how much. Frankly Office 2004 works well enough for me and I'm migrating much of my work to iWork which is just a more pleasant experience IMO.
Why hasn't Apple integrated Mail, iCal, Address Book etc. into one supreme application to not only compete with Office, but make it simpler, sleeker and just plain better like they do with everything else. To this day I'm perplexed why everything is still a stand-alone program... it's not intuitive or functional if you want to check your e-mail, manage your contacts (vCards) and coordinate your calendar using the Apple applications all separately.
You are still thinking like an MS-DOS user. Entourage 2004 is a large monolithic modal app. It is a halllmark of Mac philosophy since 1984 that modal apps are bad. A suite of small, limited-purpose apps that work well together is much preferable. What's more, Mail, iCal, and Address Book are not just apps. They are system resources which share their databases and other functionality with any other app designed to take advantage of them. My advice is to learn to use your new computer rather than wishing for your old one.
While I can sympathize with those who would like to damn MS Office to the nether reaches, anyone who works in a environment where interoperability of documents, at least, is essential-- academic, business, scientific research, intelligence, etc. etc. etc. knows that we do not have that luxury. I just hope that MS Office 2008 is a far ahead of MS Office 2007 for the PC as Office 2004 was ahead of the Windows version.
It's precisely for interoperability that folks in my school typically distribute documents in plain text, RTF, PDF and HTML depending on the situation. Many use Office to produce documents, many use LaTeX, some use something else, but then you convert to a standard form everyone's computer can handle.
Academic world should be a forerunner in making informed decisions about what formats to use for what purpose. "One size fits all" is rarely the best solution, especially when it's not a standard format. Microsoft has never been a model of interoperability, and with the exclusion of VBA from Mac Office as well as trying to bullshit that a format with ill defined binary blobs inside is "open", they show no sign of improvement. It would be to the advantage of everybody if Open Document Format caught on to the point that MS had no choice but include full support of it in Office. Office software in general is in a slump and the only way out is competition on usability instead of playing the format game.
You are still thinking like an MS-DOS user. Entourage 2004 is a large monolithic modal app. It is a halllmark of Mac philosophy since 1984 that modal apps are bad. A suite of small, limited-purpose apps that work well together is much preferable. What's more, Mail, iCal, and Address Book are not just apps. They are system resources which share their databases and other functionality with any other app designed to take advantage of them. My advice is to learn to use your new computer rather than wishing for your old one.
Unfortunately, Mail and iCal integration is very poor and it makes Entourage look really good, especially when dealing with Exchange. And no, our company is not about to drop Exchange.
Mail and Address Book already integrate beautifully. i just wish iCal and Mail would merge in a Mac-like way or keep them separate and create some new collaborative application that handles corporate email + Calendars + online resources (Public Folders).
Has anyone tried Google Docs, Spreadsheets, Calendar, etc.? I've used Docs (wordprocessor). It's good - maybe not in class with Word, but still good. Google's apps are compatible with Office. There is a lengthy discussion of them in August MacWorld.
You are still thinking like an MS-DOS user. Entourage 2004 is a large monolithic modal app. It is a halllmark of Mac philosophy since 1984 that modal apps are bad. A suite of small, limited-purpose apps that work well together is much preferable. What's more, Mail, iCal, and Address Book are not just apps. They are system resources which share their databases and other functionality with any other app designed to take advantage of them. My advice is to learn to use your new computer rather than wishing for your old one.
Wishing for my old one? I'm a Mac guy, not a Windows or DOS guy... It's not unrealistic to want the Calendar, Mail & Contacts in a neatly tied together window. I don't want 3 windows open when I can have 1... these applications aren't as intuitively linked as you want to believe. Trust me, I'm not into Microsoft at all, but for business, Office could be made irrelevant by tying iCal, Mail & Address Book into something more cohesive.
Of course, everyone praising the single-minded focus of Apple's three separate communication apps has to explain why it's suddenly okay for Cupertino to then bundle word-processing and page layout functions in one productivity app.
Comments
I've seen plenty of articles stating Office for Mac will be out in the second half of 2007. Is that still true? Anyone know any details?
Well, it would be Office 2008, and here are some details about it.
I haven't seen any information beyond what is on mactopia and the initial info they released in January.
http://blogs.msdn.com/macmojo/
While I can sympathize with those who would like to damn MS Office to the nether reaches, anyone who works in a environment where interoperability of documents, at least, is essential-- academic, business, scientific research, intelligence, etc. etc. etc. knows that we do not have that luxury. I just hope that MS Office 2008 is a far ahead of MS Office 2007 for the PC as Office 2004 was ahead of the Windows version.
No VBA really sucks. Plus I have a feeling it will be like 2004...barely adding anything. Access and Outlook (or a version of Entourage that actually worked with Outlook) would be nice. But that's a pipe dream.
1. t will be UB under the hood- meaning much better speed on Intel machines atleast.
2. It will offer an 'improved' UI. Maybe the MacBu will have taken the opportunity to actually improve stuff llike Styles. Anyhow it will be lightyears better integrated with Mac OS X technologies (Applescript, Services, etc) than NeoOffice will for the foreseeable future..
Those two things will be enough to justify a purchase for most people, anything else will be icing on the cake.
The lack of VBA will however force many users to retain a copy of Office 2004 (a decent action for MS would be to include Office 2004 on the Installer dvd).
... Those things said, I really hope that the delay of iWork '07 is caused by dramatic MS Office compability features included.
1. t will be UB under the hood- meaning much better speed on Intel machines atleast.
The lack of VBA will however force many users to retain a copy of Office 2004 (a decent action for MS would be to include Office 2004 on the Installer dvd).
I find that even though it isn't a universal binary app, the speeds are quite acceptabl. In fact I'm at the point where I will take a wait and see approach on upgrading. I will see if the lack of VBA will affect me and how much. Frankly Office 2004 works well enough for me and I'm migrating much of my work to iWork which is just a more pleasant experience IMO.
Why hasn't Apple integrated Mail, iCal, Address Book etc. into one supreme application to not only compete with Office, but make it simpler, sleeker and just plain better like they do with everything else. To this day I'm perplexed why everything is still a stand-alone program... it's not intuitive or functional if you want to check your e-mail, manage your contacts (vCards) and coordinate your calendar using the Apple applications all separately.
You are still thinking like an MS-DOS user. Entourage 2004 is a large monolithic modal app. It is a halllmark of Mac philosophy since 1984 that modal apps are bad. A suite of small, limited-purpose apps that work well together is much preferable. What's more, Mail, iCal, and Address Book are not just apps. They are system resources which share their databases and other functionality with any other app designed to take advantage of them. My advice is to learn to use your new computer rather than wishing for your old one.
While I can sympathize with those who would like to damn MS Office to the nether reaches, anyone who works in a environment where interoperability of documents, at least, is essential-- academic, business, scientific research, intelligence, etc. etc. etc. knows that we do not have that luxury. I just hope that MS Office 2008 is a far ahead of MS Office 2007 for the PC as Office 2004 was ahead of the Windows version.
It's precisely for interoperability that folks in my school typically distribute documents in plain text, RTF, PDF and HTML depending on the situation. Many use Office to produce documents, many use LaTeX, some use something else, but then you convert to a standard form everyone's computer can handle.
Academic world should be a forerunner in making informed decisions about what formats to use for what purpose. "One size fits all" is rarely the best solution, especially when it's not a standard format. Microsoft has never been a model of interoperability, and with the exclusion of VBA from Mac Office as well as trying to bullshit that a format with ill defined binary blobs inside is "open", they show no sign of improvement. It would be to the advantage of everybody if Open Document Format caught on to the point that MS had no choice but include full support of it in Office. Office software in general is in a slump and the only way out is competition on usability instead of playing the format game.
You are still thinking like an MS-DOS user. Entourage 2004 is a large monolithic modal app. It is a halllmark of Mac philosophy since 1984 that modal apps are bad. A suite of small, limited-purpose apps that work well together is much preferable. What's more, Mail, iCal, and Address Book are not just apps. They are system resources which share their databases and other functionality with any other app designed to take advantage of them. My advice is to learn to use your new computer rather than wishing for your old one.
Unfortunately, Mail and iCal integration is very poor and it makes Entourage look really good, especially when dealing with Exchange. And no, our company is not about to drop Exchange.
Mail and Address Book already integrate beautifully. i just wish iCal and Mail would merge in a Mac-like way or keep them separate and create some new collaborative application that handles corporate email + Calendars + online resources (Public Folders).
You are still thinking like an MS-DOS user. Entourage 2004 is a large monolithic modal app. It is a halllmark of Mac philosophy since 1984 that modal apps are bad. A suite of small, limited-purpose apps that work well together is much preferable. What's more, Mail, iCal, and Address Book are not just apps. They are system resources which share their databases and other functionality with any other app designed to take advantage of them. My advice is to learn to use your new computer rather than wishing for your old one.
Wishing for my old one? I'm a Mac guy, not a Windows or DOS guy... It's not unrealistic to want the Calendar, Mail & Contacts in a neatly tied together window. I don't want 3 windows open when I can have 1... these applications aren't as intuitively linked as you want to believe. Trust me, I'm not into Microsoft at all, but for business, Office could be made irrelevant by tying iCal, Mail & Address Book into something more cohesive.