Disappointing for those of us who were really hoping for better Exchange integration. Primarily what I have been hoping for is:
Out of Office replies (my understanding is this is here finally, and yes this can be simulated by using rules, but the last time I tried I ended up with an endless loop after my out-of-office reply was replied to by someone else's out-of-office).
Server-side rules. I have a lot of filtering of messages going on, and it would be nice if that would run even if my primary machine wasn't running.
Better access to the Exchange directory. I have no idea how my company has seemingly disabled this, but I have tried all manner of getting Entourage to look people up in the directory (perhaps it replies on LDAP, which may be turned off on our Exchange server) with no success.
I'm guessing MSFT had reasons for not keeping VBA alive. Perhaps it was too much effort to port over to Intel. Still, I have a few Excel macros I won't be able to use anymore. I see that the premium version of Office includes Automator actions. That implies it has some level of Applescript support. If so, this is something not even iWork has, and could well be a way around VBA Macros, even if it eliminates cross-platform support for them.
To clarify:
-- Out of office does work in 2008.
-- Server side rules, not yet, don't know if they are coming.
-- Access to directory services is all up to your exchange admins and the LDAP settings, with the way things are set up where I am I have full access, and when composing, it goes to local contacts first then directories.
I have also been Beta testing office for the last month or so, I just installed the newest beta release.
...
How new of a beta? Does it expire in 4 days, or later than that? I recently got the beta, but it comes belly up here soon, and would like to keep testing for awhile.
You've all written to much and I can't be bothered to check if anyone is moaning about Entourage still using one big fat monolithic database. ARE THEY DEAF??? I can't believe it. I have submitted it as feedback but I doubt they will change it at this late stage. Time Machine and Portable Home Directories are going to hate Office 2008 as they hate 2004 today. Microsoft has really been ignorant here.
Official Beta Testers can download the latest Beta (8) via Microsoft Connect. Beta 7 is due to expire.
Am I missing something here, or has Microsoft compromised roughly 1/3 of the entire height of the screen with icons and other bunk?
Yeah there's certainly a lot of wasted space. What I don't understand about Word, iwork etc is why they insist on using the top of the page.
Documents tend to be taller rather than wide, computers tend to be widescreen, we have a menubar and dock at the top and bottom respectively and yet they insist on putting stuff at the top of the document. A sidebar would be a much better thing to have and one that attached to the window, not a floating window that gets in the way.
The reason for the floating window is of course to save having multiple copies of the same controls but surely it could always appear attached to the frontmost document and disappear or fade on ones in the background.
I can't say the ribbon interface is all that great. It wastes a lot of space and the animations are slow when they are starting out. Spell checking is still slow - Textedit is quicker, the interface doesn't like Uno btw, there's lots of odd coloring. Hopefully the final version will be better but the fact it has taken this long to get a universal binary is beyond a joke.
I'll probably install Office '08 for speed purposes. Ribbons are quite retarded, IMO. Takes too many clicks unless everything you need is in one area. Not to mention it's completely static. If you have a different workflow, tough shit. You have three choices: the scattered ribbon, menus, or keyboard shortcuts. Also takes up quite a bit of space. I'll see how much I like Office '08 once it hits final, but frankly I don't think the gallery is much worse than ribbons.
I'll probably install Office '08 for speed purposes. Ribbons are quite retarded, IMO. Takes too many clicks unless everything you need is in one area. Not to mention it's completely static. If you have a different workflow, tough shit. You have three choices: the scattered ribbon, menus, or keyboard shortcuts. Also takes up quite a bit of space. I'll see how much I like Office '08 once it hits final, but frankly I don't think the gallery is much worse than ribbons.
Have you used Office 2007 for Windows? Thinking about liking it is one thing. Using it is another.
Then you don't use Office 2007 for Windows. My school upgraded at the end of last year, and let me tell you, as someone that hates M$ products, It is far superior to any version of Office. I actually enjoy using it. The ribbon is absolutely awesome for everything from setting margins (they have quick and easy presets like "moderate" and "narrow" for those). Finding options for sorting data in Excel is quick an easy. It all just works. It's almost...Mac like. <dies>
I have used Office 2007. Not as extensively as I used Office 2003 or Office:mac 2004, but I have. And again, that's why I said it was my own personal opinion of the Ribbon interface, hence the (imo). I acknowledge it has benefits and makes everything easily accessible, but for me, the learning curve was taking too much time. Look at it like a Dvorak keyboard - I can admit it probably works better and more efficiently, but I'm familiar with QWERTY and don't really have the time or the motivation to re-learn a different system, especially when it's unnecessary for my needs.
Same applies here. Working with Ribbon, I spent too much time hunting for what I needed when in the old toolbar-hell, I knew exactly where to go to get it to do what I want.
And to the poster who was saying that Elements Gallery is a bad compromise and MacBU should have brought Ribbon directly to Office:mac, the whole point is Ribbon wouldn't work under OSX because Ribbon would violate pretty much all of OSX's UI aesthetic conventions. Office would look like an app running in X11, and the Mac faithful would be up in arms about how ugly it was.
Comments
Disappointing for those of us who were really hoping for better Exchange integration. Primarily what I have been hoping for is:
- Out of Office replies (my understanding is this is here finally, and yes this can be simulated by using rules, but the last time I tried I ended up with an endless loop after my out-of-office reply was replied to by someone else's out-of-office).
- Server-side rules. I have a lot of filtering of messages going on, and it would be nice if that would run even if my primary machine wasn't running.
- Better access to the Exchange directory. I have no idea how my company has seemingly disabled this, but I have tried all manner of getting Entourage to look people up in the directory (perhaps it replies on LDAP, which may be turned off on our Exchange server) with no success.
I'm guessing MSFT had reasons for not keeping VBA alive. Perhaps it was too much effort to port over to Intel. Still, I have a few Excel macros I won't be able to use anymore. I see that the premium version of Office includes Automator actions. That implies it has some level of Applescript support. If so, this is something not even iWork has, and could well be a way around VBA Macros, even if it eliminates cross-platform support for them.To clarify:
-- Out of office does work in 2008.
-- Server side rules, not yet, don't know if they are coming.
-- Access to directory services is all up to your exchange admins and the LDAP settings, with the way things are set up where I am I have full access, and when composing, it goes to local contacts first then directories.
A few comments:
I have also been Beta testing office for the last month or so, I just installed the newest beta release.
...
How new of a beta? Does it expire in 4 days, or later than that? I recently got the beta, but it comes belly up here soon, and would like to keep testing for awhile.
Official Beta Testers can download the latest Beta (8) via Microsoft Connect. Beta 7 is due to expire.
Am I missing something here, or has Microsoft compromised roughly 1/3 of the entire height of the screen with icons and other bunk?
Yeah there's certainly a lot of wasted space. What I don't understand about Word, iwork etc is why they insist on using the top of the page.
Documents tend to be taller rather than wide, computers tend to be widescreen, we have a menubar and dock at the top and bottom respectively and yet they insist on putting stuff at the top of the document. A sidebar would be a much better thing to have and one that attached to the window, not a floating window that gets in the way.
The reason for the floating window is of course to save having multiple copies of the same controls but surely it could always appear attached to the frontmost document and disappear or fade on ones in the background.
I can't say the ribbon interface is all that great. It wastes a lot of space and the animations are slow when they are starting out. Spell checking is still slow - Textedit is quicker, the interface doesn't like Uno btw, there's lots of odd coloring. Hopefully the final version will be better but the fact it has taken this long to get a universal binary is beyond a joke.
I'll probably install Office '08 for speed purposes. Ribbons are quite retarded, IMO. Takes too many clicks unless everything you need is in one area. Not to mention it's completely static. If you have a different workflow, tough shit. You have three choices: the scattered ribbon, menus, or keyboard shortcuts. Also takes up quite a bit of space. I'll see how much I like Office '08 once it hits final, but frankly I don't think the gallery is much worse than ribbons.
Have you used Office 2007 for Windows? Thinking about liking it is one thing. Using it is another.
Then you don't use Office 2007 for Windows. My school upgraded at the end of last year, and let me tell you, as someone that hates M$ products, It is far superior to any version of Office. I actually enjoy using it. The ribbon is absolutely awesome for everything from setting margins (they have quick and easy presets like "moderate" and "narrow" for those). Finding options for sorting data in Excel is quick an easy. It all just works. It's almost...Mac like. <dies>
I have used Office 2007. Not as extensively as I used Office 2003 or Office:mac 2004, but I have. And again, that's why I said it was my own personal opinion of the Ribbon interface, hence the (imo). I acknowledge it has benefits and makes everything easily accessible, but for me, the learning curve was taking too much time. Look at it like a Dvorak keyboard - I can admit it probably works better and more efficiently, but I'm familiar with QWERTY and don't really have the time or the motivation to re-learn a different system, especially when it's unnecessary for my needs.
Same applies here. Working with Ribbon, I spent too much time hunting for what I needed when in the old toolbar-hell, I knew exactly where to go to get it to do what I want.
And to the poster who was saying that Elements Gallery is a bad compromise and MacBU should have brought Ribbon directly to Office:mac, the whole point is Ribbon wouldn't work under OSX because Ribbon would violate pretty much all of OSX's UI aesthetic conventions. Office would look like an app running in X11, and the Mac faithful would be up in arms about how ugly it was.