Quick-and-dirty snapshots of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac
Microsoft Corp.’s Macintosh Business Unit this week revealed at Macworld Expo 2007 a new version of Office for Mac that remains under development.
The Mac BU said it intends to deliver the Universal software suite for PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs -- Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac -- in the second half of 2007.
As part of its exhibit at the Macworld conference, the Redmond, Wash-based software giant has been offering quick previews of Word, one of the suite's components.
Some snapshots of the software's new user interface follow:
Please Note: Microsoft is not previewing Office 2008 or Word on terminals accessible by attendees and is instead offering brief presentations via a projector screen. Therefore image quality is poor.
The Mac BU said it intends to deliver the Universal software suite for PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs -- Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac -- in the second half of 2007.
As part of its exhibit at the Macworld conference, the Redmond, Wash-based software giant has been offering quick previews of Word, one of the suite's components.
Some snapshots of the software's new user interface follow:
Please Note: Microsoft is not previewing Office 2008 or Word on terminals accessible by attendees and is instead offering brief presentations via a projector screen. Therefore image quality is poor.
Comments
they seem to have completely worked in vain. This looks even more mac-unlike than the first beta of OpenOffice running with X11. What a horrible interface! Bloated. This looks like everything MS has not understood when writing software: they throw everything in yout face. What good is it to have a constant look at 25 different layout options when you chose one already? Same goes for formatting. This cries for illegibility. Wild formatting without a clue. Office ladies will sigh at the options blocking them from writing, writers will search for options in a mess of icons.
What a piece of crap. Money don't buy brains, Miss Ho.
Poor guys over there in Redmond
Wrong.
Silicon Valley.
Try again!
To me it looks like they have just taken pages and created an inferior merger with word. There are a lot of design elements that are stolen from OSX. Same with Vista but that is old news.
Still I will get it since it fits in with OSX and hopefully it will be scriptable using apple script if it is compiled with X Code for real....
Let s wait and see.
By the way
The day Mircosoft makes a product that doesn't suck will be the day they start making vacuum cleaners.
Steiner
But I guess that would make it look like Pages.
Who are MacBU aiming this at?
It's going to be totally different to the old Mac Word, alienating their old customers and it's also totally different to any version of Word on Windows, alienating people who use both systems.
MacBU, if you're listening, you're one ace-in-the-hole was compatibility with Windows. You're going out of your way to screw it up.
Roll on Pages v3.
One that is more of a document database and management tool. Something that could make up for the deficiencies in windows and provide more version control and user level permissions. Much better integration of word excel and pp.
You may wish to restrict document access (no-access, read-only, read-write, ...) to yourself, any user on the system, any user on a network, etc. I know that Microsoft will have server software that does this, but it doesn't scale down to small businesses and individuals.
Maybe Apple could put it into a future iWork ...
It seems that Microsoft is the largest user of the "Command C" option, they seem to copy everything.
To me it looks like they have just taken pages and created an inferior merger with word. There are a lot of design elements that are stolen from OSX. Same with Vista but that is old news.
Still I will get it since it fits in with OSX and hopefully it will be scriptable using apple script if it is compiled with X Code for real....
Let s wait and see.
By the way
The day Mircosoft makes a product that doesn't suck will be the day they start making vacuum cleaners.
Steiner
I agree 100%. Look at the templates they demo! They are stolen right from Pages - even the Latin placeholding text!!! They even use the same phrase, "Lorem Ipsum Dolor", as Apple does in Pages!
Incredible gall.
isn't Karen Walker from Will & Grace?
Yes, she is!
I agree 100%. Look at the templates they demo! They are stolen right from Pages - even the Latin placeholding text!!! They even use the same phrase, "Lorem Ipsum Dolor", as Apple does in Pages!
Incredible gall.
Well, to be fair, Lorem Ipsum is pretty much a standard for placeholder text.
I agree 100%. Look at the templates they demo! They are stolen right from Pages - even the Latin placeholding text!!! They even use the same phrase, "Lorem Ipsum Dolor", as Apple does in Pages!
Incredible gall.
Umm, you do know that "Lorem ipso dolor" is placeholder text that has been used by almost every desktop publishing program. Pages didn't invent it, and neither did PageMaker, Quark or InDesign.
Still MS has not shown me why I should spend 10 x $$$ on Office, when iWork 07 (please, please, please have a spreadsheet app in it) will work just fine for me.
I thought the U.N. banned it in 1996 when scientists found irrefutable links to workplace insanity, and ruled companies could flog and fire employees for it's use in documents or presentations.
Ya mean to tell me there are still people out there using WordArt?
I thought the U.N. banned it in 1996 when scientists found irrefutable links to workplace insanity, and ruled companies could flog and fire employees for it's use in documents or presentations.
Yes, it was. Word Art users should be tried for crimes against humanity and turned over to the Iraqi government for execution.