Word 2008 Woes (and complaints)
My experience after using Word 2008 for about three weeks. If anyone can offer any solutions or suggestions, please do so:
The good:
Speed is much improved.
The So-so:
Stability is somewhat better than the 2004 version (which isn't saying much).
The Ugly (and buggy):
Is is no surprise that the gallery is been much maligned: it takes way too much space and obviously does nothing but take up space if it is not being used. Microsoft should have allowed the the gallery to be hidden.
I say that stability is somewhat improved because when I first started using Word I could not save documents by using Command+S because this would crash Word, but surprisingly, File>Save worked as expected. The problem has now mysteriously disappeared.
The palettes are not longer floating. Example: in 2004, I could place the table palette right next to the table I was working on and close it after I was done. Now, the icons are part of the palette on top of the document and therefore does not have a close button and cannot be moved. Un-mac like.
Sometimes I am not able to select tables and delete them. I have tried selecting the tables, pressing delete and command delete, but this does not work half the time and I cannot tell why it works sometimes and why it doesn't.
Find and replace does not allow formatting: I do a lot of find and replace in documents where I replace words with no formatting with formatted words (ie, jurisdiction with jurisdiction).
It seems that Word 2008 does not let you add formatting to the words in the Replace field (formatting icons are greyed out). This is completely unacceptable to me since I use this function to bold and underline words. This alone has caused me to stick with Word 2004, since I cannot live without this function.
If I could have the stability and speed of Word 2008 in the 2004 version, I would ask for nothing more and be satisfied. I have to say that overall, this update has been a disappointment (no surprise there, since that seems to be the consensus).
The good:
Speed is much improved.
The So-so:
Stability is somewhat better than the 2004 version (which isn't saying much).
The Ugly (and buggy):
Is is no surprise that the gallery is been much maligned: it takes way too much space and obviously does nothing but take up space if it is not being used. Microsoft should have allowed the the gallery to be hidden.
I say that stability is somewhat improved because when I first started using Word I could not save documents by using Command+S because this would crash Word, but surprisingly, File>Save worked as expected. The problem has now mysteriously disappeared.
The palettes are not longer floating. Example: in 2004, I could place the table palette right next to the table I was working on and close it after I was done. Now, the icons are part of the palette on top of the document and therefore does not have a close button and cannot be moved. Un-mac like.
Sometimes I am not able to select tables and delete them. I have tried selecting the tables, pressing delete and command delete, but this does not work half the time and I cannot tell why it works sometimes and why it doesn't.
Find and replace does not allow formatting: I do a lot of find and replace in documents where I replace words with no formatting with formatted words (ie, jurisdiction with jurisdiction).
It seems that Word 2008 does not let you add formatting to the words in the Replace field (formatting icons are greyed out). This is completely unacceptable to me since I use this function to bold and underline words. This alone has caused me to stick with Word 2004, since I cannot live without this function.
If I could have the stability and speed of Word 2008 in the 2004 version, I would ask for nothing more and be satisfied. I have to say that overall, this update has been a disappointment (no surprise there, since that seems to be the consensus).
Comments
My big complaint Office 2004 was PowerPoint. How PowerPoint in 2008?
Powerpoint is a much better improvement than Word is, IMO. I haven't had any major problems and the interface improvements make more sense.
the good: Powerpoint - mainly because it hasn't gotten worse! IMO, it feels slightly better to use now...
the bad: Word - no improvements, seems to have become slower. i miss the transparent floating formatting palette - was a good when it just faded out when not being use. new one seems more "in your face" & obtrusive
the ugly: Excel - S-L-O-W - almost at the point where it hangs... almost like running Office Vista on Pentium III PCs (ok, last bit was an exaggeration), but hopefully you get the picture.
my verdict: i'll be happy to give up the fancy enhancements & go back to office 2004 just for the faster performance...
now i have to find someone who's willing to buy my copy of office 08!!
Excel 2008 is too slow for any realy use for myself, since I have a PC lappy with Vista and Office 2007, and the same xlsx file that purrs along in Excel 2007 takes ages to render new plots, drag around charts, etc. The datasets aren't that big (~4000 rows x 8 columns, per sheet, with about 8 sheets total). The only good thing I can really say about Excel 2008, is that it isn't nearly useless, feature-wise, as Numbers.
Haven't played around with Word or Powerpoint, as I do nearly all my writing on my laptop. I probably would use Keynote 08 over Powerpoint the next I do a presentation, as I've actually haven't tryied it yet.
My laptop is a $800 Toshiba, with Vista Home Premium and AMD Turion 64 X2 (1.8 Ghz), while my Mac is the Mini with the 1.83 GHz C2D and 10.5.1. Both have 2 GB of RAM.
I probably one of the few people that totally loves Office 2007 though, once you do get used to the Ribbon, it's hard to go back to toolbars, IMO.