Reply to: Office 2008 for Mac...

[OrangeHopper]

I upgraded to 2008 when it came out and regretted it immediately.

Luckily I kept 2004 on my newer machine and used this when I hit problems with 2008.

The recent upgrade has finally fixed a problem where some of spreadsheets wouldn't open with 2008.

I will think hard and long before upgrading next time around.

[NickFitz]

I thought a Mac "just works"? You mean it just works except when it doesn't, like with the single most pervasive application on the planet?

The Mac works. The software Microsoft produce for the Mac doesn't.

It's a shame - MS's Macintosh Business Unit used to be renowned for writing some of the best Mac software going. Unfortunately MS seem to have cut back on their investment at around the time OS X came out, and now they can't write Mac software to save their lives.

Even when Office for Mac manages to function correctly, the usability aspects are crippled by the interaction design being copied from the Windows version, and therefore not working like any other Mac application on the planet. In addition it usually attempts to replicate functionality that is already part of the operating system, yet does so in a way that doesn't integrate with the system in any useful way.

I gave up on Office ages ago, as my need for such applications is virtually non-existent. If I need to run it, I just do so in a Windows VM under Parallels.

Remember the good old days when IE for Mac (which shared zero lines of code with the Windows version) was the best browser on any platform, full stop? Of course that's not been true for a number of years, as MS stopped developing it when Safari came along, but the forthcoming IE 8 for Windows will only just about manage to get to the level of standards compliance that IE/Mac boasted eight years ago.

Oddly enough, an extremely obscure CSS comment-parsing bug from IE/Mac reared it's head in the early beta of IE 8 - I strongly suspect that the new rendering engine is actually based in part on a port of the old Mac code. (It can't be the same coder repeating his mistakes, as he doesn't work at MS anymore.)

[ratewhore]

I thought a Mac "just works"? You mean it just works except when it doesn't, like with the single most pervasive application on the planet?

In my experience, it is the MS Office Suite which is responsible for 99% of the times my powerbook has hung.

The other 1% being crap websites...

[daviejones]

Google for Office 2008 Mac hang crash or whatever.

If you only use it to write letters to your mum or spreadsheets of what you want from Santa then I'm sure it's fine.

When you get all sorts of documents from clients created with God-knows-what version of MS Office then its shortcomings will soon become apparent.

I'm also still on Tiger 10.4.11 so don't know if upgrading to 'Leper' will help.

I use it for graphs etc based on stats given to me by client. I do all my Xmas
lists for Santa in Word...

I also do it for all my expenses etc.

Like I say, not had an issue....I am not saying I won't, just haven't yet...

[bogeyman]

Possibly, or it could be user error?

Google for Office 2008 Mac hang crash or whatever.

If you only use it to write letters to your mum or spreadsheets of what you want from Santa then I'm sure it's fine.

When you get all sorts of documents from clients created with God-knows-what version of MS Office then its shortcomings will soon become apparent.

I'm also still on Tiger 10.4.11 so don't know if upgrading to 'Leper' will help.

[daviejones]

Well lucky you! Perhaps you're not using the same features I am.

Possibly, or it could be user error?

[Spacecadet]

I thought a Mac "just works"? You mean it just works except when it doesn't, like with the single most pervasive application on the planet?

A couple of weeks ago I was at the pub with a few friends, one of whom is a keen apple mac user and promotes them as being "the best" whenever he can.

This time however a friend of his had turned up, another mac user.
Great, now I'll be getting it in stereo.

In the end, they spent most of the night talking to each other about apple stuff that doesn't work... including one interesting tale about an errant mouse being thrown against the wall so hard it ended up in bits and was left there for a week as a warning to it replacement

[expat]

I thought a Mac "just works"? You mean it just works except when it doesn't, like with the single most pervasive application on the planet?

[Spacecadet]

Well lucky you! Perhaps you're not using the same features I am.

I've used it a fair bit with XP (not on an apple)

Most of it is fine once you get around the new menus

Access on the other hand (some people still insist on using it and then sending db files to me for help) is a pile of tosh and crashes more times than it doesn't

[bogeyman]

Used Office 2008 since it came out and not had a single issue with it. Never had it hang, or error etc.

Sounds like PICNIC to me...

Well lucky you! Perhaps you're not using the same features I am.

[daviejones]

Used Office 2008 since it came out and not had a single issue with it. Never had it hang, or error etc.

Sounds like PICNIC to me...

[bogeyman]

Have you changed the security on the hub to WPA? My Airtunes wouldn't work at all with WEP.

As for Office 2008, I'm still on 2004 (or whatever) - but have you downloaded all the updates? It doesn't do it automatically, you have to run the crappy MSoft Updater thing.

Thanks for the tip on Updater. Will give it a shot and see if things improve.

[edit]

It does auto-update but for some reason was set to 'manual' so it wasn't checking for updates.

It is now busy installing 12.1.1 Update. Yikes!

[further edit]

Didn't fix my problem

If anything, added even more randomness. Seriously Peed off with this.

[bogeyman]

I actually maintain my company books etc, in NeoOffice because it can do things much better than Excel for Mac can. I also use it for other small tasks and whenever I can't figure something out in Excel, I know NeoOffice will be more intuitive; how's that for free software vs Microsoft software?!

Most times I use Excel where I can though, simply because everyone else does and compatibility is (more or less) guaranteed, particularly on the formatting side of things.

I use Word all the time, and it seems to be fine for my purposes. I think NeoOffice is a serious candidate for consideration though.

P

As I said, I do use NeoOffice for general wordprocessing and simple spreadsheets. On the whole it's good, but contrary to your experience, I find NeoOffice's spreadsheet a bit flakey.

I sometimes encounter Excel-generated spreadsheets that it just won't open (pinwheel of death/ force quit, once again). Nothing fancy about those spreadsheets, no VBA, not huge, just something that about them that sends NeoOffice mental.

[Peter Loew]

I actually maintain my company books etc, in NeoOffice because it can do things much better than Excel for Mac can. I also use it for other small tasks and whenever I can't figure something out in Excel, I know NeoOffice will be more intuitive; how's that for free software vs Microsoft software?!

Most times I use Excel where I can though, simply because everyone else does and compatibility is (more or less) guaranteed, particularly on the formatting side of things.

I use Word all the time, and it seems to be fine for my purposes. I think NeoOffice is a serious candidate for consideration though.

P

[bogeyman]

How does Pages compare to office? Anyone use it?

It's ok, but doesn't really stand up to Word.

Export to .doc was a bit of a nightmare last time I looked.