Though we may grumble about Microsoft, most Mac users have a copy of
Microsoft Office on hand, using Word, Excel, and PowerPoint - just like
most their Windows counterparts.
A decade ago, Microsoft tried to make Office look and feel the same
on both platforms. The result, Office 4.2, was a pretty good Windows
version, but the Mac version was slow and bloated. Since then, while
letting Mac and Windows users share their work, Microsoft has set its
Macintosh Business Unit free.
Recent versions of Office for Windows have included new features
primarily of interest to corporate IT departments. While the previous
Mac version did little besides make the previous Mac Office 2001 work
under Apple's OS X operating system, the newly released Mac-only
Office 2004 (US$399, US$239 upgrade) adds features aimed squarely at
individual users. Many of those features are not available in any
Windows version.
Entourage, like Outlook in the Windows version, started life as an
email and calendar module. The new Entourage gains better spam
filtering, archiving of email and schedules, and support for Microsoft
Exchange servers. A new Entourage feature, Project Center, can be
accessed from the other Office modules, allowing users to build
projects, complete with deadlines and assigned tasks, linking relevant
notes, documents, email, and contacts. Projects can be shared with
other Mac users of Office 2004, aiding collaboration.
While word processor users haven't seen many big new features since
real-time spell checking, Word 2004 in the new Office suite gets a new
notebook view, mimicking a lined page. Aiming at making it easy to type
in notes and organize an outline, it features a simplified toolbar and
an easy way to record audio clips and link them to a Word document.
The new Excel gains a useful Page Layout view, making it possible to
work with a spreadsheet while seeing how it will look on the printed
page.
PowerPoint, under pressure to compete with Apple's Keynote
presentation application, gains a set of new templates and animations.
Perhaps more useful will be the new presenter tools, allowing
presenters to view speakers' notes and to reorganize slides on the fly
while the audience only sees the presentation.
Also handy are compatibility reports, noting whether saved documents
will appear properly to users running a range of both Mac and Windows
office versions.
Office 2004 isn't too proud to borrow good ideas that originated in
the Windows version. For example, like its Windows cousin, Word for
Macs now checks how to format pasted-in text, offering to preserve the
original formatting or to make it match the destination. And it finally
breaks with the previous version's refusal to save long file names.
Entourage gains a three-column view similar to Outlook 2003.
Both the Windows and Mac versions of Office come in several
different editions. On the Windows side, users of the higher-priced
Professional package get Microsoft's Access database; small business
version users get a copy of the Publisher page design program. There
are no Macintosh versions of either program; instead Mac Office 2004
Pro (US$499) will be bundled with Virtual PC 7.0, allowing Mac users to
load a Windows operating system and applications and run them in a
window on their Mac.
Office Professional 2004 has not yet been released, as Microsoft
works on making Virtual PC compatible with Apple's new G5 Power Macs
and awaits the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2. Office 2004 also
lacks the SharePoint collaboration tools built into recent Windows
versions, which is used in some large organizations.
As with the Windows version, the most affordable Mac Office 2004
version is the Student/Teacher edition (about US$149). This version can
be legally purchased by anyone with a student or teacher in the family
and can be installed onto up to three home computers. If you're
comfortable with a 185 MB download, there's a 30-day
free Test Drive version available.
While lacking some corporate must-have features, Office 2004 sets a
new standard for elegance and ease of use for productivity software for
individual users.
Only on a Mac? Pity! 
