Office 2008 a Mixed Bag for Mac Users

- 2008.04.02 - Tip Jar

Bookmark in del.icio.us Suggest to Slashdot

Low End Mac Reader Specials

Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com

LA Computer Company: LA Computer Company: Specials on AppleCare, Apple Displays, MacBooks, iMac's, MacBook Pros, Laptop and iPod accessories and more. Apple A/C Adapters for laptops starting at $25.00 Call 1-800-941-7654 or Click Here.

OWC: Mercury Elite FW800/FW400/USB2/eSATA up to 2.0TB TOP-RATED Solutions offer High Performance, Reliable storage for all your data storage needs. 500GB $159.99, 750GB $199.99, 1.0TB from $299.99

Mac users can finally play Party Poker for Mac. Not only that, they can also learn how to play PokerStars for Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, laptops, and LCD TVs side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for a new cell phone GPS products or MP3 players. The Ciao network makes searching products easy for you.

MacPro Memory 667Mhz With Apple Spec Heat Sink 2GB $90 / 4GB $134 / 8GB $264. Click to Maximize your Macs...

Mac users have long had a complicated love-hate relationship with Microsoft. On the one hand, they've chosen a path separate from the Microsoft Windows-using majority. But most of them continue to be customers of Microsoft's Office. While Windows Office users got a 2007-branded update that featured a new user interface and new file formats, Mac users had to wait until now for the new Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac.

This new version is a less radical revision than last year's Windows update, which did away with traditional menus and toolbars entirely, replacing them with a series of what Microsoft refers to as "ribbons". Office '08 retains classic menus and a single-width toolbar, along with the handy formatting palette found in the last Mac Office versions, now expanded with new palettes for objects, reference tools, and more, including a set of document themes.

The elements gallery is new: a series of tabs between the toolbar and the page. In Word, these provide quick access to features such as tables, charts, and "smartart graphics". New in Word, also, is a publishing layout view, perhaps a response to easy-to-use page layout features in Apple's low-cost, Word-compatible Pages word processor (part of Apple's iWork '08 package).

Users of recent Intel-powered Macs will be pleased that Office '08 has been redesigned with their hardware in mind. As a result, it loads and runs somewhat faster than Office 2004 on those Macs. On older PowerPC Macs, however, it will feel a bit slower than the previous version.

Compatilbity

Like the Windows Office 2007 version, the new Mac Office saves files in Microsoft's new Open XML file formats by default; it will happily exchange files with Office 2007 users. But as with last year's Windows version, I recommend resetting the Office 2008 applications to save in the older Office file formats for compatibility with the majority of users (on both Windows and Mac) using older versions. (Converters for the new file formats are available for users of Microsoft Office 2000, 2002, and 2003 for Windows, but they are not yet out for the equivalent Mac Office versions.)

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint each sport a set of relatively subtle improvements generally aimed at making existing features easier to locate. They also provide more powerful layout and formatting options (to better compete with iWork '08). New Excel users will appreciate the ledger sheets library of pre-made invoices and other documents, along with the formula builder tool. PowerPoint presentations can be spiffed up with SmartArt graphics and easier animations.

No Feature Parity fo Entourage

Entourage, Office 2008's equivalent of the Windows package's Outlook, is less changed. It focuses on improving capabilities for users on a Microsoft Exchange server, such as the ability to check other users' schedules to plan a meeting when everyone is free.

While Entourage now works well with Exchange calendars and with the iCal calendar built into the Mac, it does less well with Exchange tasks, notes, and public folders. The new version of Entourage still can't import Outlook-style PST files, which makes it difficult for users to move their data from a Windows system to a Mac. As a result, Entourage users may still feel like second-class Exchange citizens compared with Windows Outlook users. Moreover, the new Office version has dropped the support for Visual Basic macros available in previous Mac versions of the suite, limiting compatibility for some users.

Office 2008 comes in three "flavours": the standard version ($540, upgrade $320) includes the new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage. A $630 Special Media Edition adds Microsoft Expression Media, a management tool for digital photos, music and videos, as a separate installation. And a Home and School Edition, at $200 is the least expensive buy - though it's not licensed for workplace use.

Apple iWork 08 (currently $68.99 from Amazon.com - or $79.99 for the 5-user family pack)
Microsoft Office 2008, Home and School Edition (currently $129.99 from Amazon.com)
Microsoft Office 2008, Standard Version (currently $324.99 from Amazon.com)
Microsoft Office 2008 upgrade (currently $199.99 from Amazon.com)
Microsoft Office 2008, Special Media Edition upgrade (currently $410.99 from Amazon.com)
Microsoft Office 2008, Special Media Edition upgrade (currently $242.99 from Amazon.com)

First published in Business in Vancouver April 1-7, 2008; issue 962. It is republished here with permission.

Alan Zisman is Mac-using teacher and technology writer based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Many of his articles are available on his website, www.zisman.ca. If you find Alan's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

Recent Columns by Alan Zisman

SanDisk Sansa Clip a low cost alternative to iPods for Mac users, 07.01. There's no video or photo support, but the Sansa Clip works with MP3 files and includes an FM radio and a microphone.
Leopard makes it easy to share your Mac's screen locally and over the Internet, 06.30. Mac OS X 10.5 makes it easier to remotely access a Mac's screen on a network or over the Internet with more options than ever before.
SheepShaver brings Classic Mac OS to Intel Macs and Leopard, 05.20. Mac OS X 10.5 doesn't support Classic Mode. Neither does Leopard. But SheepShaver lets you emulate a PowerPC Mac and run the Classic Mac OS.
More in the Zis Mac index.

Recent Content on Low End Mac

Mac Pro overclocking, Windependence with Darwine, Blu-ray for Macs, and more, Mac News Review, 07.04. Also more on running Leopard on non-Apple hardware, Ubuntu on a Mac mini, the first autofocus webcam with Zeiss optics for Macs, and more.
Wouldn't life be great with an iSlate?, John Hatchett, Recycled Computing, 07.04. PDAs and smartphones are too small for some tasks, full-fledged Tablet PCs are overkill, and ebook readers are too limited. Apple has the tech to own this niche.
Mac of the Day: iMac G3/266 MHz, Jan. 1999 - The first multicolored iMac runs at 266 MHz, loses infrared communication.
List of the Day: G4 List is for those using Power Mac G4s or G4 upgrades.
July 6 in LEM history: 00: 3 user accelerators - 01: SCSI and FireWire Disk Mode - Stick with the Mac - Computers for college - 05: Optimizing OS X performance - Return of the bumper snicker - 06: Can consumer MacBook replace 2 PowerBooks and a ThinkPad? - Vintage Macs with System 6 run circles around 3 GHz Windows PC - Run Windows apps without Windows
The Macintosh Portable started a notebook revolution, Carl Nygren, Classic Macs in the Intel Age, 07.03. Before Apple introduced the Mac Portable, notebook computers were text-based and ran MS-DOS. Ever since, graphical interfaces have been the norm for laptops.
More links in our archive.

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2008 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, PowerBook, MacBook, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.