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