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Office 2008 for Mac hits beta: ‘Escher’ UI revealed

apcmag.com — Microsoft's long-awaited Office 2008 has now stepped into the beta stage with a streamlined interface and an all-new "Escher" graphics engine to deliver lush graphic effects and impressive charting.

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  • lieutenantmudd, on 10/12/2007, -22/+33The problem with Mac Office 2008 is that it drops support for macros. All the polish in the world is worthless if it drops features you need
    • jawadde, on 10/12/2007, -35/+6source please.... i don't believe that
    • jdtanner, on 10/12/2007, -3/+57However, AppleScript support is included/improved...this is a Mac version afterall ;-)
    • ickusslime, on 10/12/2007, -3/+32Actually they are dropping support for VB script. Im not sure that eliminates Macros.
      http://www.macworld.com/2006/12/opinion/microsoft/
    • MrJonnyPantz, on 10/12/2007, -7/+25But the Macros are written in VB
    • Washburnian, on 10/12/2007, -39/+2Why don't you stop whinging, tool.
    • frobozz0, on 10/12/2007, -5/+55You mean the trojan horse for most all Mac virus to date is being closed down? Oh, damn.

      Sorry, I'm playing devil's advocate, but losing VBScript to gain AppleScript support is a good thing. Although I have no information one way or the other, I would surmise the Macros engine might run under AppleScript instead. Perhaps a translator for VB to AS ?
    • Topher06, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11Any macro/script is inherently easily translatable into any other macro/script. If the Mac product is dropping VB scripts, then expect that there will be a conversion tool. Since scripts are interpretable (and not compiled into machine languages) largely the language of the script is of no consequence. AppleScripts have a long history of proven ease of use, and I am sure this also means Office will have OS-X Automator integration. The only downside is that people used to VB scripts will have to learn how to use AppleScripts to write new macros, but then, people that write VB scripts probably use the PC Office and could care less about Mac products, and people that use Mac Office probably prefer and use AppleScripts and care less to VB.
    • EBFoxbat, on 10/12/2007, -4/+27Am I the only one scared ***** of macros?
    • RevMark, on 10/12/2007, -14/+8What suck is that there is still no Outlook, Outlook comparable application. I guess M$ figures that if the do Outlook for Mac OS X. Widows is surely doomed. I know one IT Director here in New Orleans that has said the ionly reason that he has not move his 9000+ systems to OSX is directly related to Outlook. He said that he has tested Entourage and quite frankly it is terrible as an Outlook replacement.
    • ltjon, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1VBA/script is the power-user's programming language, and can easily reduce long and boring copy and paste jobs to a one-click button macro.

      On the bright side, chargeable hours will go up.
    • Raian, on 10/12/2007, -6/+6There is no macro scripting in Office 2008-- there will be no conversion tool either.

      read this: http://blogs.msdn.com/macmojo/

      They want people to transition themselves.

      This is the first (maybe second if you count outlook) nail in the Office for Mac coffin.
    • chadseld, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7VBA Scripting in the Mac version of office has not been compatible with the PC version for some time now. The compatibility was broken years ago.
    • lieutenantmudd, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4"Am I the only one scared ***** of macros?"

      Than turn them off. Security isn't a good reason to remove a powerful feature. It's a good reason to turn them off by default and have reasonable controls.
    • lieutenantmudd, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3"However, AppleScript support is included/improved...this is a Mac version afterall ;-)"

      The issue isn't the availability of scripting, it's the compatibility with Windows, and AS offers no Windows compatibility.
    • catmistake, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Entourage in Office 2008 for Mac is supposed to have feature parity with Outlook on Windows afa Exchange public folders functionality and calendaring. If this is the case, it is a mighty victory. If not, because expectations are always low for Microsoft products, it is no biggie... "does it work at all?" that is the question.
    • aristotle0dude, on 10/12/2007, -9/+7If you want Office 2007 compatibility and excel macro support, take a look at the free NeoOffice 2.1 which is built on the Open Office 2.1 branch code.
      http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php
    • rasterbator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7"He said that he has tested Entourage and quite frankly it is terrible as an Outlook replacement."

      Agreed. I bought several copies for people in my office who wanted to use it, but since you cannot see Contact or Task folders in Entourage, it is useless.

      I use Mail, iCal and Address Book combo. Apple needs better integtration between these three apps. The address book pane in Mail is nice, but Mail needs an iCal pane. That way you could add a task, it automatically goes to iCal, emails the recipients, and a Smart folder stores all items set up as Tasks. And another Smart folder for ToDos. So ToDos, Tasks and Events that would show up in the left nav, and the ability to create these items directly in Mail, and have the system integrated to put them in their proper place.

      I would like to see OpenDirectory, iCal server, Mail server and Address Book server on the upcoming Leopard servers. Then companies could ditch Exchange and Client Access Licenses (CALs), which cost a butt load of money. Is that really too much to ask?

      Apple better do it before some third party builds a RubyonRails app to do all of this.
    • udahlen, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3They're dropping VBA, and it is very bad. I think Microsoft has become an old, slow and bureaucratic company. I think I'll be switching to NeoOffice.
    • unmarked, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5@Raian: Yes, do read: http://blogs.msdn.com/macmojo/

      Current article: MacTech’s Mac Office VBA to AppleScript Transition Guide

      Hmm, guess there WILL be scripting after all and apparently you can transition.

      If Microsoft does not present a transition tool, it makes for a great 3rd party opportunity, assuming there is enough demand.
    • macndub, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1It's absolutely infuriating. Microsoft adds more 3D effects and other useless chartjunk, but eliminates the absolutely critical VBA. What is the thought process here? "Hmm... my graphic is unconvincing about the relationship between these variables and time. I know! I'll make it transparent and 3-D! That will get my project approved!"

      Did the Mac BU even talk to a single Excel user? Have they even seen a copy of Tufte in the bookstore?

      VBA vs Applescript? Ha ha ha! Applescript might be brilliant, just like, "Sewer rat might taste like pumpkin pie, but I'm never gonna know because I'm not gonna eat (it)." If Office Mac can't talk to Office Windows, I'm not blowing $500 on it. Only a moron would, because the only compelling reason to buy Office Mac is that it talks to Office Windows. There are plenty of other apps out there for Mac if you don't sweat interplatform operability, for a whole lot less money than Office.

      Of course, every copy of Windows that Joe Blow picks up at Best Buy is worth 10 copies that Dell bundles as an OEM, so it's not surprising that Microsoft wants to kill the Mac BU and make me buy Parallels and my own copy of XP (not a typo...I'm not buying Vista until it copies files). But to be so blatent. I mean, why doesn't MS just blow up the Mac BU building one night with an "accidental" gas explosion or something easier on the customers?

      This sucks.
    • nandabanaotakun, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6 "Sewer rat might taste like pumpkin pie, but I'm never gonna know because I'm not gonna eat (it)."

      "it"?

      I think you mean "the filthy *****."

      You don't deserve to quote Pulp Fiction if you have to censor it.
    • aristotle0dude, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1***** this *****. Damn MSFT fanboys digging down people who post links to non-MSFT solutions.
      Quoting myself because some asswipe dugg me down.
      "If you want Office 2007 compatibility and excel macro support, take a look at the free NeoOffice 2.1 which is built on the Open Office 2.1 branch code.
      http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php "

      You might not like Neo Office but some people might actually find this useful. I personally prefer Neo Office over Office 2004 and now that Office 2008 will not support macros, I don't see how MS Office for mac will be a better solution than NeoOffice.
    • BlackSheep720, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1lovin' the glass effects
  • jzillan, on 10/12/2007, -4/+24here is a mirror for ya'll http://duggmirror.com//apple/Office_2008_for_Mac_hits_beta_Escher_UI_revealed/plain.html
  • foxmajik, on 10/12/2007, -15/+9I don't need 3D graphics to write a letter.
  • rad67, on 10/12/2007, -16/+15I switched to NeoOffice after the 2.1 update, and I seen no reason to go back.... (and it's really free ;) )
    • HAKdragon, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17I would love to switch to NeoOffice (I use OpenOffice on Windows), but damn if it isn't slow as hell on my iBook.
    • bhorst, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15And NeoOffice 2.1 lets you read the ".docx" format long before Microsoft's own product (on the Mac) is able to do so!

      Now, actually wanting to use that format is another story. The more ground that ODF gains over docx, the better for everyone.

      Luckily, it looks like ODF is going to be the default next-generation file format instead of the MSOOXML formats, with the pace that governments and businesses around the world (but mostly outside the USA) are adopting it.
    • avihappy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Neooffice is good because I have an Ubuntu machine as my primary work PC, and a Macbook Pro as my mobile workstation. I need them both to be compatible, so OO.o and Neooffice are a must.
    • ColdDimSum, on 10/12/2007, -6/+6Why are you digging him down because he uses NeoOffice?
    • BrainedChild, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7To speed up neooffice, move the fonts from inside the program to the system fonts folder. Set the graphic memory cache to 64mb. And find the individual launcher programs for Writer, Impress etc.
    • aristotle0dude, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2@hakdragon: Everything is slow as hell on your iBook.
  • treo, on 10/12/2007, -9/+34so it looks now all like that: http://www.mcescher.nl/Gallery/back-bmp/LW389.jpg ?
    Then, yay for userfriendlyness
    • esquilax, on 10/12/2007, -4/+17yeah, they might as well have named it MS Office 2008 YOU"RE ***** CONFUSED Edition...
    • jaydoj, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11ALL I WANT TO DO IS CREATE A NEW WORD DOCUMENT, ARRRRRGH WHY ARE THE STAIRS UPSIDE DOWN, STUPID OFFICE FOR MAC!!!!!


    • dragon76, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Microsoft UIs always defy reason, common sense and the laws of physics. It's fitting their new engine is called Escher
    • StealthTomato, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Oh good, I'm glad I'm not the only one scared by the prospect of an UI named after M.C. Escher.
  • cheesefan, on 10/12/2007, -4/+18Mmmmm, Universal Binary. Excellent news. Hope I can get in on the beta.
    • uranium, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1that's the only reason i'm gonna get it. i hate ribbons (i've used it on word for vista) but UB is more important.
  • escheriv, on 10/12/2007, -11/+6I resent the name. :(
  • Veight, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12That looks pretty good. I liked the Mac Office 2004 interface but ever since I got Office 2007 on my desktop, it has been ruined for me. This is definitely a step in the right direction. I do most of my Office stuff on my Mac anyway so I'm actually really excited for something that's not running in Rosetta and has a decent interface. I just hope they get it out quick so I can get it for $20 from work while I still work where I do.
  • flamebot, on 10/12/2007, -51/+3why develop office for mac? let em use bootcamp
    • Kaer, on 10/12/2007, -10/+7Not everyone wants to resort to loading up Windows just to type a 2 page document or creating a presentation.

      When I was using OSX on my Dell, I found it rather annoying having to reboot into Windows just use Office to make a few small changes because Office 2004 was too damn slow to do anything.
    • iPeeFreely, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8flamebot:
      ur a tool!
      have you not got anything helpfull to contribute with?
      and the answer to your question: because there are people who use macs!
    • koick, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Why? (I'll bite) Well, Office 2004 for Mac is at least an order of magnitude better, easier to use, nicer to look at, etc. than Office 2004 for Windows. The MS Mac team add lots of nice things which makes the versions for the different OSs not just clones of eachother.
  • jackwills, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2cant wait
  • Nebukadnezzar, on 10/12/2007, -9/+5mirror http://apcmag.com.nyud.net:8080/5780/office_2008_for_mac_hits_beta_shows_slick_ui_and_draws_on_escher
  • isaiah1112, on 10/12/2007, -6/+6Anybody have a link to sign up for the beta test??
  • serpicolugnut, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11It's a closed beta. Microsoft has never done an open beta for Mac Office.
  • ramshaw, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I'm not sure if its my windows heritage but I was never a fan of the Office 2004 for Mac UI, and on my MacBook under Rosetta its painfully slow. This looks like a step in the right direction, the lack of a modern and responsive Office Suite is where OS X is falling down for me at the moment. Office 2007 is a joy to use on my Windows box hopefully it will be similar on Mac. OpenOffiice on Mac isn't ideal under X11 and NeoOffice isn't stable enough at the moment in my opinion.
    • wiihuck, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5run the Microsoft AutoUpdater. it was slow on my macbook as well until I updated. it went from a 40+ bouncer to normally five bounces, ten max. i believe the newest version is 11.3.4 but i'm at school right now so i'm not 100%.
    • danielwsmithee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Office 2004 has always been great, however the fact that it runs under Rosetta really hurts. Running on my last PPC Mac was much better then running the latest Windows version of office on a PC (2003). I'm excited for the update, to see how smooth it runs on my MacBook.
  • josegutz, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2OOOH MC Escher you Eschew my life....
  • zodieman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Office for Mac is OK but that horrid stillborn Entourage is a joke! Exchange support is pretty bad. They should have ported Outlook 2001 to OS X and worked on that instead. This whole thing of trying to sync exclusively via OWA is just plain stupid. Give us native MAPI support for crying out loud!
    • austindkelly, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2thank you!

      entourage is a total piece. i am really hoping that the new version will have outlook in it. i hate having to boot up windows in parallels just so i can go over my mail and calender.
    • danielwsmithee, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Entourage does suck, but I think some of you exaggerate just a little bit. There is no way that it sucks so bad that it is worth booting Windows in parallels to get to Outlook. The user interface is really clunky, there is a severe lack of preferences, it is almost impossible to keep the stupid progress window from coming up etc, but you can still do 99% of what you can do in Outlook. The only real feature missing is Out of Office assistant that I am aware of.
    • signal15, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Entourage does suck. Try using it with an exchange mailbox containing 10's of thousands of messages. Outlook handles it fine, Entourage is dog slow syncing and doing anything with it on a brand new Macbook Pro.

      I'm considering just using Crossover Office to run Outlook.
    • rasterbator, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3The big problem with Exchange is that every single piece of text, image, PDF, etc. is put into a database. Apple's Mail is file based. So if you have a corrupt file, you simply lose the file on a Mac. But if you have a corruption in Exchange, the whole database is screwed.

      Apple is in a pickle because they know that if they build an Exchange-type server, they are pissing on the number one software for their platform. However, at this point in the game, Microsoft is playing a dead hand, and Apple needs to take advantage while they can.
    • weebmac, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Entourage is awful, awful software. I keep Parallels running all day specifically to use Office 2007 -- specifically Outlook and Excel. Well worth the trouble, too. Office 2004 is an embarrassment.
    • skribble, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@danielwsmithee

      Actually it does. In fact it sucks so bad, I've had my company bye me a /shudder/ Dell which I use primarily for working with my companies Exchange server. Lookout... umm Outlook I mean has lot's of nifty useful things that if the rest of your company uses, you've really gotta use too.
    • mercurysquad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Heh. First your company uses Microsoft propietary technology. Then you whine that it doesn't work well on an Apple machine (how surprizing). Then you buy a Dell, with Windows and Office. I must say Microsoft is not wealthy for no reason.
  • joeycerone, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3So where can I get a copy? :)
  • dawgma, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22WTF is going on with the mirror sites lately... they all seem to be as useless as the sites their supposed to be caching.
  • etandrib, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17I started using Pages and Keynote this past year and I have loved them. The interface is out of the way allowing me to easily create pretty much anything I want. My mom even made a cool newsletter using it. Hopefully iLife 07 will have a spreadsheet application. Then I can kiss MS goodbye forever. Tchau!
    • avihappy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17It's iWork BTW :)

      I use iWork when I need fancy looking stuff, because face it, Keynote is hella better than Powerpoint in terms of style. So is Pages compared to Word.
    • chrisgeleven, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I cannot wait for iWork '07. If it has the rumored spreadsheets program, I will completely move from Office to it.

      Right now I have been making due with NeoOffice on my Mac, since I want to see if I can live without Microsoft Office. For my basic needs, it is enough, but I long for an app that is 100% designed for the Mac.
    • neondiet, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7
      I'm just hoping Apple do some performance tuning on Pages for the next version. I've tried using it as a replacement for Word and it's very nice ( if limited ) but it munches more CPU than MS Word and NeoOffice combined. That's astonishing considering the former runs under emulation (rosetta) and the latter makes use of Java.

      When Office 2008 ships it's going to be a Universal binary app, so it's performance is going whizz along and will make Pages look like an embarrassing sluggard.
    • danielwsmithee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Pages is great for small documents, with lots of grapics that really need to look good. At work we regularly have documents in excess of 100-200 pages, with a ToC, many cross-references, a few graphics etc. Pages really grinds to a halt and has a lot of trouble when you get above the 20 page range. Which is sad because it is UB already and Word can handle this, although clunky under rosetta. Makes me think Pages is going to be even farther behind when a universal version of office comes out. I really don't think Apple is targeting the corporate, business, professional market with iWork though.
    • Boondoggle, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3That is because Pages is not a word processor. Pages is a page layout program.
    • spectre_25gt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There are some pretty strong rumors saying that the new iWork will be including a spreadsheet program. The names "Numbers" and "Charts" have both come up. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like they're going to try to compete with Excel. The functionality is going to be much more like Google's spreadsheet software; just a simple app for soho type use.

      As far as Pages is concerned... It definitely does seem to lean more toward the page layout side of things, but that's no excuse for it not handling documents over 20 pages.
  • crees!, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2How is it that Microsoft can be lame so often? Check out the graphic of a new Word doc. It's title is "My Great Document". Granted it could have taken key from iMovie and it's default "My Great Movie" naming, but still. It makes you feel like you're in preschool.
    • saska, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15So the Apple defaults make you feel like you're in preschool, is what you're saying?
  • Iwantawii, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2The new Entourage apps look cool, I'm looking forward to trying the new Entourage in 2008 on my MBP even if it is from Microsoft. Still looking for that app to help me keep my ***** together and so far none of them for OSX have worked.
    • TylerDurden0, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2If you like the Entourage apps, you need a lot more than MS or Apple can offer to keep your ***** together.

      Wake up, stupid.
  • PhillyMJS, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6*sigh* This is what I've come to expect from all news about Office 2008: "No, we're not going to tell you if everything that sucks about Entourage's Exchange capabilities is being fixed, but look at how cool the GUI looks!!!!!"

    Typical Microsoft. Concentrate on the sizzle and ignore that the steak is rotten.
  • miker71, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3This looks like the best iteration of Office for Mac I've seen so far. I don't care about the loss of VBA, I'm a luddite toward office apps anyhow.
  • lovelifenow, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3does anyone have a link to get the betta?
  • draegs, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3"Am I the only one scared ***** of macros?"

    You know...

    My use of macros has been extremely limited and apparently nowhere near that of most people replying to this thread. I've been using computers for about 15 years now and consider myself fairly experienced in most of what they offer. However, I'm not afraid to admit...they scare me ***** too when I think about it.
  • memoryleek, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3I cant for the life of me understand why office always tries to take up the entire screen? I have office 04 for the mac and it works great ( yes its running in Rosetta). its a very simple and basic interface and doesn't take up my whole screen that way I can read my sources while typing. I don't know about you guys but I prefer a word processor that stays out of the way.
  • superrcat, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10"...which sits on the desktop but can be hidden and revealed using the Ctrl+spacebar key combo"

    The "MyDay" window is stupid. Make it a widget.
    • Subtonic, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Or something that sits in the menu bar.
  • tizz66, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4I love my Mac, but Office just isn't the same on Mac as it is on Windows (just like how Quicktime isn't the same on Windows as it is on Mac). It doesn't feel right because the interfaces are different. Office 2008 certainly looks better than 2004, but I'm still not sure it has the 'Office' feel like the Windows versions (which are superb). Personally I've bought Office 2007 and will run it through Parallels or BootCamp, and have no desire to buy Office 2008 for Mac.
    • TylerDurden0, on 10/12/2007, -12/+2Nice observation. Duh, I wonder...

      Could it have something to do with competing OS vendors that don't really care that much about the other's? Jesus Titty-***** Christ! Do you really need this explained to you?
    • tizz66, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3What? Don't talk to me like I'm stupid.

      It's got nothing to do with the quality of the software. It's got to do with the fact that the Office interface doesn't suit the OSX GUI and vice-versa for Quicktime on Windows.
    • spectre_25gt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Personally, I like working with Office much more on the Mac than I do on windows. Excel on Windows isn't even dual-monitor capable for crying out loud.
  • nmccreight, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Is it just me, or is there a real shortage of word processors for the mac? Pages is meant for other functions, and Word is a piece of ***** (that seems to get uglier and uglier as time progresses). Other than Textedit and Openoffice, what other options are there?
  • yonas, on 10/12/2007, -15/+2He's a moron. Apple's using technologies with the iPhone that have never been used before, thus making it an innovative device.
    • TylerDurden0, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Wrong story perhaps? See Dvorak on that...
  • Legolover64, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Losing VB script is definitely, DEFINITELY not going to convince people in the business space to use the Macintosh platform.

    TONS of premade macros already run on VB, and some of these people aren't changing, just upgrading the versions of Office they're running on. People rely on VB, they're not going to switch so "effortlessly" to AS, they're just not going to run Office on the Mac.
    • zeejay, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Sure they will. They'll just run MS Office for Windows, running in Parallels. Compatibility is better than ever.
  • cmer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Is it just me or Microsoft still doesn't get Mac apps? The new "MyDay" app should be a widget and NOT a regular app in my opinion.
    • Escamillo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Don't widgets only run on OSX 10.4 (and higher)?
      I don't know what their target platform is, but if it's 10.3, then they can't use widgets.
    • bmobile, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I agree cmer. Although, I will take it a step further and say that Office 2007 for Windows is the best Office EVER made honestly. Why can't the MacBU just take what is already almost perfect and port it to Mac? It wouldn't be that hard and actually, Office 2007 is more "Mac-like" than any other Office version prior. The ribbon is the best UI choice Microsoft has made in years.
  • DOGPARTY, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2People who need to do things in Office are losers anyway, who cares
    • chrislee149, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Yeah, I mean wtf is with all these losers with jobs?
    • SirBotchness, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i have office 2007 at home, never use it. But i can't go a day without office 03 at work. Outlooks is the lifeblood of my office. Everything is managed though there. people put flash games into excel and pass them around.
  • blacklint, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3For some reason, "easy to use" and "Escher" just don't go together in my mind...
  • venicerocco, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Einstein, Shakespeare, Proust never needed no stinkin' Word. Give me a crayon and a sidewalk and I'll come up with more magic than the Microsoft milange.
  • theGOG, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Now I can finally switch to a Mac.
  • abyss478, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1i hate having to use ms office on my mac i feel so degraded when i start it up, like i have just punched myself in the face...
  • neondiet, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1
    I really hope the new version being a Universal Binary lives up to expectations on speed, specifically with relation to rendering embedded graphics files in Word documents. I've a 2.16Ghz MBP with 2GB RAM and while the current Office is ok for most simple Word documents, many Word files I have to work with on customer projects have pictures in them. Even worse, VISIO drawings.

    I tried to write a 10 page report the other week and include 4 very complicated VISIO drawings of fully populated computer racks (supplied by a colleague). Word on my Mac couldn't handle it. Scrolling up and down would take 10's of seconds to redraw each tiny movement whenever the page view included a VISIO drawing.

    In the end I had to give up and pass it back to my colleague to finish. It was embarrassing and now I'm seriously considering CrossOver Office for Mac, as I've seen a guy who works for a customer of mine using CrossOver on Linux and its performance is the same as on Windows.

    And before anyone suggests NeoOffice; yes I have that too. Writer doesn't help me out much in this case. It's a bit better, but has some strange behavior around resizing VISIO images. Sometimes it just refuses to do it, and other times the changes get lost between edit iterations of the same documents. Plus what looks right in Writer doesn't always look the same to an MS using customer. In addition I've thrown 50-60 page docs at it (with graphics) and it just disappears into a tight loop grabing all available CPU, and I've had to kill it. I do love NeoOffice spreadsheet though. It's fast, looks better than Excel and is easier to use. There are very few incompatibilities with MS Excel too. It's my default app for all spreadsheets now.

    Office 2008 for Mac will have to address these crippling performance problems before I'm going to spend my money this time. Hopefully I can get my hands on a trial copy first and give it a good work out.

  • sharly2007, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0That looks pretty good. I liked the Mac Office 2004 interface but ever since I got Office 2007 on my desktop, it has been ruined for me. This is definitely a step in the right direction. I do most of my Office stuff on my Mac anyway so I'm actually really excited for something that's not running in Rosetta and has a decent interface. I just hope they get it out quick so I can get it for $20 from work while I still work where I do. http://www.gwafi.com/home.html http://www.gwafi.com/links.html
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