Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition
by Microsoft Software
|
List Price: Category: Software See more product details and other editions |
|---|
(Click here)
Software Reviews of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition
Customer Review: For the other .05%...
Summary: 4 Stars
...so the title of this review probably did not make much sense, let me explain. I've already used and reviewed Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home & Student edition and found that is comes with everything that 99% of people need at a much lower price. So what do you get for you're extra dough if you're in that remaining .05%?
The most useful additional feature will probably be Exchange Server Support. If you need that, then you can't get the cheaper Home & Student addition, but you can buy the cheaper standard edition, so that's .05% of people right there. Leaving the remaining .05% that will find Microsoft Expressions Media to be worth the extra dough. Just what is Expressions Media? Expressions Media is a cataloging program that allows you to bring together all your photographs, movies, RAW files, fonts, and layered Photoshop documents in one convenient place. It doesn't actually move the files to one location on your computer; it merely catalogs all the information so you can view many different files, from different locations, in one program. The program itself is reminiscent of Adobe's Bridge, or photo on steroids. It's fairly easy to navigate and use and can do some useful things, like making an HTML ready photo galley to place on a website. It also has a built in light table, a slideshow function, and fairly comprehensive image editing tools. There is a complex search tool, allowing you to search by many parameters, and operates in a similar manner to that of iTunes' Smart Playslists. The version of Expression Media included in the box is an older version and there is a label on the CD sleeve directing you to Microsoft's website to download a free upgrade to version 2.0. So that's Expression Media in a nutshell, whether or not this program is worth the extra money is up to you. It's a well-developed program and could be extremely useful to some people.
Moving on from Expression Media let me tell you a little about my experiences with Office for Mac. Prior to the 2008 version I was using Office 2004 Student & Teacher edition and had no problems with it until I switched from a PowerPC based Mac to an Intel based Mac. The 2004 version is not Universal, and it runs under Rosetta. While it seemed to run well, sometimes it crashed when starting or acted finicky, like it was on the verge of crashing. The 2008 version runs much better and I'm currently running it on a white 1st generation MacBook and white iMac both using Snow Leopard. Office 2008 runs and opens smoothly, and, when scrolling through documents with the Mighty Mouse it is much, much smoother that the 2004 version. Other than that I don't notice much of a difference between the 2004 version and the 2008 version. Cosmetically the programs are a little different, and some things have been moved around, but it's not a huge upgrade, and I did not find any standout new features. The only thing worth mentioning is an "Add Worksheet" button in Excel that I find helpful.
If this is your first Office Mac purchase, it's a great suite. Word has all the features I need for home and office usage. I mainly send order acknowledgements with it while I'm at work, and write letters and print labels and envelopes while I'm home. I use the mail merge feature a lot, and it works well. Excel is a powerful spreadsheet program, and I barely use it to its full potential. I created my home budget on it and create lists while at work. Entourage is like Outlook for Macs. It is an e-mail, address book, calendar, and to-do program (a life organizer). I used to use Entourage, and while it's a good program, I now prefer to use iCal and Apple's Address Book and Mail programs. I feel that Apple's versions are much more streamlined. PowerPoint is a presentation program. I've never used PowerPoint, so I can't comment on that, sorry. Messenger is an instant messaging program, and really does not need to be included. The version on the disc is old, and it's available online for free.
Now for the problems.... 1) If you have a lot of fonts on your Mac (my work computer has 546), and use a font management program (I use FontAgent) it takes forever (2 minutes) for any of the office programs to open when you first turn on your computer. At home, I have a more modest number of fonts and don't have a font manager and it opens in 25 seconds. 2) It automatically installs icons for all the applications on the dock and there is no option during install to change this behavior. It's a minor point, but it's annoying. 3) Updates, updates, updates... it's almost as bad as iTunes. Since installing it a month ago I've had about 5 updates some of which were over 100 MB. 4) The extension for a Word document is now. docx so all your old Word documents have to be saved in the new format or they run in "compatibility mode" which caused some of my old documents to not be formatted correctly.
All in all... If you're new to Macs, or Office for Mac, it's a good purchase. If you own an older version of Office Mac, and you're running it on a PowerPC Mac, don't bother, unless you think the benefits of Expression Media is worth the upgrade.
Customer Review: I wish I could have my money back
Summary: 2 Stars
I just recently converted to this version from Office 2004 for Mac, and I wish I'd just kept my original software. This version is buggy, slow, and crashes likes someone's paying it to do so I can't tell you how many times Word has crashed in the middle of updating an important file and the supposed "AutoRecovery" file is from hours earlier. Yes, it's my own fault for not saving more often, but when you're in the groove, you're in the groove. That doesn't excuse this program's fault, and they've got some nerve charging this much for an update that's not worth the disk it's burned on. I won't even talk about how slow PowerPoint is. It takes a few minutes to open on my brand-new iMac as well as on my 2007 MacBook, so I know it's not processor speed that's causing the problem. In fact, the only program I can recommend on this disk is Excel, and that's bc it's pretty hard to screw that one up.
In this day and age, it's pretty much impossible to be a Mac user working across platforms without having Office, so if you must, take my advice and just stick to 2004. Hopefully they'll get rid of the bugs in the next update, but I'm not holding my breath.
Customer Review: What can you say about Microsoft Office...
Summary: 4 Stars
...that hasn't already been said?
If you're on a Mac (and you wouldn't be looking at this if you weren't!), Office for Mac is the software to use to insure compatibility with the rest of the world. The question is which version is the best for you...
If you're working at home, the Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home & Student Edition provides most of what you need. If you need to tie in to the Exchange Server at your office, then the Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac will do it. It costs roughly $60 more than the Student and Home version and can also be upgraded when a newer version comes out. The Special Media edition adds in Microsoft Expression Digital Asset Management software. It's a useful addition if you need to keep track of large numbers of files across many different storage devices. Most large companies, however, already have (or should have) a digital asset management system, leaving this as an odd duck product...99% of users can get by just fine with the standard version of Office.
That's the one I'll buy for my other Macs.
Customer Review: It is what it is...
Summary: 4 Stars
As a layman, who only uses Office software occasionally to compose a quick report or spreadsheet, Office 2009 for Mac gets the job done. It's far deeper than I could ever take in, or learn all that it has to offer. Maybe the best compliment is that my wife, who uses Office products 9 hours a day at work and has not been thrilled at my purchase of a Mac, was ecstatic that I picked up Office for Mac. She couldn't wait to dive into it when she got home... after using it all day long.
Customer Review: As close as you'll get to Office on a Mac without running Windows...
Summary: 4 Stars
Yes, I guess that is an odd title. The last time I used Office on a Mac was on a Macintosh TV in 1995. Having recently added a Mac back into my PC equipment, I had a need to open Office documents, for which I had not yet purchased iWork or loaded NeoOffice/OpenOffice to test the quality of their import function. This was an opportunity to get a Mac-native Office running on my machine.
The initial install is not too bad, until it comes time to install updates. I believe there were five or six separate updates required to get it from the out-of-box version to 12.2.1. The application feels a little heavy on my machine (Mini C2D 2.0GHz 1GB RAM - the minus one Mini, not the 09 release), but is usable once ready to go.
I have not experienced any crashes and it has opened each of the Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files I have tested. I did notice on one of the Powerpoint files the printout did not correctly align some of the text in a slide based on what is visible on screen.
The look and feel is obviously different from what I am used to as an Office user on the PC of all versions up to 2003. I still have not made the change to 2007 (at least for work) and the ribbon menus leave me a little lost having so little experience with 2007. At first comparison, I haven't found myself as lost looking for things in Office 2008 for Mac. Seeing the property panel along with the menus, buttons, and a ribbon-like strip of contextual buttons makes it a bit busy visually. I'll be getting 2007 shortly for my school work on a PC laptop and I will be able to better contrast the two.
I will definitely miss the VBA support as I do tend to customize my often-use PC-based Office documents, and this doesn't let me just move them over. I don't have a use for Entourage on the Mac, so I haven't any comments to add there.
Faced with the choice for home use, I would lean toward just getting iWork unless you have a specific need for the best Office compatibility you can get. Comparing with office apps overall, I might drop this to a three. But, for Office on a Mac, I think it is a solid four. Certainly read through the rest of the reviews to see if anyone has identified an issue/concern that would affect you more in your decision than my experience.