Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition
by Microsoft Software
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Software Reviews of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition
Customer Review: The media aspect is really good.
Summary: 4 Stars
I have already reviewed and voiced my concerns about the actual programs like Excel, Word, PPT et al, and their problems in another review. In short, this edition is only for children, people who have never used MS office before, or those using it only for the most basic of functinoalities. Professionals, those used to versions 2000-2003, and those who need expert control of the program (i.e. macros and the like in Excel), then do not get this program, you'll have a tought time finding the same functionalities as in v.2003. But, since this is the special media edition, I did enjoy this one part of MS Office 2008. It really does an excellent job of organizing all of my HD videos and photos, hence I give it 1 star over the regular version (which I rated a 3). The visual interface of being able to see what files you are actually organizing instead of just icons and numbers really helps group the pictures and videos into exactly what I need, this is really a neat feature. You can actually "preview" each media file without opening it, again saving you the time of figuring out what you are organizing. Make sure, however, that you have more than the minimum system requirements for this special part of MS Office. I put this version on one of my computers, I had more than enough RAM and processing speed, and the preview part would take up a lot of RAM, slowing down my computer quite a bit!!!
I'd reccomend staying with an earlier office product, and waiting for a new one to come out that is hopefully better for business professionals. Creative individuals or those in the creative work profession will probably not have ad tough of a time with this edition of office as I did. Those who need hard-core number crunching capabilities of Excel will have a very difficult time with this new version.
Customer Review: a really great update over the last version...
Summary: 4 Stars
If you are a long time Mac user, you will understand the love - hate relationship the Mac has with the MS Office product line. Some Mac users like to bash MS but the MS mac group has always turned out some solid software. I have always found the mac version of the Office suite a very great set of tools for surviving in a Windows world. Its literally a no-brainer.
So what's new here? Well the biggest thing is these are Intel compatible versions. Meaning if you are running an intel mac, these tools will run faster and smoother than the previous office osx version. After a few rounds of software updates I found the UI to be greatly improved and even pretty zippy. I can't say there are huge improvements in the individual tools, but small advances that make them better and easier to use.
Is this toolset better than the iWork package from Apple which has the same 3 types of tools? I believe iWork to be a superior toolset on its own, as a mac package. But if you NEED to be Windows compliant at work or home, you simple MUST have the latest version of Office for OSX, no question about it.
Well done Microsoft mac team!
Customer Review: Necessary upgrade from 2004, make sure you need the media edition before buying
Summary: 4 Stars
A little background: My husband and I share a mac at home, though I also have a macbook and he has a dell laptop from his job. Preferring macs to pcs he uses the shared computer most when he's here and I tend to only use it for storing photos/videos/etc and for photo editing as he has his CS4 installed on it.
On my macbook I've just been using google freebie online products for my limited word processing etc needs, it's worked well enough in a sort of "don't know what I'm missing" type way. My husband uses the office suites on his work computers and was using office 2004 on the shared mac. I never bothered with it as it seemed to slow, a bit complicated, etc.
When I saw the media edition of office and read about the capabilities of Expression Media I knew we needed it. He works in media and while we've been doing an ok job of keeping all of his work files separate from my home videos/photos but I wanted a way to keep them totally separate which this suite now allows! WOOHOO
My husband is thrilled with the product, and I'll be honest after playing around with it I'm pretty impressed myself. It seems easier to navigate, quicker to load, and faster then the 2004 version. I realized just how much I'd been missing and how much time I'd been wasting only using the online google products, the templates in Office are wonderful and easy even for a newbie like myself.
It seems to me that most single users would fare fine with the other versions of this, with the extra media software being unneeded on a mac but for people who share a computer it's a wonderful way to keep files separated, might also work well for the home user who also uses his/her mac for work (ie keep personal files in iphoto etc and work files in Office). So just be sure you need this version before spending extra for it.
As a last note I've just ordered the mac box set for my macbook which includes iwork which I've never tested, I'll report back after using it for awhile on how a newbie finds it compares to Office '08
Customer Review: Great for people adjusting to a new Mac
Summary: 4 Stars
I've been using PC all my life. When Vista happened, I moved on to Mac. It's been about a year now on the Mac, with a PC laptop as backup. And I found I was always going to the laptop for WORD and EXCEL. I have Apple's "Pages" and iWork(08) but either I am not adjusting to don't want to adjust. This was the perfect remedy.
I have been working with a lot of video and music flies in the past couple years, so I went for this media edition. At this point, I only see my ever using just the WORD and EXCEL programs. No need for Powerpoint, and after trying everything else, I am preferring my alternatives on my Mac via iLife and iWork. I could not stand Mac's ".mac" i.e. "mobile me", and Entourage is the alternative, but I am just not using either. And I prefer that this software not manage my libraries.
In other words, I would have been fine with the "Home" edition. But, it does not hurt to have the extras, just in case. It's not a loss.
The use of the programs I need brings the familiarity of use and even better than before on the PC. I have not run into any issues, or errors. Networking, printing, and everything is just fine for what I wanted.
Customer Review: suits my needs
Summary: 4 Stars
when it comes to word processors and spreadsheets, i'm a bare bones kind of guy. i just need something on which to write and somewhere i can export my itunes library to or do some simple calculations for my fantasy baseball league, so this review should be considered written by someone who doesn't use word or excel for any advanced functions.
having switched over to mac a couple of years ago, i purchased 'pages,' mac's word processing software. while i like it and find it reasonably intuitive, having spent most of my life on ms word, i was never fully comfortable with it. for the last year i've had office mac 2004, but when i used word or excel, the formatting and layout was foreign to what i was used to that i almost always used ms word when word processing.
thankfully, office mac 2008 corrects, in my view, the things that bothered me most about office mac 2004. the layout is comparable to word and excel for windows, which for me is a huge plus. i've noticed in the limited time i've used it that it doesn't have some of the same functionality that the windows version has, but for my needs, it suits me just fine. the menus and layout are very similar to windows versions, so the learning curve when jumping to mac isn't very curvy at all--it's just a short, very straight line.
i've read plenty of complaints on amazon from owners who use word and excel for super whiz bang things. i'm not that user. so if you're someone like me who uses word for writing and excels for the simple stuff, office mac 2008 is a worthy addition the mac line of software.