Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition
by Microsoft Software
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List Price: Category: Software See more product details and other editions |
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Software Reviews of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition
Customer Review: Wonderful upgrade for Intel Users!
Summary: 4 Stars
Having read a lot of the other reviews for MS Office '08, I had a hard time trying to decide what benefit I could bring to others looking for a review of this product. Coming from a strong user of Apple's iWork (which includes Numbers, Pages, and Keynote), I thought getting a comparison of both products could be helpful. Also coming from an Intel Macbook Pro user who was constantly using MS Office 2004 (at the office--pages, numbers, etc. at home) there is some insight I could offer there as well. So, on to the skinny...
For Intel Mac users, switching from Microsoft Office 2004 to 2008 is a MUST. It's amazing how much my Macbook Pro was actually being hindered by running 2004. Despite it's dual core processor, whenever I opened up Excel, the fans would start to churn. They'd get noisier and noisier, and became a real annoyance. If I opened up other MS Office '04 apps, my computer would begin to really hang. I know ultimately this isn't a fault of Microsoft versus Apple. It was, after all, Apple's decision to move to Intel processors (I'll save my comments on that for another time).
Now having switched to MS Office 2008, I never experience the fan or speed issues I did before on my same Macbook Pro. The speed differences are amazing, and, this alone, made the upgrade worth it for me.
Comparing it to iWork, however, is a little different story. I really like iWork. I'm not an Excel guru, by any means, so Numbers is more than capable of handling my simple spreadsheets. Where more of my work is done is with regular documents and presentations. Keynote, in my opinion, blows away Powerpoint. Don't get me wrong, Powerpoint is a wonderful product, but Keynote's ease of use, unique features, and interface just completely outshine anything I've seen done with Powerpoint. I love putting together presentations in Keynote.
Word versus Pages is very similar. Pages is a great product. Apple certainly did their homework when they developed it, and they continue to do a good job on the consistent upgrades. Pages can almost be classified as a page layout software (nothing like InDesign) that does a pretty good job. Word is still far more featured, but Pages is simple, does what I need, and consistently performs better for me. MS Office products take too long to launch, in my opinion.
A few other random comments:
1. Some other features, like visual basic macros, etc. were originally left out on the Mac version. Microsoft has done a few things to correct this, but MS Office 2008 for Mac is still not as fully feature-rich as its Windows counterpart.
2. Too many updates. I know MS Office is plagued with security issues, so they're always having to release updates. Comes with the territory, but can be concerning if you don't update often.
3. Nice, new 3Dish icons and splash screens.
In the end, if you're a business user who needs office for complex things, definitely, pick this up. If you're the casual user who does the occasional business tasks (and simple at that), consider iWork. Apple's done a great job on that piece of software--and you can't beat the price.
Customer Review: A Must Have Program if You Have a Mac
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't understand, the people at CNET can say Office for the Mac 2008 doesn't have all the features that Office for Windows 2007 has. I don't agree. I use the Windows version at home and have the Mac version on three different computers. One at work now and a desktop (iMac) and a laptop (PowerBook G4) and to me the Mac version is every bit as robust and feature rich as the Windows version. I don't think Microsoft skimped a bit here, in fact I think they went all out.
In my opinion this is the best productivity software you can buy for the Mac, bar none. Sure, I suppose there are less costly ways to go to get a lot of the features here, but hey, you bought a Mac, so you've already paid a bit more than you'd pay for a Dell or an HP machine. I know, money is tight for a lot of people these days, but if you use your computer to earn a living, then this is a program that'll pay for itself. If you don't have Office on your Mac, you need it.
However, do you need it if you have the 2004 version. Maybe not. Seriously, the 2004 version does everything I want it to do and though it's not running natively on my Intel iMac, I'd swear you'd never know. The new (2008) version seems a little snappier, but not so much that I'd spring for the upgrade. Also the interface is gorgeous, much better than the 2004 version, but still, probably not worth the price of an upgrade.
I guess that's Microsoft's curse, they made the last version so doggone good, that you hate to leave it and leave it I did, because when you install the 2008 version it removes the earlier version. That kind of ticked me off at first, but I don't really need it anymore as the newer version is better. But, like I said, if you have the older version, you'll have to check the state of your wallet, before upgrading.
Customer Review: Not as user-friendly as you would expect from a Mac program
Summary: 2 Stars
With Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition you get compatibility and a lot of glitz, but almost none of the user-friendliness Mac users love.
It was with some trepidation that I installed Microsoft Office 2008 on my Mac. One of the things I love about my Mac is that it lacks so many of the problems computers that run Microsoft programs encounter. Microsoft programs are often slow, temperamental, and--let's never forget--prone to viruses. But then there's that one big problem that Macs have, namely that most people use Microsoft based PCs. If someone sends you a Word doc, you might need some way to see it on your Mac, and I do a lot of work on my PC in Word. So despite my fears, I jumped in.
I loaded in this program onto my Mac, and it immediately asked me if I wanted the updates. Okay . . . So the updates started loading. And loading. And loading. I ended up having to leave the Mac on to upload the updates overnight. Not a good start.
The next thing I noticed is how user unfriendly these programs are in a backward attempt to make them easier. Templates are offered for many tasks--even if you really, really would rather just get to the task of, for example, inserting page numbers into a doc without being offered half a dozen pretty ways to do it. Some of the user interface I found as incomprehensible as the logos for each of the programs, logos that look more like ancient Hebrew than English. Of course there are legends to explain everything, but who has the time or patience?
And why should I need to have the time or patience? This is a Mac, after all. Most of the programs on it are so simple even a small child could use them within a matter of minutes. That's what I've come to expect on a Mac. Maybe this is better than Office 2008 on a PC, but it's nowhere near the user friendliness I've come to expect from Mac programs. On the positive side, I haven't encountered any viruses with this program on my Mac. Yet.
So what other choice is there if you want to view a Word doc on your Mac? There's iWork '09, which I've just ordered from Amazon as part of the Mac Box Set, which also includes Apple's latest operating system and iLife. iWork '09 is meant to be compatible with MS Word docs, so that should answer the one reason I had for getting Microsoft Office for the Mac. Is iWork any good? I don't know. I haven't tried it yet. I just know the reviews have been very good, and I'm looking forward to loading it on my computer and trying it. I'm also happy that I'm getting iWorks, plus the latest Mac operating, plus the latest iLife, all for just a little more than half of what this Microsoft program costs.
In conclusion, I think Microsoft Office should stay on PCs, where it belongs, at least until it learns to play nice like other user-friendly Mac programs do. It has a lot to learn, so I don't have to.
Customer Review: Friend to the Mac Writer
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been using Office 2008 for quite a while now and I have to say it's a very nice improvement over Office 2004. Actually I only use Word. The other programs I don't need, but Word is a must for me and I have it on my iMac and on my trusty MacBook.
Installation is different than before. Until now you just dragged Office onto your hard drive, and it installed itself when you opened it for the first time, putting the necessary fonts into your library and doing whatever else it had to do, now, like most all Mac programs these days, there is an installer program.
The first thing I noticed was how mac like the program is. If you didn't already know, you'd never know this was a Microsoft program, so Mac like it is. It opens quickly, but I don't have a bunch of fonts installed as I'm a writer and only have two or three that I use, so I've eliminated all the ones I don't need.
There is however a small annoyance I feel I should mention. Microsoft by default saves Word documents in a new .docx format, which doesn't play nicely with other word processors or older versions of Word. Fortunately you can go into Word's preferences and change it to save your work in the old .doc format. If you do this, I think you'll be very satisfied with this worthy upgrade which really makes Office look like it was made for the Mac.
Customer Review: Has more professional art-layout feel with a decrease in some functionality areas
Summary: 4 Stars
The Highs - This product feels right at home on my iMac with its very user friendly interface and updated graphic-layout tools. It has similar polish to iWork(Pages & Numbers) in its ability to produce eye pleasing spreadsheets and documents that don't feel like templates while also providing more powerful tools.
The Lows - The lack of its ability to handle visual basic macros is the biggest let down, if you use them in your work. I don't use them in my creations but I do have several excel worksheets that rely on them that a rendered useless without this ability.
Word & Excel function as expected but have a good ability now produce page layouts you can use and not be ashamed of. It still isn't a top tier page layout product but for most people it will exceed their needs. The professionals will still need other tools.
The Expression Media 2 application is a "taste" of the Microsoft Expression suite that aids in handling the large volume of digital content many of us have. I found it fairly straight forward to set-up and use but I think that if you really could make use of it you probably should have the full Expression Suite and not just this one thing.
I can see myself using this more than I will my iWork 2008 or Open Office 3 programs for Word Processing and Spreadsheets now that there is some art polish to the normal office power. I prefer Apple's Keynote for presentation effects but Powerpoint is much more widely used and will likely come in handier overall.
In short:
If you are getting this for the Expression Media application then you really need to evaluate your need for the rest of the Expression suite. Likely you need Expression Suite and a lesser version of Office. If you are currently using spreadsheets with VBA macros then there is nothing for you here except disappointment. I don't personally think the addition of the "Media Edition" makes sense over just the normal office 2008 for Mac.