Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Upgrade
by Microsoft Software
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Software Reviews of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Upgrade
Customer Review: Still has rough spots
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this to update my existing Office suite to run better on Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5), which is does much better. The downside is it is filled with annoyances as the suite uses many keystrokes that do not match all other Mac applications, nor are simple tasks (like copy and paste to match style) easy to perform (I remember this being much easier on previous Office versions). I used to be a heavy Entourage user, but the inability to easily drag and drop contacts or dates between Entourage and iCal and Address Book (as it used to), which all non-Office applications use and integrate with easily, makes me use Entourage much less. This may be my last upgrade of Office.Customer Review: a great upgrade, worth it and works fine
Summary: 5 Stars
Great and easy upgrade across the board, a welcome addition to the Intel Mac native family of apps.
Leopardishly, I wish Entourage supported data detectors the way Apple Mail and the iPhone does (identifying dates and numbers in emails as objects that can be added to Address Book or iCal), but that could easily appear in an update.
I'm slightly troubled by the lack of macros in Excel (though honestly it hasn't come up in my day-to-day life ever), and the single-file (and therefore easily corruptible) nature of the Entourage mail database still seems unwise and often causes my coworkers problems, but those are my only quibbles.
Customer Review: Got what I was looking for: Speed, Stability. Not much else.
Summary: 3 Stars
Buy this if: you want a speedier, more stable version of office for your Intel-based Mac.
I ordered this update not because I was looking for new features, but because I was desperate for a Universal Binary that would run natively on my MacBook. It fits the bill in this regard.
Don't but this if: you're looking for stellar new features.
Although some things are improved, the software is underwhelming - mostly stuff that should have been fixed in Office 2004. That said, I'm happy with the improved OS X integration, search and most importantly, Exchange support.
Overall: A worthy upgrade.
Customer Review: Best Office yet for the Mac
Summary: 4 Stars
This review will not discuss MS Office vs. its competitors. I am a long-time PC user who switched to the Mac about a year ago. I have used Office forever because it was the standard at every job I've had. I know it inside and out.
When I switched to the Mac I tried Office 2004 and didn't like it. I was fortunate enough to have an Intel-based Mac, so I loaded Office 2003 using Parallels. I even tried Office 2007 and disliked it because it seemed like all they did was rearrange the menus and make it harder to use.
Office 2008 is a winner for these reasons based on my experience:
* The overall product is the one that I've grown used to over the years. The menu structure is exactly (OK, let's say 95%) the same as Office 2003 for Windows. That means the learning curve is almost zero.
* It has many design features that make the Mac better to use than Windows.
* It uses the Inspector interface instead of the "ribbon" that Office 2007 for Windows uses (which I dislike)
* It's fast!
It doesn't have Visual Basic macros. But I'm not a big macro user. I will keep Office 2003 on my Parallels/Windows side of the computer, so if macros are important I'll have access to that function.
If you have Office 2004 on your Mac, just insert the upgrade CD and go. It will detect Office 2004 and install normally. If you don't have 2004 on your system, you'll need to have the original 2004 CD to insert at the end of the install for verification.
If you're committed to Microsoft Office for personal reasons or company reasons and you want a version of Office that is fast and Mac-like, then this is for you.
Customer Review: Do not upgrade if you need to copy from Word to Flash
Summary: 1 Stars
At my design firm, we create a lot of web-based training courses for our clients. With the upgrade to Office 2008, we can no longer copy text from Word documents and paste it into Flash. It does not work. This is a HUGE issue for us and I have forbidden anyone else in the office from upgrading until the issue is fixed. I have already upgraded to Office 2008 so now I use Pages, from iWork, as my word processor when I need to copy text and paste into Flash. Otherwise, the software works well but this issue is just too important. It's infuriating.