Microsoft Office for Mac 2008
Manufacturer: Microsoft Corp. Part number: 731-01727
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- User reviews
- Specifications
- Product series
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- Office for Mac 2008 may be the best pick for business users, but most people can get by with less costly alternatives.
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CNET editors' review
Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 price range: $184.99 - $399.95
- Reviewed by: Elsa Wenzel
- Reviewed on: 01/07/2008
- Released on: 01/15/2008
The good: Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 offers good looks that encompass deeper features than other Mac productivity software; business users get full Word mail merge, robust Excel spreadsheets, and better tools in Entourage; amateur desktop publishing features more polished documents; runs on Intel-based Macs.
The bad: Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 is pricey; saves work in new file formats by default; Excel drops Visual Basic support; features don't match the depth of those in Office 2007 for Windows.
The bottom line: Office for Mac 2008 may be the best pick for business users, but most people can get by with less costly alternatives.
After a series of delays, Microsoft plans to release Office for Mac 2008 to brick-and-mortar and online stores on January 15, making this the first update in nearly four years.
Office for Mac includes Word, Excel for spreadsheets, PowerPoint for presentations and Entourage for e-mail and time management. There's no Microsoft Access database application for the Mac, although Filemaker's upcoming release of Bento offers Mac users a new choice.
Unlike Microsoft Office 2007, the interface changes don't look radically foreign next to the 2004 edition. That's good news for anyone who doesn't want to relearn the locations of common functions. The 2007 applications for Windows arrange functions within tabs, while the 2008 Mac software largely clusters functions within the same drop-down menus including File, Edit, and View.
By and large, most of the changes focus on attempting to help users craft more attractive documents. For instance, Office for Mac features the same templates and Smart Art graphics as the Windows counterparts. These are premade templates with 3D and translucent designs.
There are more welcome and substantial changes as well. Now you can save to PDF, and Automator actions are supported. The new My Day widget for Entourage floats on the Mac desktop displaying calendar items and to-do lists. This is handy if you rely on Entourage but don't want to run it all the time.
Office 2007 for Windows clusters functions within a contextual "Ribbon" toolbar that displays different options. Office for Mac lacks the Ribbon, but some menu items appear only in step with the task at hand. We found the shape-shifting neither terribly distracting nor useful. For simple tweaks such as changing fonts, you'll need to consult floating formatting boxes. Being accustomed to Office for Windows, we'd rather find all these options at the top of the screen.
Office for Mac saves work in the same, new Open XML formats used by Office 2007 for Windows. We're not thrilled about this being the default option, even though you can save your work in the older DOC, XLS and PPT formats. Free file conversion tools won't be available until as long as 10 weeks from now, or 8 weeks after the applications are available in stores. That means for now, should you save work in a new OOXML format in a hurry, someone with the older software won't be able to open it. Although we're glad that Microsoft offers free converters, we find the forced extra steps annoying in Office 2007. That said, the new document types are smaller and purportedly more secure than their predecessors.
You'll need a Mac with 1.5GB free on the hard drive, running at least OS 10.4.9, with 512MB of RAM and a 500MHz Intel or PowerPC processor. Installation took about 20 minutes on our MacBook running the Leopard operating system.
The least expensive option is the $150 Home and Student edition (formerly Student and Teacher), which lacks support for Exchange and Automator. At $400 or $240 to upgrade, the full Office for Mac that we reviewed feels pricey, even though it includes Exchange support. The $500 Special Media Edition handles Exchange and adds Microsoft Expression media-management software. Fortunately, those who have recently purchased Office for Mac 2004 can upgrade for free.
Still, the fees feel hefty next to the $80 Apple iWork '08. Indeed, rivals to Office for Mac seem like a bargain, even though they offer fewer tools. Mac users can choose from iWork '08, the free OpenOffice 2, or tools with free online components including ThinkFree, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, and Zoho Office. These are all dandy for composing and editing text documents, juggling spreadsheets, and creating slide-show presentations.
Word
Although the look and feel are refreshed, Word isn't drastically different from its predecessor. Its changes should mostly please those creating documents they want to show off. We really like Publishing Layout View's elementary desktop publishing tools. Document Elements building blocks make swift work of adding cover pages, tables of contents, and the like. OpenType ligature support improves the appearance of fonts in Word.
Those in academia should appreciate new reference tools, although there are only four citation styles. Users who wrangle with form letters will find that Mail Merge has become more intuitive, with step-by-step instructions. Bloggers don't get a custom layout in Word as with Office 2007, but that's not a big loss given Microsoft's lack of support for the latest Web coding standards. Perhaps the biggest selling point for the new Word is the ease with which it can make documents easy on the eyes.
Excel
As well as making charts easier on the eyes, Excel for Mac 2008 adds tools for stepping through complex formulas. Formula Builder walks you through building calculations, keeping recently used ones at the top of its memory. As you type in the Formula bar, Excel will autofill values that may match. Excel has expanded and can now handle a total of 17.18 billion cells, as many as its Windows cousin. The Elements Gallery offers Ledger Sheets, templates for commonly used tasks such as juggling a household budget or managing company payroll. We find these handy for getting started with a project. However, we prefer the elegant layouts, outside-the-grid setup, and print preview tools within Apple's Numbers for light users of spreadsheets.
Probably the worst thing about Excel 2008 overall is its lack of support for Visual Basic. While power spreadsheet users will find Excel richer than other programs, those who rely upon macros are sure to be disappointed and may be better off keeping Excel 2004 or even switching to Excel for Windows.
PowerPoint
Microsoft continues to tout its Smart Art graphics, which can turn a bulleted list into nearly any kind of diagram or flowchart with a few quick clicks. However, as with Office 2007 for Windows, we find Smart Art initially a bit less intuitive than advertised. The Toolbox's new Object Palette keeps formatting options in one place. You can resize elements with a zoom slider in a snap, just as Dynamic Guide lines help to align text boxes and pictures.
PowerPoint stands out from Apple's Keynote and other competitors in key areas, such as control over audio narration. And there are more layout and slide transition themes.
While making a public presentation, a detailed digital clock is meant to help keep you on track. A Thumbnail View like the one in Office 2007 may help to keep from losing your place. You can flip through slides on location using an Apple Remote. And there's an option for sending a presentation to iPhoto, making it accessible as a PNG or a JPEG for iPod viewing.
Entourage
Although Mac users can rely upon the free Mail, Entourage offers more features fit for business. The 2008 upgrade offers more practical functions than its 2004 counterpart, such as an Out of Office assistant that lets you craft vacation messages specific to the recipient. Filters for junk mail and phishing are beefed up. There are To Do lists, accessible in the My Day widget along with appointments and the color-coded calendar. You can accept or reject a meeting directly within a calendar event. Meetings can be forwarded directly to others, and conflicting and adjacent appointments are better managed. The workspace is more customizable overall, thanks to toolbar tweaks and the Favorites menu.
My Day is a helpful snapshot of upcoming To Do items and appointments, although its bluish appearance can't be customized. We just wish that it showed an entire day's events instead of hiding the morning's appointments in the afternoon and displaying overdue appointments in a separate pop-up window.
Setting up Entourage for a Gmail account took no time. However, after claiming to have succeeded at setting up our Hotmail account, Microsoft failed to explain why it couldn't do that after all. For that, we searched Help and learned that Hotmail's lack of free POP support was the culprit.
Messenger for Mac
Microsoft also throws in this free instant-messaging application, which enables users of its IM tool and Yahoo Messenger to contact each other. Messenger for Mac enables users to check spelling, pick from among many emoticons, and see what others are listening to on iTunes. Companies using Live Communications Server 2005 can encrypt their messaging, and users can chat with those using iChat, AOL, AIM, Yahoo, and MSN.
Service and support
Microsoft offers searchable inline and online help menus, which answered most of our questions, as well as Web-based community forums. Live e-mail or phone help costs $35 for a pair of requests, not cheap but still less than Apple iWork's fees. Video support is not (yet) available.
Conclusion
Overall, we found ourselves wondering why someone would splurge for Office for Mac 2008. Sure, it's a step up from the 2004 version, and the only one that runs natively on Intel-based Macs. But other companies serve up software that's compatible with Office documents and costs half as much, if not less--or nothing at all. iWork '08, for one, handles the newest, XML-based Office files pretty well.
Office for Mac also skips some niceties that give its Windows counterpart an advantage over rival software, such as the interface slider bar for zooming in on a document. The document element templates may be attractive and helpful, but the selection feels skimpy next to Office 2007 for Windows, and Smart Art isn't as intuitive to use as advertised. It's too bad that the easy-to-find metadata inspector and other touted security features for saving work in Office 2007 are absent. Plus, we'd like to see more integration among the applications. For example, in Office for Windows, a chart pasted from Excel into Word will change when you manipulate its underlying data set in Excel.
Nevertheless, people who rely heavily upon productivity software for such tasks as bulk mailings or crunching scientific calculations in spreadsheets may prefer Microsoft's package over others. Although we like Apple's attractive, introductory Numbers spreadsheet application, for instance, Excel for Mac is more robust, handling a million rows of data. At the same time, Excel 2008's lack of Visual Basic support is a serious flaw that shafts power users. Still, Entourage's update may motivate more businesses to use Office on a Mac. Word also offers richer features than Apple Pages, such as mail merge form letters that can accept data from sources other than the Mac Address Book. There's better support for long documents as well.
File compatibility is another reason to skip, say, iWork or ThinkFree Office, which can read Office's new files but can't fully edit dynamic charts and Smart Art graphics. If you and fellow project collaborators plan to alter all elements of documents saved in Microsoft's newest formats, you'll have to spring for Office for Mac 2008.
User reviews
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Review should mention crippled Excel 2008
by heladas on January 4, 2008
Pros: Microsoft still willing to take our money
Cons: Excel 2008 less functional than Excel 2004
Summary: Seems to me than any review of Office 2008 is remiss if it doesn't mention that Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) support, which was present in Excel 2004, is ...
Summary: Seems to me than any review of Office 2008 is remiss if it doesn't mention that Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) support, which was present in Excel 2004, is absent from Excel 2008. For those of us who work with complicated spreadsheets, Excel 2008 is a huge step backwards. Excel 2004 and OpenOffice can both handle spreadsheets with VBA macros, but Excel 2008 cannot. For me, upgrading isn't an option.
16 out of 20 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Nice update
by Maclover1 on January 3, 2008
Pros: Intel Mac code, speed, compatible with office 2007 file format
Cons: Price, not a open format.
Summary: If I did not need to exchange word and excel documents I would never buy this. iWork is all I would ever need for my needs.
However I do on ...Summary: If I did not need to exchange word and excel documents I would never buy this. iWork is all I would ever need for my needs.
However I do on a daily basis so having this lets me stay on my Mac and not run Windows.12 out of 15 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Not a breakthrough - but a nice update
by getwired on January 5, 2008
Pros: Universal app (better perf on Intel Macs), Office 2007 file format support...
Cons: Entourage still a second-class citizen to Outlook, no OneNote or InfoPath
Summary: Overall, I'm really happy with this. I find it disappointing that two of the above reviews are completely worthless. If you haven't used it, don't review it. ...
Summary: Overall, I'm really happy with this. I find it disappointing that two of the above reviews are completely worthless. If you haven't used it, don't review it. There is simply no other office suite on the Mac that compares. All of the open source office suites on the Mac have half-witted file format compatibility, and a UI that is completely confused - none are certainly Mac-like enough to be workable on the Mac.
I wish Entourage was Outlook, but for the Mac. Instead it seems like Outlook Express++ for the Mac. There also is no OneNote or InfoPath for the Mac - I wish there was. Oh well, another reason to run VMware Fusion. Finally, the best reason to upgrade (for those who blah-blahed on about why this isn't a good upgrade but open source alternatives are), this gives those of us with Intel Macs an office suite that runs well without PPC emulation.6 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Don't upgrade from 2004 until 2008 is fixed
by Christopher Serjak on May 4, 2008
Pros: Entourage finally becomes almost usable
Cons: Crashes. Stalls. Unexplained errors. Even on newly installed OSX
Summary: I cannot express the utterly profound level of dissatisfaction, disappointment, and disgust I feel for the Office: Mac 2008 product. I have worked as a consultant for nearly 20 years. ...
Summary: I cannot express the utterly profound level of dissatisfaction, disappointment, and disgust I feel for the Office: Mac 2008 product. I have worked as a consultant for nearly 20 years. I watched the evolution of Microsoft from the days of the IBM PC XT through the years of the Internet. The current product represents either new depths of incompetence, utter disregard for customers, a callous attitude toward the Macintosh platform, or all of the above.
From the first install on a brand new Macintosh the software has not functioned properly. After repeated installs, including reinstalling the Mac operating system (just to be sure) I gave up and went back to Office: Mac 2004. Ahh?but that doesn?t work well either, since apparently components of 2008 cannot be entirely removed.
I believe it to be the ultimate height of hypocrisy that Microsoft positions Office products as unlocking ideas, potential, and productivity. I?ve neither the time nor the patience to list the many disappointments in Office: Mac 2008 product. I am surprised that the Microsoft legal department believes that the product meets adequate standards to survive a challenge on the Warranty of Merchantability.
I sincerely hope that the people who manufacture passenger jets, medical equipment, prescription medicines, and manage our urban infrastructure do not sink to the same level of incompetence embodied in Office: Mac 2008. For if they do, we are all doomed.5 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
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MOST UNSTABLE MAC SOFTWARE IN EXISTENCE
by Brian Levy on May 20, 2008
Pros: Features are slick
Cons: Word is chock full of formatting errors, glitches, and ways to corrupt your data
Summary: I was once a happy Microsoft customer...that is, until Vista...That pushed me to go Mac, and I love it. However, something has gone completely awry with Microsoft's ...
Summary: I was once a happy Microsoft customer...that is, until Vista...That pushed me to go Mac, and I love it. However, something has gone completely awry with Microsoft's quality control. This product crashes constantly (and none of my other software does)...It loses data, it has huge problems with cutting and pasting and the most basic functions you count on a modern day word processor for. It is so fundamentally unstable I am uninstalling it.
3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Huge Loss of Functionality
by esta_musta_tausta on January 7, 2008
Pros: I do not know of any yet.
Cons: No Visual Basic
Summary: The largest advantage that previous versions of Office had
for the power user was integration with Visual Basic via
VBA. It appears that this new release does not have VBA,...Summary: The largest advantage that previous versions of Office had
for the power user was integration with Visual Basic via
VBA. It appears that this new release does not have VBA,
removing its major competitive advantage over the
lower-priced iWOrk.3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Horrible. Horrible. Horrible.
by prestongrant on October 18, 2008
Pros: None. Nada. Yuck.
Cons: It is hard to describe how terrible this product is.
Summary: Microsoft's products are always bloated and sketchy reliability while they continue to take your money. As a Word power-user I cannot begin to describe the joys of a program ...
Summary: Microsoft's products are always bloated and sketchy reliability while they continue to take your money. As a Word power-user I cannot begin to describe the joys of a program that looks this ugly, crashes so often (simple Replace function crashes documents!), and is missing so much basic functionality. Shame on Microsoft for selling such a crappy product.
horrible. untrustworthy. shameful. save your money, it won't do what you want anyway.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Worthy of a class-action lawsuit
by MattPete2 on October 14, 2008
Pros: None.
The only reason I'm typing these extra words is because this field requires at least 10 characters, and 'none.' only has 5.Cons: (1) On an Intel Mac, this 'native' application is slower than running Office 2004 (PowerPC) in emulation.
(2) New interface hides commonly used commands (e.g. font size, color, etc.)
(3) No VBA/Solver = less features in this 'upgrade'Summary: Slower, with less features, and poor usability . This is not an upgrade, but a downgrade from Excel 2004. I feel ripped-off and bitter, and this is worthy of a class-action ...
Summary: Slower, with less features, and poor usability . This is not an upgrade, but a downgrade from Excel 2004. I feel ripped-off and bitter, and this is worthy of a class-action lawsuit. I'm glad I didn't delete my old copy of Office 2004 before installing this.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Microsoft should pay users to use Office 2008 for Mac.
by jeff.bloom on August 31, 2008
Pros: Of course, the potentiality of the features are good, but why not use NeoOffice, which is freeware. NeoOffice has 99.9% of the features of MS Office.
Cons: Unreliable. Slow. Awkward.
Summary: I continue to find that Microsoft Office is horribly unreliable. I have major deadlines and can only hold my breath that Office won't crash. If I set the automatic ...
Summary: I continue to find that Microsoft Office is horribly unreliable. I have major deadlines and can only hold my breath that Office won't crash. If I set the automatic backups for 5 minutes, I end up not being able to work for an unbearably long period of time while it backs up. In addition, why have they changed the menus from a bar to the tops of documents? What's the point? Does it function better? I don't think so. Why don't they put their efforts into producing a tight, fast, and reliable product?
Office crashes far too often. And, the crashes occur during the most benign activities, like scrolling down a page or changing the insertion point. Maybe Microsoft gets away with their inferior products, because PC users are so used to problems.
We have a site license for this product. If I had to pay for it, I wouldn't. In fact, it's such an awful product, I may just use NeoOffice. It's free (unless you wish to donate something), has 99.9% of Word's features, has some features Word doesn't have, and it is much more reliable.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Lack of VBA support kills Office 2008 as an option
by saffroncapital on February 5, 2008
Pros: Much Improved Powerpoint
Cons: Vastly inferior Excel to Office 2004
Summary: As a heavy spreadsheet user and only mildly interested in producing flashy documents Office 2008 is a major letdown. In fact I can't see the point in 'upgrading' at ...
Summary: As a heavy spreadsheet user and only mildly interested in producing flashy documents Office 2008 is a major letdown. In fact I can't see the point in 'upgrading' at all.
The only major improvements I can see are the Universal support for Intel processors and the changes made to Powerpoint. Although Office 2004 seems to run slower using OS X 10.5 "Lepoard" than 10.4 it doesn't matter a whole lot.
Improved Powerpoint features would be nice, but then I use Apple's Keynote for doing presentations as it is so much better than Powerpoint in Office 2004.
Better Word doesn't matter and although Exchange support is improved in Office 2008 I can get by with the Office 2004 version when using Entourage.
The biggest issue is the maddening and clearly stupid decision by Microsoft to kill VBA in Office 2008. Why is anyone's guess. But I can only assume that this is a response to the release of Numbers by Apple... a sort of 'I'll see you and raise you X' approach to business which does nothing to help customers. If Apple have their thinking caps on they will be looking at putting VBA support into the next version of Numbers.
By the time Microsoft gets around the releasing the next version of Office (if there is one) I expect that Numbers will have moved along a couple of versions and be able to provide some real competition to Excel (even better if VBA support is available in Numbers).
So I am prepared to wait. There is no point in me buying Office 2008 and I suspect any Office 2004 user who needs spreadsheets and VBA support will do the same.
Lets see what Apple can deliver in the next version of Numbers...1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Microsoft Corp.
- Part number: 731-01727
- Description: Look great with Office 2008! With beautiful documents, spreadsheets, and multimedia presentations, you can quickly create, manage, and re-use content across any platform.
General
- Category Office applications
- Subcategory Office applications - office suite
- Language(s) English
- License pricing Standard
- Localization English
Software
- License Type Complete package
- License Qty 1 PC
- License Pricing Standard
- Platform MacOS
- Distribution Media DVD-ROM
- Package Type Retail
System Requirements
- OS Required Apple MacOS X 10.4.9 or later
- Min Processor Type 500 MHz, 500 MHz
- Peripheral / Interface Devices DVD-ROM, XGA monitor
- System Requirements Details Apple MacOS X 10.4.9 - PowerPC G4 - RAM 512 MB - HD 1.5 GB, Apple MacOS X 10.4.9 - Intel x86 - RAM 512 MB - HD 1.5 GB
Product series
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Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 (Home and Student Edition)
Manufacturer: Microsoft Corp.
Specs: 3 PC in one household, Complete package, Apple MacOS X 10.4.9 or later, 500 MHz, DVD-ROM, XGA monitor, MacOS
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Manufacturer: Microsoft Corp.
Specs: 1 PC, Complete package, Apple MacOS X 10.4.9 or later, 500 MHz, DVD-ROM, XGA monitor, MacOS
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Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 (Special Media Edition)
Manufacturer: Microsoft Corp.
Specs: 1 PC, Complete package, Apple MacOS X 10.4.9 or later, 500 MHz, DVD-ROM, XGA monitor, MacOS
Manufacturer info
- Microsoft Corp.
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Microsoft Corp. products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://www.microsoft.com/
- Address:
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052 - Phone: 425/882-8080
- Fax: (425) 706-7329
