2009-01-08

I like it
Finally a Word program that looks like it was made for a Mac! I know a lot of the reviewers here don't like this software, but I can't find anything not to love. I have not had any problems installing it or running it in any way. The only two problems I see is that Word takes a long time to open and by default it saves files in a format called .docx. I don't know what that is! Well at least you can change it so it saves in the trusty old .doc. As for the other included software, I must admit I haven't used it. I just need Word, really.
2009-01-08

Office 2008 is the worst version of Office yet.
I have been a user of Microsoft Word and Excel since version 1.0 of each, which I purchased in 1987, and a user of Office for Macintosh since the first version, and Office 2008 is the worst by far. Word 2008 and Excel 2008 have more bugs and problems than any previous version I have used. Among the problems with the latest version that I never had with previous versions are disappearing parts of lines in Word; the scroll bar gets hung up; incomprehensible dialog boxes appear at random times telling me of errors that don't make sense, in Word documents and Excel worksheets that I had been using for years in Office 2001 with no problems; the Word document or Excel worksheet suddenly shifts in the document window even when I am doing nothing; the zoom percentage box in Excel frequently shows an incorrect amount; some charts I had created in Excel 2001 got screwed up when I opened them in Excel 2008, even though other charts that were identical except for using a different column of values opened just fine, and it took me longer to fix those screwed-up charts than it had taken me to create them in Excel 2001; Word and Excel 2008 keep showing up in the wrong space in Mac OS 10.5's Spaces, even though Word and Excel 2001 had no problem working with Spaces properly. This version of Office has more bugs than any other software I have bought in the last 20 years.
2009-01-08

basically all the same stuff, but prettier
Wasn't expecting the program to look so basic, but has all the bells and whistles of an updated Microsoft Office suite. Word and Powerpoint get the job done, as does Excel. Microsoft improved these programs' ability to "beautify" documents and make them more professional/presentable, but the basic function of word processing, slide show making, spreadsheet managing.. is essentially the same. If you're only going to use this product to do the basics, I wouldn't invest.
2008-12-31

Office is Office...What Else Can You Say?
How do you review Microsoft Office? It has become such a necessary part of computer life today that, no matter how much you want to try going without it, you really can't.
Having gone Mac earlier this year, I tried going without it, using Mac's cheaper Office like program iWORK. I was happy with this, but found there were still some programs (like EXCEL) that I still needed.
MICROSOFT OFFICE FOR MAC works. I guess that is all I need to say about it. It does what it has done for years, and now you can do that on the Mac.
The one glitch I have found, when I type something into Word and then copy and paste it elsewhere (such as a blog post) it loses all my formatting. All the spacing disappears. This doesn't happen with iWORKS's Pages, or even in previous versions of Word. I don't know if this is a problem with the Mac version or Office 2008 (which I have only used in this format).
So, if you have a Mac, and need the software, here it is.
2008-12-30

Office 2008 for Mac problems
Despite some warnings in reviews here, I bought this update and ran into two problems the first week. My wife sent some Word docs to friends who couldn't open the new default .docx format. After she went to preferences and changed the default back to the earlier .doc format everything seems to be ok. I also received an excel attachment with a visual basic macro which would not run. I couldn't make this work. On the plus side it's nice to have several licenses so my wife and I don't run into problems when were both using Office at the same time and connected on our home wifi system.