“Some Mac users blasted Microsoft’s plan to ‘ribbonize’ the next version of Office for the Mac, while others — many of whom said they also use the productivity suite on Windows — defended the move,” Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld.
“Office for Mac 2011 will feature a ribbon similar to what Microsoft debuted with Office 2007 for Windows, and will continue to use in Office 2010, also on Windows,” Keizer reports.
“The ribbon will appear below the standard Mac menu bar and above the content display area in Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and is to be the ‘core of our next-generation Office for Mac user experience,’ Microsoft said in a statement last week when it showed off the suite at Macworld Conference and Expo,” Keizer reports. “Familiar interface features, including the classic Mac menu and the standard toolbar, will remain, and the ribbon and toolbar will be collapsible to save screen space, said Microsoft.”
Keizer reports, “Microsoft has not set a ship date for Office 2011 for Mac, saying only that it will release the suite in time for this year’s holiday sales season. Other than the ribbon interface, other prominent changes will include the return of Outlook as the suite’s e-mail client, and the restoration of VBA-based macros, which were dropped for the 2008 edition.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Anyone who gives Microsoft money for Office after such prolonged mistreatment, not to mention public ridicule from Microsoft’s CEO (please see: After attempting to belittle Mac users, Microsoft tries to sell them Office 2008 with free trial), is either a masochist, a fool, or stuck trying to get some work done with junk provided by the aforementioned IT doofuses. Our condolences. We’ll stick with what we’ll be using on our iPads: Apple’s iWork.
Many people believe they need Office, but, in reality, most don’t. Do you need Microsoft Office or do you just think you do? Give Apple’s free 30-day iWork ’09 trial a try and find out.
Related articles:
Office 2011 promises end Microsoft’s war on Macintosh – February 12, 2010
Apple’s iPad, especially iWork for iPad, reveals the future of personal computing – February 02, 2010
iWork for iPad: Apple brings Multi-Touch™ to word-processing, spreadsheet, presentation apps – January 27, 2010
RUMOR: Apple tablet to cost $700-$1000, feature new touch gestures, Multi-Touch™ version of iWork – January 09, 2010
NPD: Sales of Apple’s iWork ‘09 beat iWork ‘08 by 50 percent – December 30, 2009
Apple looking to expand iWork’s online ‘cloud’ experience? – December 28, 2009
Microsoft’s latest Office suite a clunky combination of bad UI decisions and sluggish performance – November 17, 2009
Apple update sweetens iWork.com – September 30, 2009
PC World’s Coursey: Is Office 2010 really the best Microsoft can do? – July 13, 2009
TrustedReviews: Apple iWork ‘09 a capable, less expensive alternative to Microsoft Office – February 19, 2009
Apple’s iWork sports impressive features, gives Microsoft Office a run for its money – February 17, 2009
PC Magazine: You’ll find a lot to like in Apple’s iWork ‘09 – February 07, 2009
T3 reviews Apple iWork ‘09: New features well worth the price – February 03, 2009
CNET reviews Apple iWork ‘09: An emerging powerhouse; worthy replacement for Microsoft Office – January 30, 2009
Sydney Morning Herald reviews Apple iWork ‘09: 4 out of 5 stars – January 26, 2009
PC Advisor reviews Apple’s iWork.com: Handy and convenient tool – January 13, 2009
PC Magazine hands-on with Apple iWork ‘09: ‘Innovative suite certainly looks impressive’ – January 08, 2009
How Apple’s iWork.com works – January 07, 2009
Apple unveils iWork ‘09; Introduces iWork.com public beta for online document sharing – January 06, 2009
There’s a sucker born every minute
OMG Office sucks so bad! Integrate filemaker and give us iWork Pro! When in the world is Apple gonna elevate it’s suite to a serious business solution! I think it is now, but it can be so much more!
You’ll never catch anything that says “MS” on my Mac. I use iWork and it works just fine.
I have to use office for mac because my mates keep sending me load of emails with attachments that I was unable to open before I added office for mac. The reason being, I’m the only one with the sense to use a mac while they all insist on using ms. I love my mac and will never change but I also love being able to read my emails. If anybody out there has any ideas on how I can do this without office for mac I’d be glad to here from them.
Until Numbers can iterate calculations like Excel, I’m stuck with it. So MDN, get off ur high horse already!!!
MDN: iWork has no Database application; M$ Office does; Until that changes, I don’t need a 30 day trial to help me decide.
Macduff: iWork (trial linked in the article above); OpenOffice.org; NeoOffice.org.
iWork opens everything for me…what specifically won’t open, macduff?
Some people/companies/schools need to use Office to keep things standard and easy to transfer documents between platforms. You can scream open office and iWork all you want but Office on the Mac is needed and is welcomed! Office has its issues like being slow, etc. But its needed!! Sorry you can deny it all you want but it is.
The ribbon is fine as long as you don’t have to see it or use it.
Office is fine as long as you don’t have to see it or use it.
Windows is fine as long as you don’t have to see it or use it.
I don’t understand your problem Macduff. My company is all Windows, but I use Mac. I get upwards of 100 e-mails a day, many with attachments. All the Office attachments open in iWorks, and I export from iWorks to either Office format or PDF
If all you need is to be able to view MS docs that your mates are sending, and you don’t need 100% compatibility for every font, custom border and fancy formating that has been done to it, then the iWork suite does a dandy job of opening those pesky MS files, including Powerpoint & Excel. I work in higher level layout programs, but iWork is just the ticket for me to yank stuff out of Word & Excel if Textedit can’t handle it. You’d be amazed at how many professionals seem to think that it is a good idea to compose print work in Powerpoint (Yuck!), but I just use Keynote to pdf it and off I go again.
Death to the Ribbon!
@ cashxx – You’re part of the problem, not the solution. As long as people like you have that attitude, Microsoft wins. I use NeoOffice and/or Bean (for really simple documents), and they get me by just fine, as I suspect they would for many people.
Macduff:
NeoOffice
OpenOffice
AbiWord (though it sucks)
and many others.
The best way to find alternatives to common programs is to check out MacUpdate.com and do a search there. Good luck
Look, I understand fully about everyone not wanting to give dime one to MS. But at the end of the day, many of us who are burdened with advanced spreadsheets, VBA working in the background and other fun stuff, we have to use Office. It sucks – I know. But that’s reality. I don’t like it any more than the next guy.
That said, if I have to use Office, and the next Mac version will be nearly 100% compatible with the Windows version, I’ll buy it. And if I have to use the ribbons, I’ve already adjusted to them in the other “world”. That’s just life. I don’t think having the ribbons are an awful thing – besides at the end of the day, I’ll still be working on a Mac version of Office in OS X.
fm
@Ferf Muckmeyer
A voice of reason amonst the fanboys.
Mac Office is a better product than iWork and people who complain about the ribbon need to get a life
I use iWork and I LOVE it ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> it adequately fills my needs and is easier to use.
After using excel, moving to numbers felt like a blissful release. Excel was frustrating in all aspects – numbers is pure spreadsheet bliss 😀
I get so exasperated at all the memos from administrators (actually, from their secretaries) that come as docx attachments that are nothing more than text wrapped in a crappy M$ wrapper.
I’ll stick with Office 2004.
A result of the lack of pst support in Entourage is that I have been forced to transfer all my email archives to Gmail’s IMAP. Now, I am no longer beholden to any one email program. That’s the blessing in disguise that the lack of Mac Outlook has been for me.
My screens are widescreens. I need curtains, not ribbons.
Sadly, I need to work with an organization that’s almost entirely run on Office 97 and Windows XP. I prefer using Keynote, but when I had to create a presentation for a large work group, there were so many formatting glitches when I saved for PowerPoint, I nearly gave up and started over.
This year, I did the whole thing in PowerPoint just to save myself the bother.
It’s the same with Word and Excel. I prefer the Numbers to Excel, but since virtually everyone else will view the work in Excel, it’s just easier to live in Excel.
When you’re part of a large organization, it’s still, sadly, a Windows world.
@Gabriel
No its just real life….I am an admin and things work alot better having the same software on both platforms. You start mixing applications and you have training issues and file issues. Step into an Admins position and take care of a network of users and I bet you change your mind. And didn’t Jobs put that to rest in like 98 or so about the attitude towards Microsoft that in order for Apple to win Microsoft has to lose. I hate microsoft as mush as the next person but we need office for the Mac. Sorry!
The only thing I can imagine that is worse than office for Mac now is a “ribbonized” version of Office. Talk about a useless menu convention. Do. Not. Want.
A question for the Numbers experts:
There are two functions that I use all the time in Excel. One is “Goal Seek:” select a target cell, a source cell and give a constant. Goal seek changes the value of the source until the target cell equals the given constant. The other is “Solver” which will use iterative techniques (including the simplex method for linear programs) to either maximize, minimize, or reach a target value in a certain cell by manipulating a range of cells given a set of constraints in yet other cells. Solver can also give sensitivity analysis results back with an answer.
I’m seriously interested in knowing if Numbers has these capabilities. (And I really don’t know whether it does or not.) If Numbers has these, I’ll switch right away.