“Across the board, each application has had its UI completely overhauled as Microsoft has made the wise decision to redo the entire layout of the application suite. Instead of the awful configuration found in Office for Mac 2008, 2011 draws from both Office 2007 and Office 2010 for Windows. In fact, it did such a good job that we can’t think of a reason why someone who is used to one OS wouldn’t be able to jump into the other and get work done in Office,” Bettiol reports. “One of the main reasons for this is Ribbons.”
Bettiol reports, “Sadly there is a pretty big weak link in Office 2011: Outlook. It seems that Microsoft simply sacrificed brains for beauty. Don’t get us wrong. It’s definitely the best and most powerful email client we’ve ever used on OS X, but after using it for 10 minutes we honestly gave up on it. Why? Because it simply requires more work to get simple tasks done than on the Windows version. It sucks to say it, but given the choice between using the new Outlook for Mac and virtualizing Outlook for Windows, we’d go with the latter any day.”
Full article, with over 50 screenshots, here.
MacDailyNews Take: A lot of people, especially Windows to Mac switchers, seem to think that they need Office. While some do, the vast majority do not. We suggest taking advantage of Apple’s 30-day free iWork trial to see how well iWork works for you, before you dump more money into Microsoft’s coffers. Microsoft. You know, the company that thinks you’re stupid for spending “$500 for an Apple logo” on your personal computer. Plus, you’ll probably quickly see the benefits of having the same office suite on your Mac as you do on your iPad.