“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 “$500 for an Apple logo” on your personal computer. Plus, you’ll probably quickly see the benefits of having the same office suite on your Mac as you do on your iPad.
I might consider getting this — via BitTorrent. I’d never give my money to M$.
No Microsoft anything on my computer. Thanks anyway…
Fantasy vs. Reality: I need Orifice for work. That is an unfortunate fact. iWork, Neo-Office, etc. simply can’t open every Word/Excel doc I receive seamlessly. I wish they could. 🙁
Stop bragging about iWorks. It can NOT handle properly my Word files and makes a mess of some of them. Very frustrating. Work on it and make it better, fast, and then we’ll talk.
Apple has a BIG, HUGE problem with Pages: It doesn’t fully support AppleScript. Why not?!? The two biggest reasons I need/use Office (really, Word):
1. Compatibility when sending documents to other people (who use Word). Pages just isn’t totally compatible with Word yet, including auto-numbering, which is big for me.
2. AppleScript support. I use Word to merge various clauses, include prompts for data, etc. Pages’ mail merge isn’t the same and can’t be used as a document assembly tool.
Apple fixes these issues, and I can drop Office altogether. I only upgraded to Office 2008 because I didn’t want to run Office X in Rosetta and deal with some of the limitations in Office X.
Dear, Pages DOES have a word count feature. But I understand that you would like it at the bottom of the screen. That said, even in Word, I still use a hidden feature to check word, paragraph and character count.
But trust me, it’s there.
On Orifice 2010 (and the Windoze 2007 version): whoever came up with the idea for the Ribbon interface should be taken out and shot. As others have noted, it is an abortion. The Ribbon does nothing to save time – it makes me LESS productive. Microsoft in its wisdom took away keyboard shortcuts, and the Ribbon features functions I don’t use. While you can customize things with a small bar above the Ribbon, it’s cumbersome at best.
The smartest interface idea I ever saw was in the old GoLive Web creation tool which, Adobe in its collective MBA-driven wisdom, promptly killed (along with Freehand, which really pisses me off). GoLive came up with the idea of a context-aware Inspector palette that brought up exactly the icons and functions you needed for the task in which you were doing. It was intuitive and almost predictive. And for that reason, Adobe killed it. STUPID.
A self-aware neural network predictive model is a tiny bit of code. Created correctly a predictive model can learn from what you do, and adjust accordingly. Neural network predictive models are used to spot fraudulent credit card transactions in real-time. They’ve been around for years. So why is it that companies like Apple or Microsoft have not embraced this concept to power a predictive user interface that would in effect know what you needed and adjusted on the fly?
Imagine being able to work on a document, and the interface would present the tools you needed as you needed them. It would make you more productive and cut down screen clutter and real estate. I hope someday that Apple seizes on this idea and revolutionizes office productivity like Microsoft should – but never will.
DEATH TO THE RIBBON!
I tell people to get Macs because they are virus-free, secure, reliable and easy to use… And they’re compatible with Office. When they get them, I point out iWork and they realise that “compatible with Office” doesn’t mean “stuck with horrible software”.
Oh come on MDN! I love Apple but Microsoft still produces the best spreadsheet and word processing program. The other programs of the office suite can be replaced with other products.
Just wanted to say that UFO to college and I prefer pages, numbers, and keynote over word, excell, and PowerPoint any day of the week
@macdofan
Unfortunately, you are correct.
Note to MDN: your pushing iWork is great but it is not yet a working substitute for Microsoft Office for those of us who have to interchange our files between the office and home. It just isn’t.
When it is, you will have more success in getting people to switch – something ALL of us want to do but can’t right now. Why don’t you call Lord Jobs and get him to put people to work on the missing ingredients instead of obsessing over gadgets like iPad.
“While some do”…..[need Office].
At last, we get that concession from you, MDN. Thanks.
If you are the sole (and barely tolerated) Mac user in a PC workplace, believe me, you need Office.
Unfortunately, all of you PC idiots out there are lame. I bet all of your documents, presentation and spreasheets looks exactly the same. WOW. Think different.
Simplify your life, only on a Mac
Microsoft will never allow full parity between Office for Mac and Office for Windows. I just finished a Power Point presentation using Office 2008, and no matter how I save it, something gets lost when opened on a Windows machine. Ether the photos get degraded or I lose the transitions, or the transparency gets lost. What a piece of crap software it is and it has always been. Why people use it is beyond me.
“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.”
Nice, that’s a Microsoft mentality alright. It’s supposed to suck, right?
@ Doesn’t Work
We are not just a few, I guarantee. And you are right also about their obsessing over gadgets. They forget that the real market where they are not present (only 8% of it!) is that of the office, where big things good and bad happen, and where Office is being used.
I only use Word (Ed. edition), and have ni problems. However, as the Mac Tech Support Specialist for my local school district, in ten years the Only virus I’ve ever found on a Mac was the old Word macro virus, hopefully obsolete now but it still showed up occasionally on users’ Macs, especially those who also used PC’s at home and in the classroom.
Didn’t Microsoft make this mistake once before? I think it was Office version 6. After making Word 5.x the tool of choice for writers using Macs, Microsoft decided to make the Mac versions of the next Office apps a near-copy of the Windows versions. That served to anger Mac users, because the programs were no longer “Mac-like,” and almost no one upgraded. That led to a re-do (at least for the UI) in Office 98 for Mac which served as the basis at least through Office 2004 (not sure about 2008 because I really haven’t used it).
I doubt that I will ever buy a copy of Office going forward. But perhaps this time around, this “make it like Windows” move may actually increase sales of Mac Office. Long-time Mac users are still going to generally avoid it if they don’t need the specialized features in Office.
But unlike in the mid-90’s, the majority of current Mac users are Windows switchers from the last few years. As former Windows users (especially the most recent and yet-to-be switchers), they may find comfort in Office if it looks and behaves more like the Windows version… enough reason to justify paying the high price.
Then again, these switchers switched to get away from Windows. So perhaps it is a bad idea after all.
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iWork 09, Neooffice, openoffice, even the newly upgraded google docs are all quite good for what people want to do. There’s little reason to hand over a crap of cash for a ribbonized version of office. Hell even office 2000 is way more than most people need. I use office 2007 every day and I’m not a big fan of the ribbon. It’s ok but nothing remarkable.
My pet office peeve: try writing a multiline equation in word 07! Mathtype included with pages is way better!
my pet pages peeve: try sticking a drawing drawn in pages into a table in pages. I realize using tables as formatting is not the best (like writing html pages pre css), nevertheless is should still be possible.
If you MUST access a PC for some of your work (yes, I am one myself).
Citrix ipa client and login remotely. Works great.
Microsoft Remote Desktop for Mac. Works Great.
Most of us can use the Mac apps (iCal,Mail,etc) that work with MS servers.
My gripe with Apple and iWork , when 09 came out and I open something, that little pop up offered a free 90 day trial. Ok give it a try! After the free trial, asked me to buy, for my limited use, decided to stick with 08. What do you know, none of the files I had used with the free trial would now open in 08, forced to upgrade to 09. Not a big deal, but felt used
Sorry, 30 day free trial , not 90
OK, for some of my work I have to use Office and I have two requests.
1. Will the Word load faster?
2. Will it close faster than ’08 does?
For cryin’ out loud I’m 56 and I feel like charging Microsoft for the loss of my remaining years. As for the look and feel I guess that means I’ll have to learn yet another Microsoft interface. Still, at least I don’t load the Windows’ OS just to play some friggin’ games. Now that IS rape in the first degree!
The damned “Ribbon” is why I’m still using Office 2004 on my Mac.
As for iWork, Keynote beats PowerPoint, but Word beats pages and Excel beats Numbers, in my experience.
Those of us that need to interchange documents between our home Macs and office PCs need Office. Also those that need to exchange documents with other people or organizations in the world. And since it would be horrible trying to convert between the two formats, it’s just another reason why the iPad is irrelevant for so many people.
Compatibility.
None of you seem to understand this. The Macheads extol the virtues of the Mac solution of the Windows equivalent. This may or may not be true, depending on your needs and intended purpose. But this misses the point. It doesn’t matter how good or better the Mac version of an office app is vis-a-vis MS Office, the key point is compatibility.
I get hundreds of Emails (seems more like thousands at times) and documents from customers and clients: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I use Office 2007 on Fusion to receive them, interact with them, and send them on to interested parties. Were I to use the iWork programs, I would (a) have to convert them, (b) update or do whatever, then (c) convert them back before sending them out. I tried this for a while. The result was lower productivity and document incompatibilities. So there is no point in doing so. Thus, I stick with Office 2007 on Fusion as it works well.
I have Office 2008 installed on my Mac. I tried it for a bit. What an abomination. It simply never gets used. Perhaps Office 2011 will be better. It sounds promising so far but futureware always does.
Until Office 20xx is no longer the suite used by business, you can beat your chest all you want about how much better the Mac solution is but it won’t matter because compatibility trumps all other considerations.