[Macworld]

Post your comments for Microsoft Word for Mac 2011 here

[Photonerd]

Isn't this product not supposed to be available until next month? Is this review for a shipping version?

[nathanator11]

OK, so I'll tolerate the ribbon if there's a menu bar (Word, File, Edit...). There is, isn't there?

This post has been edited by nathanator11: 28 September 2010 - 05:35 AM

[Jeff Battersby]

 nathanator11, on 28 September 2010 - 05:35 AM, said:

OK, so I'll tolerate the ribbon if there's a menu bar (Word, File, Edit...). There is, isn't there?

Yes, of course there's a Menu Bar.

-Jeff Battersby

[mramaley]

 Photonerd, on 28 September 2010 - 05:30 AM, said:

Isn't this product not supposed to be available until next month? Is this review for a shipping version?

Yep, you are correct that it isn't due to ship until next month. However, those of us with volume licence agreements have seen it show up already on our Open Licence page.

-Michael

[hayesk]

The ribbon is a replacement for poorly designed menus and toolbars. Design your menus right, and a ribbon is not necessary.

I hope all functions are available in the menus, so I can turn off the ribbon completely.

[forrestsun]

Thanks for the review, it confirmed my observation about how great the new Word 2011 is.

Unfortunately even though for Mac it's version 2011 as opposed to version 2010 for Windows, I think the Word 2010 for win (or office 2010 for win) in general is still one step (maybe half) ahead of the Mac version. You think the word 2011 ribbon is more refined? Check out the word 2010 for win, totally customizable, I mean, one can DIY their own ribbon and put what ever function on it, then export that customization for use by any other users or computers. Word 2011 can only customize a little such as the position.

Word 2010 also allow you to put any function in the title bar (the up most bar that's always there) and then hide away the ribbon all together. I find that gives me more real estate and still allow me to accomplish most tasks.

Document opened by word 2010 through Parallels Desktop 6 is still way faster than the native word 2011 opening.

Also, does anyone find it strange the 100% view of word 2011 is dramatically smaller than 100% view on word 2010? It's really not 100% at all. Which annoys me a lot.

Anyway, I think word 2011 (or office 2011 for mac in general) is great and I have been using its each beta and much happier than office 2008. However if you need the ultimate efficiency, Parallels Desktop+windows+office 2010 is still better. But that's a lot of money there.

[RogueWarrior65]

Wow, feature parity with the Winblows version? I'm shocked. SHOCKED!! Intuit needs to take a BIG lesson from Microsoft on this one.

But, IMHO, Word suffers from creeping-featuritis. Desktop publishing should be left to apps that do it right. Word's approach has always been counter-intuitive.

[Inkling]

Jeffrey finds himself in the "odd yet enviable position of announcing that Word 2011 is great." I'm already using the new Office UI on a Windows machine at work will instead point out that that we're now in the unexpected and unenviable position of having a Mac UI that as every bit as awful as its Windows counterpart.

Look, for instance, at that top graphic and count no less that six levels of UI before you get to the text you're working with. Six? That's an awful lot of cutter for an application that's already infamous for being bloated and cluttered.

Note all the confusing icons without text captions. Like guessing what each means? And take particular note of those tabs. There's not the usual set of text menus with all the commands in them ready to activate in a flash. Instead, you have to play a 'guess the right tab' game and then another 'guess what the icon means' game to locate what you want to do. (Be prepared for doing a lot of time-consuming "mouse-over-and waits.") And don't forget to notice that some command choices require navigating through three totally different types of UI interfaces-- tabs, icons and then pull-down lists--to get anything done.

Like some other Mac media pundits, I suspect that Jeffrey has been suffering from Window envy. For years he's been upset that Office for Macs had a more limited feature set and a different UI than Office for Windows. Now that is no longer so, he isn't capable of seeing that this new UI isn't just not Mac-like, it's a gosh-awful, clumsy design even for the Windows world.

MacWorld needs to publish an alternate-POV review from someone who's not enamored with this new UI, someone who'll point out the hassle of using software that works like nothing else on a Mac and little else on Windows machines.

I can give you a bitter taste of what it is like. It's a bit like driving a car where the brakes, throttle, and transmission lever move around the car and appear or disappear, seemingly at a whim. Need to brake? First you have to find the right tab to make brake-like tools appear. Then you have to guess which of the cryptic icons is the brake. And by the time you've done that, you've plowed into the car in front of you, meaning you've missed the deadline for that project because you've been klutzing around with this ill-conceived UI.

[TeaEarleGreyHot]

 Inkling, on 28 September 2010 - 07:19 AM, said:

...Look, for instance, at that top graphic and count no less that six levels of UI before you get to the text you're working with. Six? That's an awful lot of cutter for an application that's already infamous for being bloated and cluttered.

Note all the confusing icons without text captions. Like guessing what each means? And take particular note of those tabs. There's not the usual set of text menus with all the commands in them ready to activate in a flash. Instead, you have to play a 'guess the right tab' game and then another 'guess what the icon means' game to locate what you want to do. (Be prepared for doing a lot of time-consuming "mouse-over-and waits.") And don't forget to notice that some command choices require navigating through three totally different types of UI interfaces-- tabs, icons and then pull-down lists--to get anything done....

Agreed! Six levels of UI is really a drag. I want to be able to see as much of my page of document on-screen as possible. MS has successfully extracted all the commands from their proper place (menus, with key-command options) and shoved them into cryptic icons on-screen. At users expense, IMO.

[mdawson]

Quote

While initially the Ribbon may seem daunting to master, in practice I found that I wasn’t wasting time looking for the tools I needed to get my work done.

Interesting comment, as working in Office 2007 I find the Ribbon to be the antithesis of productivity. In typical MIcrosoftian fashion, using the Ribbon means more clicking to get anything done, so now I work slower in Office than I did in Office 2003 or on Office:mac 2004 at home. In fact, Microsoft seems to have taken the click more to get anything done in Office 2007—I have not had the chance to work in Office 2010—so every facet of the UI slows me down. This is typical of Windows; for instance,

• To delete files and folders in the Finder you move the file to the trash can then empty the trash can, but in Windows you have to move the file, confirm that you want to move the file, empty the recycle bin then confirm that you want to empty the recycle bin.

• To create a new folder in the Finder you invoke a context menu and select the first item "New Folder"; in Windows you invoke the context menu, then move the cursor to from the top of the menu most of the way down to "New" to invoke a submenu in which you have to scroll all the way to the top to select "Folder".

Those may seem like minor things, but those extra seconds add up over the course of a workday. In Excel 2007, I am now slowed by the fact that copying sheets does not copy the object on those sheets. I often have to track the results of simulation runs, so each model run has the same metrics reported. Yet in Excel 2007, when I copy a worksheet, any graphs that were on that worksheet are not copied over. In Excel 2003 and Excel:mac 2004, when a worksheet is copied, so to are the associated graphs and the source data is also automatically updated to match the new worksheet. In Excel 2007, I have to waste time copying over each graph to the new worksheet and updating the source data for each of those graphs using a dialog box that lo and behold requires far more clicking around than the former UI. Microsoft seems to think that mimicking the counterproductive functionality of their OS is a new feature for Office.

The reason I bring up the points above is because the Ribbon in Office 2011 would have to be dramatically improved over its Windows counterpart to be anything but a productivity killer. Microsoft made the UI for the Windows version of Office worse and less productive than it was in Office 2003 and earlier, so I would hope that that same level of ignorance was not behind the redesign of the Mac version. Microsoft continually proves that they have no clue about good UI design, and this is coming from a person that actually prefers to use Office.

[Jeff Battersby]

Inkling,

For starters, my name is Jeffery, not Jeffrey, but that's beside the point.

I'm not enamored with Windows or Word for Windows simply because, as you say, I have "been suffering from Window envy." I just understand an important point: There are people who want, in fact NEED to use Macs in a mostly Windows environment. And they need Word to work the same way it does for Windows users. In the past that was only possible if you were willing to jump through stupid hoops, which may have included, as one person posting here suggested, installing Parallels or VMWare Fusion, some version of Windows, and Office for Windows. Talk about layers! And, as someone who has spent the majority of his working career using Macs in a Windows environment, I know how convoluted, difficult, and expensive that can be.

I don't use Word as my day-to-day word processing application and, as good as I think Word 2011 is, it won't become my word processor of choice. There are several alternatives that are better for me and, I presume, many others that are better for you. But Word 2011 for the Mac is just what it needs to be: A business class Mac-based word processing application that, for the first time in many years, stands on equal ground with what, like it or not, has become the standard for business class word processing. My guess is that as a result of that equal standing you'll hear a lot fewer complaints from IT Managers and see a lot more Macs in businesses.

-Jeff

[jadco]

Questions for the reviewer:

Does the return of VBA mean the return of macros?

And is Word able to access Filemaker Pro v7+ databases for merge data?

[jelockwood]

I find the claim Office/Word 2011 for Mac now has feature parity with Word 2010 for Windows rather hard to believe after years and years of Microsoft shafting the Mac world. I could believe it is far closer than ever before.

There are two main areas I am particularly dubious about, firstly I have not seen mention anywhere about whether Word 2011 for Mac finally supports 'right-to-left' languages like Hebrew and Arabic. This is something that Mac OS X has supported fully for years, but Word for Mac currently still does not. I would have thought if this issue had finally been addressed Microsoft would have been shouting about it, after all at one point the Israeli Government banned all Microsoft sales over this issue. Secondly, I would be doubtful about whether a Mac running Office 2011 is treated as well as Windows in a Sharepoint environment. I am sure it is improved, but far less that the Mac is a fully equal citizen.

Perhaps one of the volume licensees participating in this thread could confirm at least the right-to-left issue.