[Macworld]

Post your comments for Microsoft Office 2013 is here: Hands-on impressions and buying advice here

[ralphebrowniii]

I signed up for the trial of Office 365. It appears to me that the Mac software is Office 2011. I didn't see any Office 2013 for the Mac. Did I miss something?

Thanks,

Ralph

[markfig]

Macworld writers create some of the best Apple-focused content on the web. Unfortunately Macworld the website also now syndicates content from its sibling websites including various Windows-focused websites.

This particular story highlights the fact that there should probably be some more human editorial oversight into that automated publishing process. Since this story really isn't relevant to anyone who visits this site. Office 2013 is not available on our platform.

"The wait" is not "over" for anyone who would be reading this story on this site. Nor do I think that sentiment captures the Macworld editorial spirit. Kind of takes the Mac out of Macworld.

Obviously with infinite resources Macworld would not allow this kind of story to slip through, and budgets are tight. but this story should probably either go away or be reframed with a Mac focus. As is,it's alienating and irrelevant to readers here.

[zxpt]

Thanks for the kind and nice explanation. It took me several minutes to figure out its Mac non-relevancy. As a paying subscriber one should be able to expect only qualified editors to touch MacWorld specific content... meaning actual Mac users!

[DBSteve]

As far as I am concerned Office 360 or any of these web apps or suites are a bad idea. I agree with a comment by Steve Wozniak I read a while back that essentially said that anything you store in the cloud should be considered public and available to the entire world. I don't believe that any cloud provider can guarantee privacy. I want to be able to use my apps and data when I am not connected to the web. I want to choose what I want to store in the cloud, not have it stored there by default.

[dougeddy]

I agree that this is a wasted space article irrelevant to a Mac user. I have stopped using Microsoft except for Excel and use Apple or other products instead. Tired of MS control over everything and bloated documents and programs.

I dread the web based stuff and Apple is riding right in to it! I live in a rural area where the web is wi-fi based unless I happen to be a very rich person, which I am not. We are being driven away by all of this but Apple is rapidly trying to become the Microsoft of old - you use our products and we control your computer! BAH!

[spanky]

Quote

I signed up for the trial of Office 365. It appears to me that the Mac software is Office 2011. I didn't see any Office 2013 for the Mac. Did I miss something? Thanks, Ralph

The office suites for Mac have histrically been numbered one higher than the PC version so you know instantly if its for Mac or PC.
PC Office 2003 Mac Office 2004
PC Office 2007 Mac Office 2008
PC Office 2010 Mac Office 2011
PC Office 2013 Mac Office 2014?

[whitedog]

Quote

Macworld writers create some of the best Apple-focused content on the web. Unfortunately Macworld the website also now syndicates content from its sibling websites including various Windows-focused websites. This particular story highlights the fact that there should probably be some more human editorial oversight into that automated publishing process. Since this story really isn't relevant to anyone who visits this site. Office 2013 is not available on our platform. "The wait" is not "over" for anyone who would be reading this story on this site. Nor do I think that sentiment captures the Macworld editorial spirit. Kind of takes the Mac out of Macworld. Obviously with infinite resources Macworld would not allow this kind of story to slip through, and budgets are tight. but this story should probably either go away or be reframed with a Mac focus. As is,it's alienating and irrelevant to readers here.

I agree this article could have used a bit of Mac friendly editing. At the same time, you can use these office apps in Windows in a virtual machine on the Mac, with VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop. And many Mac users do so. For them, keeping up with Office developments can be important.

That said, Microsoft and others are still transitioning to web based apps, which in the case of Office makes buying decisions uncomfortably complex. There's also the question of access to cloud based apps (where Internet connections are problematic), cloud security and latency with cloud computing. What do you do, for instance, if you are out of reach of an internet connection? Or if you are in a hotel or other location where the bandwidth is limited? If you always use Office in a well controlled environment, in a home or office with reliable Internet access, cloud computing may be more or less seamless. And clearly this is the target audience for packages like Office 360.

But the question of platform availability adds to the appeal of platform agnostic offerings like Google Apps. And the costs and complexity of keeping up with Office upgrades make free or low cost Office alternatives all the more appealing - especially on the Mac.