[Macworld]

Post your comments for Mac Office 2008 ready for Macworld Expo launch here

[davebarnes]

If it has been released to "manufacturing" (what a quaint term), then why can I not download it now?

[iSeeXiMac]

There is such a thing called BitTorrenting :D

[RASTERMAN]

This is definitely a product I'll want to download and test before pulling the trigger on a $240 upgrade. I hope the test drive version gets out there soon and is actually a useable product.

Cheers!

---RASTER

Just wanted to see what options there were for editing on the new forums. Please disregard. :)

Message was edited by: RASTERMAN

[heisetax]

Downloading would exceed their Mac bandwidth of 1 MB a day. Also for those wanting a CD/DVD, it just takes a long time when you only have 14/8 X burner. Forget about high limit downloads & commercially pressed CDs/DVDs when it comes to the Mac.

It sounds like MS expects to sell more Mac Office 2008 than their Windows Office 2007. It doesn't seem that it took over a month from the time it went to manufacturing to shipping date.

Be sure to have your copy as MS needs our money to help with Vista development. Those copy machines need to be upgraded.



Bill the TaxMan

[garyi]

Not being funny but I had a play on the beta and it took longer to lod thean the 2004 one. Also I cannot see whats so new, apart from some pointles bar for adding things, and putting the icons into the top bar is all looks the same.

Also posting a message now is a bit convoluted, can't we just have the reply button back on the relevant webpage?

[folklore]

The only two things I want are compatibility with the new file formats (the "x" formats, .docx, etc) and a bit more speed. The fact that Leopard TextEdit - freakin' TextEdit! - can open .docx files but Word 2004 can't is just mind-boggling to me. And Microsoft is not known for releasing upgrades that actually perform faster than their predecessors.

Even if it is faster, most of my time using office apps is spent in Word. And most of that time is spent writing scholarly articles. So I've got to worry about my 700+ references in EndNote. The EndNote developers tend to be a bit slow to update for new versions of Word. I'm therefore unlikely to upgrade for awhile, despite it being nearly free through my university affiliation.

For all that, though, I'll eventually upgrade I'm sure. I have to be able to collaborate with PC users, and telling them to save their Word files in the old format is getting... well, old. Especially because the Office 2007 (PC) interface is so radically different that they can't find the Save As command. :)

[mobiustrip]

Is this thing built for Intel and OS X?

I was helping out someone with a crashy Office 2004 and it occurred to me that the software was not designed for his Mac. It was designed to run on PPC and OS 9. So it's no wonder that it's crashy. And I guess we may have a reason to drop #7k on an upgrade if Office 2008 is built to run on Intel and OS X. If not, then I can't see much reason to upgrade.

[downunder]

Save your money... OpenOffice (Mac Native) is coming soon.

[brettburk]

folklore - there has been a patch for Office 2004 so that it can convert docx documents (excel as well) for quite some time. It is a simple download from the MS page. I'm stuck using Office for a while longer for work, not a huge MS fan, but this is one problem that they solved a while ago.

[folklore]

brettburk said:

folklore - there has been a patch for Office 2004 so that it can convert docx documents (excel as well) for quite some time. It is a simple download from the MS page. I'm stuck using Office for a while longer for work, not a huge MS fan, but this is one problem that they solved a while ago.

You're sorta right. But not really.

They have a converter here, but it's in beta and carries a rather dire warning about it possibly not being able to convert all Office XML data. It's a stand-alone app, not a "patch" for Office 2004.

Oh, and it expires December 31, 2007.

So, unless there's another patch that I'm unaware of - and if so please give me a link - they've offered a stand-alone app that "might not" be able to convert all documents that expires when Office 2008 comes out.

[folklore]

I have yet to find a Word alternative that can open complex documents well. I use tables, figures, graphics, footnotes, headers, footers, sections, tables of contents, etc. OpenOffice just isn't up to the task. Some days, Word 2004 isn't either.

And, even if I did find one that was 100% compatible, EndNote's cite while you write feature only works with Word. I've tried Word and EndNote alternatives, but none of them work as well. That's saying a lot, because I'm not terribly happy with Word/EndNote.

For casual documents, however, OpenOffice is a great alternative. For most users, it works well. Now, if they could just get the Mac native version working, since NeoOffice is painfully slow...

[drygnfyre]

I used the 2008 beta, and it was very quick and stable for me. I'm looking forward to picking up the Home & Student Edition as soon as it becomes available.

I also wonder how quickly this will hit the BitTorrent scene.

[Guntis]

For scientific documents with lots of references, footnotes etc. Mellel would be much better tool... Have you tried it?