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| Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac | 
 enlarge | From: Microsoft Software
Category: Software
List Price: $399.95
Buy New: $125.00
You Save: $274.95 (69%)
New (50) Used (8) from $125.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  75 reviews
Sales Rank: 157
Format: Dvd-rom
Platforms: Macintosh, Mac Os X
Media: DVD-ROM
Edition: Standard
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0.1 x 0
MPN: 73101727
Model: 73101727
UPC: 605433009974
EAN: 0605433009974
Release Date: January 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Word Alone Makes this Suite a Good Deal December 10, 2008
I was pretty pleased when Office 2008 came out, because I use both Macs and PCs and I use and like Office 2007 for Windows very much. I thought the interfaces would be exactly the same, so that I'd have a seemless experience, but they are not. That's not to say that I don't like the 2008 interface, just that it's not the same as the 2007 one. I like the look and feel of 2007, but I have to admit that Microsoft has put a Mac like look and feel to this product.
Also, after using it for a few weeks now, I have to say that Word is still the king of the hill when it comes to Word Processing for the Mac. I've used Pages, Nisus and Mellel and Word does it all, though it does take a couple minutes to load after I start it up. I suppose that's because I have tons of fonts loaded. Still, I use them, so I don't mind the wait, because I've yet to have the program crash on me, so I leave it open all the time.
I can't comment on the other features of this suite, because I never use them, not ever, don't even have them in my dock. Word alone makes this suite a good deal, the rest is just a bonus.
Everything is Good December 9, 2008
A lot reviews that I see in software magazines start out by listing the good, then the bad parts about a program or an upgrade. I could do that here, but so far, and I'm a month or so into the program, I haven't discovered the bad. The program installed without a hitch on my G4 last generation PowerBook and likewise on my Intel iMac.
I can't compare Office 2008 to prior versions on the Mac because until now, I've been using a program called Nisus Writer which I've been using for years and years. It's a very nice program and does everything you'd want a word processor to do. Well, not quite everything. It's supposed to be able to open Word docs, and it does, but the headers and footers come out all messed up.
Not so with this program (be sure to set the prefs to save in doc format). With Word in Office 2008 I can view all the docs I get as attachments as they were meant to be seen. Also, I've been working almost exclusively with Word since I installed it on my machines to see how it compares with both Nisus and with Word 2007, which I have on my iMac running on
Windows in emulation via fusion.
I like the new interface. I like the easy of use, of course I'm not a novice. Just the fact that Microsoft put so much time and effort into this program makes me feel that the Mac is going to be around for a long time to come. After all, If Microsoft believes in the Mac, then it's bound to survive.
An Essential Program for Any Mac User December 9, 2008
My only experience with Excel is a spreadsheet of books that I use and update once a week, other than that I don't ever use it. After installing Office 2008 for the Mac, the first thing I did was click on my book spreadsheet and it opened without a hitch and I was able to update it without problem, so I'm satisfied with that.
But Word is where this upgrade really shines. I don't think I'll ever used Adobe InDesign again, I can do everything I used to struggle with with that program in Word now, without much effort and that's pretty darned nice. It's so easy because of the templates you get with the program, but you can make your own with hardly any page layout or design experience. I read somewhere that the page layout features in Word should be all an amateur would ever need. Well I think my output looks pretty darned professional.
In my opinion this is an essential program for any Mac user.
 It's Much More Mac Like... December 9, 2008
I represent one category of Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 user that has a somewhat biased perspective of the product, predominantly because my office environment now makes me to work in the world of Windows XP and Office 2003. But my introduction to computers was on a Macintosh with ClarisWorks and I endured the cross-platform compatibility questions about Office from the beginning.
The transition to Mac OS X and Office v.X was a major upgrade in 2001 for the Mac users and ClarisWorks, now called AppleWorks and still a familiar alternative to the Microsoft Office Suite. However, as the desktops evolved, the realities for users of both platforms became increasingly clear. Office was the business standard and it had to be given serious consideration on the Mac as well in a rapidly growing workplace. Even though Apple had begun dallying with its Pages and Keynote applications, it didn't negate the need for compatibility and business workplace standards and Redmond was committed to the continued support the Mac market with its Office 2004 suite, attempting to put more of a Mac face on the de facto Word, Excel and PowerPoint standards of Office 2003 for Windows
In truth, my workhorse of the Office suite is Word, which can provide me the tools to do just about anything I want to as a writer and give me total compatibility with the Office for Windows 2007. And it appears that this current suite of apps has taken some pointers from the Mac world and that Microsoft has put together their most useful package yet of integrated Macintosh software, reducing the clutter and palettes and streamlining the menu bars. Since I've still been using my iMac G5 at home and haven't switched to the Intel platform yet, I hadn't suffered the indignities of emulated performance that has troubled some and it's good that it's now a thing of the past. I am glad that Microsoft is continuing to offer this product, with its increasing Mac flavor, to a broad business community. It is still a very modern and complete package.
Bob Magnant is the author of The Last Transition... - a fact-based novel about Iran, Iraq and the Middle East...
 Not bad, but depends on your needs December 7, 2008
I use MS Office 2007 daily, although I am by no means a power user. I'll occasionally use slightly more advanced features like pivot tables and mail merge, but that's about as far as I take it. I mainly use Outlook and Excel daily. When I purchased my first Mac (for home) earlier this year, I initially wanted Office 2008. However, after seeing a demonstration of iWork in the Apple store and noticing the pricing difference, I decided to go the iWork route. It's a nice program, but I still use my Windows PC for 99% of office work because I'm just so familiar with Office on PC (although the radical changes to the interface of Office 2007 from 2003 took a LOT of getting used to as well). Also, I really wasn't in the mood to learn the unfamiliar iWork interface (too busy, and the guy in the store made it seem so much more intuitive). I recently got the chance to try Office 2008 for Mac. I'll admit, I'd reconsidered Office 2008 a few times after purchasing iWork, just to simplify things on the Mac and keep my office apps consistent. However, when I investigated Office 2008 further, I noticed it received horrible reviews everywhere. People were complaining about everything from frequent application crashes to complete "BBOD" (Beach Ball of Death. Apple's version of the infamous MS BSOD. Yes, it happens to Mac too, although not nearly as frequently as PC). When I received the software, I seriously debated if I wanted to install it on my iMac. I took the plunge. I just assured myself that I would install any available service packs and updates prior to using. If I encountered any major problems at all, I'd uninstall faster than the speed of light. Installation was fairly fast and simple. Afterwards, I elected to immediately check for downloads. It offered to download SP1 (great!) which I accepted. It then gave a weird error message about not being able to recognize a file (uh-oh). After clicking "Continue", the update continued and completed within a few minutes. This leads to my biggest gripe so far, the update system. The PC version checks your computer and gives you a nice long list of updates that can all be downloaded and installed together, unless they conflict. The Mac version downloads each update individually and each one required several clicks, selection of target, had me keep typing in my admin password, download, install, re-check, and start all over again for any remaining updates. Mercifully, I only had four updates. Imagine if there are a dozen or more! After my updates completed, I fired up Word first. I'd read several reports of it taking forever to open. Not so for me. It opened quickly (just as fast, or faster, than its 07 counterpart), and was ready to go. I then typed several documents, used some templates, used some of the features like themes, and pretty much re-created my typical home usage. Creating, saving, printing, and exiting in word were all problem free. I even opened documents created in Word 2007 with no problems. I then tried Excel and PowerPoint. Same thing. No lag, no noticeable performance hit, no problems. The interface is once again, dramatically different, but the flow is easy to get accustomed to and not as cryptic as 2007 initially was. I'm not crazy about yet another new interface to learn for the same program, however, I'm willing to take the dive this time since I know I use office for more than home and never know when I might need to defer to my Mac in a pinch for an important document. I don't want to be forced to rely on supposed compatibility at a time like that. I can definitely understand why a lot of power users would be upset at the missing features of 2008 like VB support. It also doesn't seem as polished and well integrated as Office on PC. The whole update thing for example...
Home users who must have Office or are more comfortable with it, should like it. However, for the money, I don't see a world of difference from iWork for casual use. I really don't know what to say to power users other than the issues with this app are already VERY well documented. There were a lot of performance complaints as well for this suite, however, so far, it is working OK for me. I will admit, it seems to gobble up WAY more memory than the other apps (just to give you an idea, Activity Monitor reports the following memory usage with the following open apps: Safari: 49MB, iTunes: 58MB, and Word: 167MB. These are all simply open with no active documents,web pages, or music). Maybe sufficient RAM should be in order before taking the leap. I have 4GB on a newer dual-core Intel Mac.
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