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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: 155
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:
 It works but it's nothing to write home about November 26, 2008
I have two Macs, one big one, one laptop. I've been using Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac for several years. Anything I had an inkling to do or create in the Office suite, I could pretty much do.
I'm not someone who uses all the features of every application. I do the basic stuff, sometimes throwing in a little extra something when using Powerpoint, but that's about it. I use Word to create text docs, Excel for financial worksheets and charts for presentations, Powerpoint for presentations, and Entourage for email and small project management.
I've never been a fan of the interface Microsoft uses for their Office apps. Maybe they're to "Windows-ish" for me but they never seemed up-to-date enough.
Good news: the interface has been gussied up in Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac.
Bad news: that's about all that's been improved - at least from what I've been able to tell so far
I also had some trouble installing on both computers and like another reviewer was annoyed that it automatically added icons to my desktop. It took two tries to get the apps fully installed but they launched fine after that.
My favorite changes are that you can send documents within a word doc, and the updates to Messenger I can see being useful but I haven't really used it yet.
I'll update more as I use all the apps more heavily. But for now, if you're using Office 2004 for Mac, it's not worth changing to 2008 at this point.
 This software seems more like a test trail then a ended Product.. November 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Pros
1) ummm.......Looks nice
Cons : Pretty much what has been said before
1) NO ENDNOTE SUPPORT (and in the absence of VBA, likely never to get endnote support in the near future)
2) Very slow in start-up!
3) Pricey, very pricey for what you get
The only solution for academic users I suggest is to install and use "Bookends" by Sonny software, which they have had to use a scripts workaround to work with office 2008, but AT LEAST IT WORKS! (I've found bookends to be superior to endnote anyways)
In summary, $400US for a facelift is a bit pricey...
I think it is time for both Apple and Microsoft to get back to basics and address flaws in their software: pre-Intel the situation was far superior.
Very slow, but with nice features November 26, 2008
Well, it's not without its issues, but for me this upgrade hasn't been as horrific as others state. I didn't install Entourage as I have always disliked it, but as for the rest, the menus all definitely look nicer and glossier, closer to the "Aero" look of Vista and I would even say, similar to iWork's Pages, a big compliment. Some good things: PowerPoint's layout now seems to include a Slides pane, which I never saw in Office 2004; in 04' I also couldn't drag up and down fast in Excel without the dragging continuing even after I let go of the mouse, a huge bug now finally fixed. Word looks and feels great, just like before. All programs now seem to have a pull down sub-Menu with things like SmartGraphics, WordArt, Charts and Templates, which is a nice addition.
As for the pretty bad: so slooow! On my MacBook Pro it can take up to 30 seconds for Word to even open after double-clicking (the others maybe 15-20 seconds). Mac programs for me have always been slower to open than their Windows counterparts, but this is a bit much. Also, every once in a while, typing kind of drags behind and has to "catch up" with the word. Very annoying.
Overall though, a number of nice layout, features and aesthetic improvements makes this upgrade worthwhile.
 Longtime Office fan November 25, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I've used a number of versions of Microsoft Office on my Macs over the years, and I can't imagine life without it! The installation was a piece of cake, and the programs run smoothly.
Sure, there are a hundred features I'll never use, but Entourage is open on my laptop all day, every day. It syncs perfectly with my iPhone calendar and contacts, and manages my email elegantly. I use the calendar daily. I've never understood the appeal of Apple's separate calendar/email/address book, when Entourage integrates all three so perfectly.
Microsoft Word and Excel are the same applications I've come to rely on over the past versions and years (again, with a hundred new features I'll never need in my current work).
And of course, everything integrates perfectly with PC colleagues. What's not to love?
Unless you have a good reason... November 21, 2008
This new release suffers from three main issues:
1) Speed.
2) Speed.
It's dreadfully slow. A coworker and I are running the NEW MacBook Pro high end (2.53GHz) laptops, machines released just a few weeks ago and Office 2008 is quite slow. We both figured that after upgrading our old MBPs, the speed wouldn't be an issue though to quote, "It's amazing how slow Office 2008 is, even on the new MBPs".
3) Usability compared to its Windows counterpart.
Mac Office apps don't make use of the toolbar the way their windows counterparts do. Instead, there is a "collapsed" view of all of various toolbars and it's quite difficult finding even the most simple controls - difficult enough that I'd rather run Parallels or Fusion and just run Office 2007 for Windows inside of the virtual machine on Windows XP.
Summary
While the last Mac release is pretty ancient, Microsoft has done a good job of keeping it up to date with security patches, etc. It's for this reason that I suggest you either stay with Office 2004 Mac or just make the switch to Apple's iWork suite.
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