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| Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home & Student Edition | 
 enlarge | From: Microsoft Software
Category: Software
List Price: $149.95
Buy New: $99.95
You Save: $50.00 (33%)
New (44) Used (4) from $99.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  292 reviews
Sales Rank: 2
Format: Dvd-rom
Platforms: Macintosh, Mac Os X
Media: DVD-ROM
Edition: Home & Student
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 87.6 x 64.8 x 15.6
MPN: GZA00006
Model: GZA00006
UPC: 882224526302
EAN: 0882224526302
Release Date: January 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Macintosh IT Professional Grudgingly Admits this is a Decent MS Product. December 5, 2008
I had been needing a version of office for my home machine for some time and am glad I picked this up. I have tried the open source thing for a while with Open Office and also Google Docs, however there are some things neither of them seem to do (like format my Word document resume correctly.) My needs are not that great, I just need a basic word processor and Excel to lay out and edit MySQL databases at home so my needs are in line with this version of office.
I was a little leary of getting a limited feature version of Office, but I can't find anything about the Home/student version that limits me. Do be careful if you are power Excel user - some of the higher end scripting seems to be limited. The look of the interface seems a little more akin to an Adobe product than earlier version, with the floating menus, but I was able to locate the functions I was looking for quickly and intuitively.
I only have two issues with this version of office, Messenger on my mac has always had issues and since installing this version, it seems noticeably slower to log in. Second, I have some history with supporting Entourage and that has left me a little cold to that product so I don't expect to use it.
A pleasant surprise was to find out that the home/student version has three separate serial numbers so I can legally put it on two separate machines. Which is good because Word and Excel are still essential tools for my computing needs.
 Really great December 4, 2008
I read that this product wasn't worth the money, but I disagree!! I bought this because I have iwork and nothing formatted correctly to .docx or.ppt the right way for school and I was frustrated. This product is so much better than iwork and easier to use than regular office for windows. Great graphics and fonts too.
Good features, seems unstable December 4, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Unlike a lot of people, I've always been an admirer of Microsoft products. Granted, they tend to be expensive, overpriced even, but they typically do what they're intended to do with a fair amount of ease. The 2008 version of Office for Mac is more of the same -- the familiar suite of office programs with some spiffed up new features -- only it suffers from the problem that causes many users to loathe Microsoft: instability. The program is generally reliable, but it still had enough problems, including an overall slowness, to be frustrating for me. I like the features, like the ease of use. But overall I kept wishing that the platform was just a little more stable.
Upgrading on an old machine December 4, 2008
I installed Office 2008 on my 1.25GHz G4 iMac, running System 10.4.11 . Since many other reviewers have discussed the features of each Office application thoroughly, I am focusing this review on my experience of upgrading from Office v.X to Office 2008 on a PowerPC iMac.
Background:
*I have experience with several versions of Mac Office, beginning with version 4.2 . I also have used Office 98, Office 2001, and as mentioned above, Office v.X before upgrading to Office 2008.
*The way I use Office has changed over time. I made extensive use of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in graduate school and in various professional settings through Office 2001. Now I mostly use Excel to do basic financial analysis and Word to write personal documents.
Installation:
*Installation is straightforward, using Apple's familiar Installer mechanism. I prefer this method to the old drag-and-drop installation method because OS X is so sensitive to where things are installed.
*The installer program automatically finds older versions of Office and allows users to delete them easily.
*Many customized settings can be transferred from previous Office installations, including dictionaries, autocorrect lists, and proofing tool settings.
*Once Office 2008 is installed, several updates must be downloaded and installed. Microsoft should have made this process more user-friendly. Users must manually shut down other applications, including the Office 2008 Installer, before running the update installer.
Pros:
*Office is now a Universal Binary so the same program will run on both PowerPC and Intel Macs.
*The Home & Student Edition provides three user licenses. This is great for families or households with multiple computers.
*An Uninstaller is placed in the Office folder automatically.
*Office will check for updates automatically on a schedule chosen by the user. No more messing around on the Microsoft website, hoping you didn't miss a Service Pack or Critical Update.
*Users can now turn the feedback sounds on and off. If hearing a chime, a popping bubble, or some other "cute" noise every time you did something drove you crazy, you will greatly appreciate this long overdue feature.
*Speaking of unnecessary cuteness, Clippy the Paperclip is gone! Yesssssss!
Cons:
*All the applications startup and quit slowly on a G4 machine. Office v.X applications started and quit virtually instantaneously (yes, I realize v.X was written specifically for PowerPC processors). Saving files is slow as well.
*Office 2008 uses a new file format that is not compatible with other versions of Office. If you send documents to people who are not fully up to date, you have to save a second version or limit yourself to working with the older file format.
*It's good that Microsoft no longer just ports Windows Office to the Mac. Nonetheless, there are user interface inconsistencies both within and across the applications which keep Office from feeling 100% Macintosh.
*Silverlight, Microsoft's attempt to compete with Macromedia Flash, is installed by default.
*No macros in Excel! Bad, bad, bad move. And no support for Visual Basic.
Bottom line: Office 2008 doesn't hold any surprises for experienced Office users. For the most part, everything still operates in the way to which you are accustomed. If you own a PowerPC Mac and use an older version of Office, you should carefully consider whether you want to upgrade or not. The benefits of the new features may be outweighed by the inconvenience of the slower performance and/or the need to adjust your workflow.
3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 due to the removal of macros and Visual Basic from Excel.
Sufficient for my basic usage of Office December 3, 2008
Before I received this product I was running Microsoft Office v. X for Mac Students and Teachers Edition on my home PowerBook laptop (which I have been using since it was released) and using Microsoft Office 2007 at work. I was pretty satisifed using Office X at home. However, I became frustrated when I started using Office 2007 at work because most files are automatically saved in the XML format making me unable to open them in Office X. Yes someone can save them in the old format before sending them to me, but I've noticed that some content does not show up at all and instead appears as a box with an x through it on my screen and other content can be seen but not edited. Overall this is a big problem for me since I would prefer to do work at home without always having to lug my work laptop back and forth. Microsoft has released a free reader to access these files, which would remedy the problem somewhat, but it is only available for Windows.
Because PowerPoint decks, for better or worse, are a big part of my job, this was something causing major aggrevation. Because of that, the ability to open and save files in XML format has been a big plus for me. It has greatly reduced the hassle of sharing files back and forth with co-workers and clients. From a high level perspective I agree with users that this is not a major overhaul, although it does provide some additional features and benefits, and those who are expecting much will probably be disapointed.
The positives:
-As already mentioned, compatability with XML.
-New PowerPoint features like SmartArt, a very easy way to organize information visually. This was especially appealing to me because I have found myself using SmartArt a lot on my Windows machine.
-Sleek interface that seems more consistent with the current look and feel of the Mac operating system.
-Interesting Word templates for things like posters, newsletters, or more that are pretty plug and play -- This is more of a 'nice to have' than a 'need to have' though as at this point in time I don't seem myself actually taking advantage of these templates.
The negatives:
-As others have mentioned certain features and functions being omitted like Visual Basic support. If there are specific features of Office that are integral to its usefulness for you I would read up before purchasing to see if they are still included. My use of Office is pretty basic so overall this hasn't affected the usefulness of office for me.
-You no longer have the ability to drag and drop images from the web into PowerPoint. This is actually the most frustrating change to Office for me because I frequently use images from the web in creating my presentations. Oddly enough it still works in Word so I am not sure why this feature is not available in PowerPoint.
-Program start up is surprisingly slower than Office X. This really surprised me. The programs seem to take a long time to start up and slow down other programs I have open (usually Safari).
Overall my experience has been positive, with the exception of the elimination of dragging and dropping photos in PowerPoint. However, as I have mentioned earlier in my review my primary interest in this program was in XML compatibility so if this is less of an issue to you or if you take advantage of some of the richer features of Office you may be disapointed.
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