|
| 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 (42) Used (3) from $99.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  320 reviews
Sales Rank: 6
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): 0.1 x 0.1 x 0
MPN: GZA00006
Model: GZA00006
UPC: 882224526302
EAN: 0882224526302
Release Date: January 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Good for new users, but only upgrade if you're on an Intel Mac. December 19, 2008
Office 2008 for Mac Home & Student edition comes with everything that 99% of home users will need. It includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Entourage, and Messenger for Mac.
I was using Office 2004 Student & Teacher edition and had no problems with it until I switched from a PowerPC based Mac to an Intel based Mac. Since the 2004 version is not Universal it runs under Rosetta. It seemed to run well, but sometimes it crashed when starting and acted finicky, like it's on the verge of crashing. That is pretty much the only reason to upgrade from a previous version of Office Mac. I notice that it runs and opens much more solidly, and, when scrolling through documents with the Mighty Mouse it is much, much smoother. Other than that I don't notice much of a difference between the 2004 version and the 2008 version. Cosmetically the programs are a little different, and some things have been moved around, but it's not a huge upgrade, and I did not find any standout new features. The only thing worth mentioning is an "Add Worksheet" button in Excel that I find helpful.
If this is your first Office Mac purchase, and you're not a power user, it's a great suite. Word has all the features I need for home and office usage. I mainly send order acknowledgements with it while I'm at work, and write letters and print labels and envelopes while I'm home. I use the mail merge feature a lot, and it works well. Excel is a powerful spreadsheet program, and I barely use it to its full potential. I create my home budget on it and create lists while at work. Entourage is like Outlook for Macs. It is an e-mail, address book, calendar, and to-do program (a life organizer). I used to use Entourage, and while it's a good program, I now prefer to use iCal and Apple's Address Book and Mail programs. I feel that Apple's versions are much more streamlined. PowerPoint is a presentation program. I've never used PowerPoint, so I can't comment on that, sorry. Messenger is an instant messaging program, and really does not need to be included. The version on the disc is old, and it's available online for free.
Now for the problems.... 1) If you have a lot of fonts on your Mac (my work computer has 546), and use a font management program (I use FontAgent) it takes forever (2 minutes) for any of the office programs to open when you first turn on your computer. At home, I have a more modest number of fonts and don't have a font manager and it opens in 25 seconds. 2) It automatically installs icons for all the applications on the dock and there is no option during install to change this behavior. It's a minor point, but it's annoying. 3) Updates, updates, updates... it's almost as bad as iTunes. Since installing it a month ago I've had about 5 updates some of which were over 100 MB. 4) The extension for a Word document is now. docx so all your old Word documents have to be saved in the new format or they run in "compatibility mode" which caused some of my old documents to not be formatted correctly.
All in all... If you're new to Macs, or Office for Mac, it's a good purchase. If you own an older version of Office Mac, and you're running it on a PowerPC Mac, don't bother.
Works ok, but new look is hard to navigate December 18, 2008
Unless you really had a specific problem using the older version, I would probably recommend sticking with it. While things have been reorganized (sometimes better) and potentially some bug fixes (though also new ones) ... I just find that the entire picture/pretty approach to navigation is really hard to use. These programs (word and excel especially) have a vast set of complex features ... arranging them to that the user can "progressively discover" the more complex features is fine ... but this whole "dumbed down" approach that has been taken with the new version, for me at least, just makes it really hard to understand how to find anything.
You've been warned... December 18, 2008
Having been a PC user my entire life AND to top it all of being used to the older versions of office, I cannot reccomend this product. I won't go into the PC vs. Mac debate here, and will simply tell you that this program is not as user friendly to those folks who are used to the older office programs. Microsoft has tried to dumb down virtually every aspect of the menu in every one of its 2008 programs (word, excel, etc). This may be great for kids just starting to use these programs, but for professionals looking for absolute clarity, precision, and control (especially in programs like Excel) they are bound to be dissapointed with the new "fluffy" and "pretty" interface!!! Whereas previous versions had drop down menus with clear destinations marked with words, everything now has become a picture, and you're left guessing as to what that picture now means. Give me a break! Write down what the function does instead of creating a pretty picture!!! Again, useless professionaly. However since this is a "student" edition, I did give it 3 stars since it certainly is much easier for kids to use due to the graphics and the fact that there's MUCH less control over the functionality of each program, reducing it to the basics and fundamentals of what a regular student may need (how many will use macros, right?).
If you are buying this for kids: great program. If you're buying it for home use and are used to the old office programs, I beg you, please go to microsoft's website and look up this program, they will show you screen shots of what it looks like. If the simplicity of it appeals to you buy it, but be warned that if you require quick access to more complex material associated with each program (I stress Excel here more than anything), you will have LOTS of issues trying to find all the menus and control functions that were easily accessed in previous versions.
Good Deal if You Don't Need Outlook December 18, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This version of Office contains Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Entourage 2008 and Microsoft Messenger. The notable omission from this product is Outlook. While Entourage is a good email program, it has limited functionality when connecting to a Microsoft Exchange mail server. Exchange is a very common mail server for businesses. The amount of features available depends on the version of Exchange your company is running. Since Outlook has full functionality with any Exchange server, if you are going to take your Mac to work, you should consider a version of Office with Outlook.
On the plus side, Microsoft gives you 3 licenses with this product. Included are 3 serial numbers that you can use on 3 different computers. You get full versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint... the corporate standards for word processing, spreadsheets, and graphic presentations. The new 2008 versions of these programs contain a lot of new features (too many to list here, you can go to Microsoft's website and search for Office 2008 for a list). Installation is easy. Office runs fast and seems to be bug free. If you don't need the extra programs that come in the other versions of Office (Outlook, Access, etc), this version is a very good deal.
 Office Mac Software December 17, 2008
Purchased this product last month and have had no problems with it. Used Powerpoint for a presentation at work and there were no gliches in pulling it up via PC. Overall a good purchase
|
|
|
| |