There ’s no better mansion of Microsoft ’s increasing acceptance of the Mac population than the recent reading of Office for Mac 2008 , the first Office with native support for Intel - ground Macs . Like its Mac - side forerunner , this Office has its own interface and tools , many of which are n’t regain on the microcomputer . But whatever you use to create your PowerPoint presentment or Word doc , it will be 100 % compatible with the 2007 PC Office variant . We ’ve lie with it was coming for a while but now it ’s officially en route , hitting most retail outfits on January 15th at three key terms start out at $ 400 for suits and $ 150 for scholarly person and dwelling use . We ’ve been dally with the beta for a few weeks , too , and so far it ’s a legato ride .
All editions include Word , Excel , PowerPoint and Entourage . The $ 400 “ stock ” variant also has Microsoft Server Exchange keep and Automator actions . The $ 500 Special Media edition has all of that plus Microsoft Expression Media , formerly iView , a program for handle and march Brobdingnagian batches of 100 different media types .
If you ’re a tightwad with a conscience like me , though , you ’ll be happy to hear that the former “ Students and Teachers ” edition has been renamed “ Home and Student ” edition . That intend you could pay just the $ 150 for the four key programme without making up some excuse that you ’re run back to school for some sort of “ grownup pedagogy . ”
The large advantage of the new Office is that it die hard gravid on the MacBook Pro . After experiencing some crashiness with the old Microsoft Word , I decided to make iWork my default countersign mainframe , but compatibility still takes an redundant step ( you have to Export to Word ) . My wife is an Office for Mac old hand , and while she has n’t experienced too many stableness issues with Word , she finds imbalance when work in the honest-to-god PowerPoint , especially with Excel data point . She ’s attached to Office for the long haul , never gon na concern iWork , and I like Office features , like that blessed elan paintbrush , which come in ready to hand when you ’re doing a good deal of cut - and - library paste . So in my theatre , a young Office arrival is dear news indeed . uncalled-for to say , this Office cortege , even in beta , has been gracious and static to date .
My favorite unexampled feature , one of those Mac - only treat , is My Day , which goes with cortege but is a loose - blow purple - blue standalone app . It is what it sounds like , a little calendar that show you what ’s on tap . But you may sum up To - Do ’s direct to it , and fit them off as you go through your sidereal day , almost like it was scratch paper . I can utilize all the to - do I can get , and this has been a big help .
I have to say that when Office 2007 for Windows fall out last year , I was a petty miff by the tab interface . I was glad to see that Office 2008 for Mac does n’t follow suit . As you may see from the Word screenshot above , you still have all the familiar ways of regain things , as well as Modern animated tabs for adding graphics , tables and all sorts of other poppycock .
PowerPoint user like my wife will be glad about compatibility with Apple Remote and a “ send to iPhoto ” feature that save slideshows direct to iPhoto for auto - syncing with an iPod .
stand out nerds get their patience honor with more than 1 million rows and 16,000 column , adequate to that of Windows Office 2007 . Also , there ’s a new Formula Builder for people like me who need a little help inserting calculators and hooey . ( Usually I just call my married woman , who ’s a full Excel freak . )
As one of the last survive mankind who uses Hotmail , I was happy to see that the novel Messenger for Mac 6 was desegregate into the cortege . I do n’t practice the courier ( the Mac variant does n’t really jam much in the way of multimedia electronic messaging ) but I wish have the rapid - fire Modern - mail notifications .
I wish well I could say the same for Hotmail support in Entourage . It ’s lamentable , but when I loaded up my account information , it downloaded 474 of my oldest emails and refused to go any further , leave something like 30,000 messages stranded on the server . I inquired about this , as part of my readiness for the newfangled Office was having a pleasant way to manage Hotmail on the Mac . All I get was the cold hard fact that nobody in Redmond cares about Hotmail any longer . The official parole : “ Improved Hotmail functionality in Entourage was not a principal focus for the newfangled version . ” Do n’t worry , Hotmail team — wherever you are in that nest of cubicles , evoke off a flair and we ’ll send someone to deliver you .
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