| Office 2008 for Mac, Home and Student Edition (Mac) | 
 enlarge | From: Microsoft
Category: Software
List Price: £104.71
Buy New: £73.96
You Save: £30.75 (29%)
New (17) from £73.96
Avg. Customer Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 12
Format: Dvd-rom
Platforms: Macintosh, Mac Os X
Media: DVD-ROM
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
ASIN: B000X86ZAS
Release Date: January 16, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW - SEALED
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Disgraceful April 20, 2008
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Had to buy Office 2008 to go with my new Mac. Downloaded the so-called patch immediately (which, in fact, seems to be a whole new version, not a mere patch). I only use it for Word and it worked fine for a couple of days, but has now started to develop all kinds of problems. It crashes about once every hour. If I try to prevent the loss of text by exiting the programme at certain intervals, thus permanently saving my file, I find that I cannot close down the programme - the moment I try it becomes "unresponsive" and I have to use "force quit". Even when actually working, Word's spell and grammar checker will suddely develop an "unexpected error" whenever I try to add something to it.
Somewhat stranger is the fact that I find "Entourage temp" folders in my trash every time Word crashes, even though I do not use Entourage and haven't even opened the programme once.
I have no alternative to using Word and it is because of all the reported problems with the newer versions that I held on to my classic Mac for so long. I had to switch to OSX, a switch long overdue, but Word 2008 pretty much spoils everything. Microsoft has become a disgrace - with its own software and especially with the software it supplies for Apple.
Big downgrade to Word April 20, 2008
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
I have used all versions of MS Word on the Macintosh and most on Windoze. This is the first time that I have felt that I have downgraded - a large number of features have been ripped out of Word in this package.
It's still a good wordprocessor, and Entourage provides an alternative to Apple's Mail, but if you've got Word 2004 do not buy this. It's a miserable experience.
 No problems so far April 10, 2008
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Super package - nothing unusual and some good improvements from the 2004 version.
I've upgraded from the 2004 version recently, with no problems. It's worth running an update though as it might be that the source of troubles mentioned have now been rectified.
I'm running a MacBook Pro purchased in late '07, OSX Leopard.
 Bit of a disappointment March 17, 2008
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
Having used office 2008 for a month or so, I must admit to being a bit underwhelmed. Its been a long time since the last release of MS office and the 2004 version was starting to look old. This version has been given a facelift and now runs natively on an intel mac but... thats about it. Whilst the apps themselves are superb, they haven't changed dramatically in years and it would have been nice to see some genuine innovation from Microsoft here. Look at applications like Scrivener for word processing and Apple's own Numbers spreadsheet and you'll see some compelling ways of doing things which show some real insight into how people work. After 4 years, I would have hoped that Office would see some similar innovations but as far as I can tell, this version mainly offers cosmetic changes. I know they had to port their codebase from Codewarrior to Xcode but surely they had time to come up with something better than this?
Another concern is that the Windows and Mac versions are diverging in terms of both interface and functionality. This version has an interface which has more in common with Office 2004 than with Office 2007 and does not use the "ribbon" toolbar of the latter. Also, the omission of VBA scripting in this version is unforgivable.
In terms of speed, I was expecting a speed boost now that the suite is not running under Rosetta on my Macbook. As far as I can see, things run at pretty much the same speed and all the individual apps take quite a while to open. I've also experienced frequent crashes, particularly in Word and Excel.
Overall, despite the above criticisms, the individual applications are all excellent but for the average home user, much of the functionality of Office 2008 is superfluous and there are cheaper alternatives available
The good: Looks nice, universal binary
The bad: No obvious speed boost, frequent crashes, lack of VBA scripting, different interface to Office 2007, elements gallery can't be disabled and uses a lot of vertical screen space, brings nothing new to the table, poor value compared to Windows version which includes VBA scripting and MS access for a lower price.
 Many interesting features, nice design, not stable March 14, 2008
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Office 2008 was at first a very pleasant surprise. As opposed to its PC counterpart (Office 2007) it has a much better interface allowing one to be more efficient. Another pleasant surprise was that some shortcomings of Powerpoint 2004 were now solved. At first... after having worked with it for a longer period of time, I have identified many problems with the performance of the system. I have experienced many crashes (especially when changing the layout of pictures I feel like I need to be extra careful) and the saving of the documents takes longer than before. In addition in expose, the names of the files do not appear when you move your cursor over the file, thus making navigation between different documents not really straightforward. In general, I think that the software has many features, but a service-pack is needed urgently in order to make things work better and become more stable.
|
|
|
