Microsoft whips out Office 2008 patch for Mac lovers Microsoft has hastily applied a fix to the Mac version of Office 2008, after the software giant introduced a glitch in the Open XML format when it released Service Pack 2 for the suite. The company noted yesterday that the 12.2.1 patch would get rid of error messages that some Mac users were faced with when trying to open …
"The firm will be hoping this fix draws a line under any festering trust issues Mac lovers may have - well, for now at least."
Not bloody likely! Worst waste of money I have spent on software. It is atrocious compared to its Windows cousin. Options missing from the Windows version, bugs. Almost like MS want you to buy a Windows license and Windows software!
Better off with OpenOffice, NeoOffice, iWork, well basically anything other MS pile of poop!
For 90% of the work I/most people do, Iworks is:
- faster
- cheaper
- less of a memory/CPU hog
- easier to use
- more stable
- better looking (powerpoint vs Presentations)
Having said that...I still prefer Excel over Spreadsheets any day of the week.
Call it a 2-1 victory for iworks.
Aside from VisualBasic what options are missing that are on the Windows version?
Performance wise, Word is slow, but other then that and missing VisualBasic support it's been a pretty decent package. And they finally added custom motion path support in PowerPoint with the last update, which was the last missing feature I knew about.
I've tried to like Office:Mac 2004 and 2008, but as I've gotten better and faster Macs, Office still behaves like I'm running on ancient legacy hardware. Even on a C2D, Entourage feels just as clumsy as it did on a G4.
I too have migrated to iWork for native Mac productivity, and use Office 2003 on WinXP in VirtualBox whenever I need some real Access and Excel goodness.
Straightforward non processor hogging, no bloat & a pleasure to use & dosnt piss me off on a regular basis.
As for Orifice, the 2000/2003 versions much better, what makes me laugh is the PC users who dont have Microsofts latest bulge & cant open docx files (without a viewer), where as my Mac reads them fine & offers a selection to load the format
I just cant think of any reason why MS dreamt up this broken xml format other than to make Mac users look & feel smug.
The term Richard Cranium or Dickheads springs to mind.
@ iwork FTW (...just)!
For someone who favours iWorks you could at least get the name of the apps correct, the presentation software is called Keynote, the spreadsheet is Numbers.
@ N2
Windows Office users can open and edit Docx files in older versions with the compatibility pack. Apple users don't need Microsoft to make them smug most of them are smug gits already, at least the vocal ones.
Office 2008 for Mac is plain atrocious.
I had a presentation sent to me by work, which had been made on a windows version of office. When opening it in Office 2008 for Mac, the Layout and formatting were obviously wrong (I had already seen it running on a windows machine).
I then opened the same presentation in iWork and Open Office and it displayed perfectly.
So, non-Microsoft Office programs can open Microsoft Office created documents better.
Pathetic.
Try it yourself. Create a simple document in Office 2008 for Mac, then open it in Office for Windows and vice versa.
The vast majority of the time they will not display the same. That is unforgivable, particularly when iWork and Open Office get it right.
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