your experiences with MS office on Mac vs PC

[bitt3n]

I'm thinking of switching to a mac, and I am wondering if anyone with experience using MS office on both platforms has suggestions on whether this is a good idea. Is the mac version of office as good as the PC version? are there any issues that I should worry about that might make me regret switching? thanks!

 

[Kaido]

The new 2008 version is pretty nice, but I still prefer Office XP on Windows, so I use either VMware or CrossOver. Personal preference.

 

[Illusio]

It's not as smooth as on windows.

 

[Kmax82]

I would recommend using our existing copy of Office and grab the $40 version of Crossover 7 Pro. It runs Office XP/2003 extremely well. That's what I use because it's faster than 2008 on OS X, and it's more familiar to me.

 

[TheBiggmann]

Originally posted by: Dark Jedi
It's not as smooth as on windows.

Agreed. It's nowhere near as smooth as windows. It's not bad, but it is slightly more difficult to use. I have no compatibility issues going back and forth from word 2008 on my mac to, I believe, Word 2003 at school. But within the program it's a little less user friendly. I'm thinking of trying iWork, I hear that is pretty nice. A lot of people like Open Office as well. My mom has that on her laptop, but I personally haven't tried it.

 

[mmntech]

Originally posted by: TheBiggmann

Originally posted by: Dark Jedi
It's not as smooth as on windows.

Agreed. It's nowhere near as smooth as windows. It's not bad, but it is slightly more difficult to use. I have no compatibility issues going back and forth from word 2008 on my mac to, I believe, Word 2003 at school. But within the program it's a little less user friendly. I'm thinking of trying iWork, I hear that is pretty nice. A lot of people like Open Office as well. My mom has that on her laptop, but I personally haven't tried it.

I personally recommend OpenOffice, especially now that's it's native to OS X and doesn't need X11 anymore. NeoOffice was a good substitute but was slow as molasses. OO does most of what MS Office does and is pretty much 90% compatible with it and most other major office suites out there. OpenOffice 3.0 even supports the new .docx format. It's only really PowerPoint it struggles with if it includes MS specific animations, etc.

 

[randomlinh]

I hate Office on the mac... I just don't understand what they did w/ 2008... I actually like what they did w/ 2007, and figured that was what they were going to throw on the mac side... since my first reaction was 2007 was "that belongs on OS X."

but no, it's disjointed, I've never liked the floating palette, and not all the toolbars can be docked, and you can't quickly customize it IMO.

Crossover+2003 is what I'm thinking of doing now, but it breaks the smooth OS X look, heh. I found OO to be disappointingly slow.

iWork is awesome IMO... but where it fails is being able to work on stuff with other people. which is what I do far more of, so it's not a good solution.

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

I use Office 2007 in Crossover. No complaints yet.

 

[Parasitic]

Originally posted by: Kmax82
I would recommend using our existing copy of Office and grab the $40 version of Crossover 7 Pro. It runs Office XP/2003 extremely well. That's what I use because it's faster than 2008 on OS X, and it's more familiar to me.

How's Office 2007 through Crossover? I have Office 2008 and the rest of our lab run Office 2007 so I'd like to be consistent with file formats.

 

[Kmax82]

I haven't tested 2007 in Crossover, because I prefer 2003.. I'll try and install it and give you my opinion of it.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Parasitic

Originally posted by: Kmax82
I would recommend using our existing copy of Office and grab the $40 version of Crossover 7 Pro. It runs Office XP/2003 extremely well. That's what I use because it's faster than 2008 on OS X, and it's more familiar to me.

How's Office 2007 through Crossover? I have Office 2008 and the rest of our lab run Office 2007 so I'd like to be consistent with file formats.

it works. but i haven't done much other than simple docs and excel files (as in, basic functions, nothing fancy). I found it to load just as slow as 2008 on my imac.

On my hackintosh, 2003 is taking LONGER for some reason. I added 2 more cores and nearly tripled the ram vs my imac, haha *edit* figured it out... apparently FAH doesn't work at idle priority... it seems to only run at what looks like a bit over normal priority

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: mmntech

Originally posted by: TheBiggmann

Originally posted by: Dark Jedi
It's not as smooth as on windows.

Agreed. It's nowhere near as smooth as windows. It's not bad, but it is slightly more difficult to use. I have no compatibility issues going back and forth from word 2008 on my mac to, I believe, Word 2003 at school. But within the program it's a little less user friendly. I'm thinking of trying iWork, I hear that is pretty nice. A lot of people like Open Office as well. My mom has that on her laptop, but I personally haven't tried it.

I personally recommend OpenOffice, especially now that's it's native to OS X and doesn't need X11 anymore. NeoOffice was a good substitute but was slow as molasses. OO does most of what MS Office does and is pretty much 90% compatible with it and most other major office suites out there. OpenOffice 3.0 even supports the new .docx format. It's only really PowerPoint it struggles with if it includes MS specific animations, etc.

just dl'ed, pretty happy with it so far

free = win

 

[Parasitic]

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: Parasitic

Originally posted by: Kmax82
I would recommend using our existing copy of Office and grab the $40 version of Crossover 7 Pro. It runs Office XP/2003 extremely well. That's what I use because it's faster than 2008 on OS X, and it's more familiar to me.

How's Office 2007 through Crossover? I have Office 2008 and the rest of our lab run Office 2007 so I'd like to be consistent with file formats.

it works. but i haven't done much other than simple docs and excel files (as in, basic functions, nothing fancy). I found it to load just as slow as 2008 on my imac.

On my hackintosh, 2003 is taking LONGER for some reason. I added 2 more cores and nearly tripled the ram vs my imac, haha

In your situation, wouldn't it better to just run Office 2003 through a VM then?

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Parasitic

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: Parasitic

Originally posted by: Kmax82
I would recommend using our existing copy of Office and grab the $40 version of Crossover 7 Pro. It runs Office XP/2003 extremely well. That's what I use because it's faster than 2008 on OS X, and it's more familiar to me.

How's Office 2007 through Crossover? I have Office 2008 and the rest of our lab run Office 2007 so I'd like to be consistent with file formats.

it works. but i haven't done much other than simple docs and excel files (as in, basic functions, nothing fancy). I found it to load just as slow as 2008 on my imac.

On my hackintosh, 2003 is taking LONGER for some reason. I added 2 more cores and nearly tripled the ram vs my imac, haha

In your situation, wouldn't it better to just run Office 2003 through a VM then?

VM is still slower, I don't always have it running in the background (though, I could do that moreso now, I just feel it's wasteful). I figured out my speed issues tho, so 2003 is back to being speedier.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Originally posted by: Ns1

Originally posted by: mmntech

Originally posted by: TheBiggmann

Originally posted by: Dark Jedi
It's not as smooth as on windows.

Agreed. It's nowhere near as smooth as windows. It's not bad, but it is slightly more difficult to use. I have no compatibility issues going back and forth from word 2008 on my mac to, I believe, Word 2003 at school. But within the program it's a little less user friendly. I'm thinking of trying iWork, I hear that is pretty nice. A lot of people like Open Office as well. My mom has that on her laptop, but I personally haven't tried it.

I personally recommend OpenOffice, especially now that's it's native to OS X and doesn't need X11 anymore. NeoOffice was a good substitute but was slow as molasses. OO does most of what MS Office does and is pretty much 90% compatible with it and most other major office suites out there. OpenOffice 3.0 even supports the new .docx format. It's only really PowerPoint it struggles with if it includes MS specific animations, etc.

just dl'ed, pretty happy with it so far

free = win

OO is nowhere near as slick and polished as MS Office, but you can't beat the price

:heart: OO, wish I could justify the cost of MS Office.

 

[ViRGE]

Am I the only one here who likes Office 2008? I wish it were fully ribboned like 2007, and of course I miss Outlook, but otherwise for what I use it for I like it more than 2007.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
Am I the only one here who likes Office 2008? I wish it were fully ribboned like 2007, and of course I miss Outlook, but otherwise for what I use it for I like it more than 2007.

yes, you are. haha. I do agree about ribbon tho, I do like it. It's different, but from a fresh standpoint, it makes sense. I'm still not sure it was wise not to include and old interface because of how much office familiarity is part of people's daily life. And it would have been nice not to lose so much real estate on top.

But the kicker for me was.. given it was a native intel app, why the hell it wasn't any faster than office 2004.

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer

Originally posted by: Ns1

Originally posted by: mmntech

Originally posted by: TheBiggmann

Originally posted by: Dark Jedi
It's not as smooth as on windows.

Agreed. It's nowhere near as smooth as windows. It's not bad, but it is slightly more difficult to use. I have no compatibility issues going back and forth from word 2008 on my mac to, I believe, Word 2003 at school. But within the program it's a little less user friendly. I'm thinking of trying iWork, I hear that is pretty nice. A lot of people like Open Office as well. My mom has that on her laptop, but I personally haven't tried it.

I personally recommend OpenOffice, especially now that's it's native to OS X and doesn't need X11 anymore. NeoOffice was a good substitute but was slow as molasses. OO does most of what MS Office does and is pretty much 90% compatible with it and most other major office suites out there. OpenOffice 3.0 even supports the new .docx format. It's only really PowerPoint it struggles with if it includes MS specific animations, etc.

just dl'ed, pretty happy with it so far

free = win

OO is nowhere near as slick and polished as MS Office, but you can't beat the price

:heart: OO, wish I could justify the cost of MS Office.

Yeah pretty much. I already got a legit copy of office for windows (2k3 AND 2k7). I should just figure out how this damn crossover thing works already.

 

[mmntech]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer

Originally posted by: Ns1

Originally posted by: mmntech

Originally posted by: TheBiggmann

Originally posted by: Dark Jedi
It's not as smooth as on windows.

Agreed. It's nowhere near as smooth as windows. It's not bad, but it is slightly more difficult to use. I have no compatibility issues going back and forth from word 2008 on my mac to, I believe, Word 2003 at school. But within the program it's a little less user friendly. I'm thinking of trying iWork, I hear that is pretty nice. A lot of people like Open Office as well. My mom has that on her laptop, but I personally haven't tried it.

I personally recommend OpenOffice, especially now that's it's native to OS X and doesn't need X11 anymore. NeoOffice was a good substitute but was slow as molasses. OO does most of what MS Office does and is pretty much 90% compatible with it and most other major office suites out there. OpenOffice 3.0 even supports the new .docx format. It's only really PowerPoint it struggles with if it includes MS specific animations, etc.

just dl'ed, pretty happy with it so far

free = win

OO is nowhere near as slick and polished as MS Office, but you can't beat the price

:heart: OO, wish I could justify the cost of MS Office.

OpenOffice got my through university. And that involved A LOT of writing.
Office has more features but most of that stuff you're probably not going to use that often, if at all. Not really worth the cost. IMO, basic yet fully functional office suites should be coming preinstalled on all computers now as part of basic software packages that come with the OS. No real excuse not to do that at this point.

 

[Injury]

Everyone in my office gets frequent font problems with office that require you to click "OK" to a "Missing or Corrupted Font"... for about 150 fonts that never existed in the first place on our systems.

Having to Click "OK" 150 times just to open a file that someone emailed to you leaves a real sour impression of the software. We are on an older version (2006?) but it's enough to drive us mad.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Injury
Everyone in my office gets frequent font problems with office that require you to click "OK" to a "Missing or Corrupted Font"... for about 150 fonts that never existed in the first place on our systems.

Having to Click "OK" 150 times just to open a file that someone emailed to you leaves a real sour impression of the software. We are on an older version (2006?) but it's enough to drive us mad.

are you talking about office for mac, or open office?

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: Injury
Everyone in my office gets frequent font problems with office that require you to click "OK" to a "Missing or Corrupted Font"... for about 150 fonts that never existed in the first place on our systems.

Having to Click "OK" 150 times just to open a file that someone emailed to you leaves a real sour impression of the software. We are on an older version (2006?) but it's enough to drive us mad.

are you talking about office for mac, or open office?

Office for Mac.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Injury

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: Injury
Everyone in my office gets frequent font problems with office that require you to click "OK" to a "Missing or Corrupted Font"... for about 150 fonts that never existed in the first place on our systems.

Having to Click "OK" 150 times just to open a file that someone emailed to you leaves a real sour impression of the software. We are on an older version (2006?) but it's enough to drive us mad.

are you talking about office for mac, or open office?

Office for Mac.

older version is 2004. as for the fonts issue, I assume it happens w/ reinstalling too? Is it with office files from windows versions that throw it off?