Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac

4.0 stars

"works good"

December 2, 2012  |   By tappy727

Version: Microsoft Office 2008 12.3.5

Pros

Can open Microsoft Word and Excel document from Windows version of Microsoft Word and Excel.

Cons

Performance of Microsoft Word and Excel is not as good as on Windows.

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3.0 stars

"Great software"

March 4, 2012  |   By applecross

Version: Microsoft Office 2008 12.3.2

Pros

Great software

Cons

Great software

Summary

Great software

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1.0 stars

"Don't Upgrade !!"

August 29, 2011  |   By AD_Ward9

Version: Microsoft Office 2008 12.3

Pros

Word 2008 had fewer crashes than 2004 (still a lot more than MS Windows Word 2003 - unusual for a Mac app), but then I upgraded it - see the ~Cons

Cons

Disaster! I bought a new MacBook Pro to replace my original one (literally wore out), and then did the Aug 2011 update. Suddenly it tells me I am not licensed! This is a proper copy I bought from a US Apple Store.

Summary

Microsoft seem to a bunch of monkeys as regards software quality and customer treatment. They seem to have brought in a policy that one cannot move from one Apple Mac to another even if the original one is wiped clean (which I did). Do not upgrade this product as doing so can make it uninstall itself.

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2.0 stars

"Microsoft Office 2004 far superior."

June 24, 2011  |   By myinmi

Version: Microsoft Office 2008 12.3

Pros

None, if we compare it to Office 2004. Beyond that, the tech people are very kind and helpful.

Cons

Office 2008 has only presented problems, but I use mostly Word. It almost lost an entire book that I wrote because it refused to save the file saying I was out of memory. I only use a fraction of my computer memory.

Summary

Go back to Office 2004 or use a different program.
Another blogger responded quite well to this already.
Look on cnet for the response.

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4.0 stars

"needed upgrade"

May 18, 2011  |   By John Cervantes

Version: Microsoft Office 2008 12.2.9

Pros

easier usage

Cons

not yet found one

Summary

needed upgrade

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1.0 stars

"Only 2004 on this computer"

December 19, 2010  |   By ve7vks

Version: Microsoft Office 2008 12.2.8

Pros

Only 2004 on this computer

Cons

Only 2004 on this computer

Summary

Only 2004 on this computer

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3.0 stars

"I guess I needed it."

December 11, 2010  |   By bschlender

Version: Microsoft Office 2008 12.2.8

Pros

I suppose the app works better

Cons

Microsoft's update procedure is lame. Takes too much effort. Typically over engineered.

Summary

Office is okay. I have to have it. Nuff said.

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4.0 stars

"Best Office I ever use, well at least is on Mac"

November 27, 2010  |   By wayiv888

Version: Microsoft Office 2008 12.2.7

Pros

New Outlook looks great, email is easily sort out such as grouping it from the same sender with same subject

Cons

is still not as easy to use, few learning curve requires

Summary

What can I say, You gotta have microsoft Office

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2.0 stars

"A step backward from Office 2004, and has bugs"

October 26, 2010  |   By agd21

Version: Microsoft Office 2008 12.2.7

Pros

The Open Recent file now allows a maximum 99 recently used files in this list.

Cons

Many, see summary below.

Summary

Both Word 2008, and especially Excel 2008 definitely run slower than the 2004 editions for opening, page scrolling/screen updating, and saving files. Saving even a small Word document takes at least 3 seconds. For some large (3MB) Excel spreadsheets opening takes 50 seconds and scrolling is annoyingly slow. Even opening the Data > Sort menu can take 10 seconds. I've now removed both Word and Excel 2008 and gone back to the 2004 versions. Entourage and PowerPoint 2008 seem to work fine, and I've kept these two apps from the Office 2008 suite.

Perhaps Microsoft should offer the option of not installing, turning off or de-installing many of the new supplementary functions of marginal value in Office 2008 to optimize speed, (e.g. SmartArt, WordArt, Elements Gallery, Ledger sheets, Automator, Publication templates, Ligatures in fonts, Custom Lists, etc., etc.)

Some features in Office 2008 are a definite step backward from Office 2004:

* Dragging image files from the Desktop into a Word 2008 document can not be done like it could in Word 2004. This was a very convenient feature in previous versions of Word.

* In Office 2008 the Open Recent file list is on a second-tier menu within the File menu. I now have to go File menu > Open Recent (stop my pointer exactly on the little triangle line) before a second menu pops out with the recently opened files. If I jiggle my pointer off the line the menu disappears and I have to start over again. This is bothersome and time consuming. It was better in Office 2004 when the recent document list was visible at the bottom of the File menu. I could simply pull down and let go on the file name - one menu instead of two, and a bigger target to land on.

* To insert Header/Footer items like Filename, Date, Page X of Y you must now do View > Header/Footer, then open a second pull down menu: Insert > Auto Text > Header/Footer > Filename, and you need to go through this secondary menu hierarchy for each Header/Footer entry. Very time consuming and frustrating. Please bring back the control panel in that was in Word 2004 for View > Header/Footer which allowed you to insert Header/Footer items like Filename, Date, Page X of Y, etc. all at once and from one place.

* In Word and Excel 2008 the Preferences window requires an extra click on a Show All button to back out of a preferences category. It was better in Office 2004 where all the preference categories can be selected from buttons beside the window so that you can quickly switch between preferences categories.

Some glitches I've noticed:

* The preferences in Excel seem to set themselves back to the default settings from time to time. I have to go back into Preferences and reset them all.

* The frequently used fonts list at the top of the font pull down menu keeps losing my most frequently used fonts.

* There is an Elements Gallery bar of buttons (e.g. SmartGraphics, WordArt, etc.) above the top ruler, which mystically appears in some, but not all, Excel & Word 2008 documents. These are rarely used features, and they take up screen space. I've looked everywhere but I can't find any way to remove this button bar from the top of documents.

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