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 enlarge | From: Microsoft Software
Category: Software
List Price: $149.95
Buy New: $99.95
You Save: $50.00 (33%)
New (47) Used (5) from $98.00
Rating:  286 reviews
Sales Rank: 5
Format: Dvd-rom
Platforms: Macintosh, Mac Os X
Media: DVD-ROM
Edition: Home & Student
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Operating System: Macintosh
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 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
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| Customer Reviews:
Good, but so are the free options November 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
After using this for a longer while, I'll give a more complete review. But here's the downlow. Is Microsoft Office good? Yes. Are there some good improvements in Office 2008? Yes. There is some animation that's nice, and some added features. Also, Entourage is a great mail program (I use GMail, so I won't be using this version, but I use Entourage 2003 at work and it's great).
But, had I not gotten this free from Amazon Vine, I would have continued to use the free versions of all these programs that are just as good but not quite as visually "fancy" - Google Docs/Apps and NeoOffice (the Mac version of OpenOffice). So if you can score a cheap/free version of Office, go for it! But otherwise, there is really no truth to the myth that you "need" Office. Those other programs read and write the same file types for free (and yes, there is even a free Power Point app).
Note - you get 3 license keys with one purchase (or at least I did), so you can install on 3 comps.
 The best office suite for the best OS November 25, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Face it, when it comes to productivity software, there's MS Office, and then there's everything trying to be MS Office. So why not just get what works the best? And of course, on the Mac OS, which is FAR SUPERIOR to any Windows setup, Office is even better. There's not much to say about this other than: GET IT AND GET TO WORK! :)
Worth every penny November 25, 2008
After reading some reviews on here I was skeptical about buying this product. Went with my gut and decided to buy it. My gut was right. It is fantastic. I recommend for anyone in school. I mainly needed it for by macbook pro. It has everything I need to send and receive files from fellow students and professors with ease. if compatability was what you were looking for I strongly recommend this product.
 Surprisingly limited, upgrade seemed more for aesthetics November 25, 2008
I simply must have Office - it works natively with documents sent to me by students and colleagues. I know about Open Office - but this is an easy to use nicely presented software packaged used by the vast majority of people that send me documents.
First, it installed easily, even if 2 upgrades that needed to be installed took FOREVER. I appreciate that the Microsoft suite icon in my bar can open any of the programs contained here.
I have Microsoft Office 2004. One of the caveats was that when 2008 came out, all my freshmen started sending me .docx files which required a converter to open and then did not always behave properly. Grrrr... So, when I got a new computer, I was pleased to have the opportunity to try 2008, which can open the latest and greatest my students send to me without formatting grief.
Word:
The big upgrade seems to be the notebook view and ability to record audio directly into the files. Interesting concept. I think this would be highly valuable to a college student. Many college students now take notes directly on their laptops during class (not all colleges or instructors allow this though) and the ability to also RECORD portions of the lectures and flag them for searches is wonderful. I personally cannot imagine needing this, but it is a nice feature.
I use a very common academic software called Endnote which imports and manages citations. It works wonderfully with 2008 without any problems opening it.
I went to preferences and changed my default back to .doc. I am sorry, but the .docx is very annoying. As a Mac user, I send nothing but .pdf's to students; however I am not going to gamble on my colleagues being able to open my .docx files.
The toolbar seems less user friendly now, I have not been able to move around the formatting and endnote controls like I used to.
Overall, there were no improvements here for me.
Excel:
Grrr... again with the .xlsx - This can be changed in preferences. Otherwise I feel ambivalent about it compared to 2004. I do like Excel 2004 better than the iWork option though.
One utter shock is that there is NO (as in NOT AVAILABLE!!!) analysis toolpak or VBA for this version. If you need it, do NOT get this version - get 2004 or 2007! I use a standalone statistics software, but I really loved being able to do some simple analysis in Excel. Shame on you, Microsoft! Error bars also seem crippled.
Powerpoint:
I use powerpoint for all my lectures. I move pictures and videos in and out all the time. However, I am having immense difficulty with 2008 making my pictures uneditable. The slide and outline views are also gone. I am still upset that Powerpoint has not followed Keynote in allowing multiple masters per presentation.
Videos are a problem in Powerpoint - I can't pause and go back while lecturing, so this could use some work. As a biologist, I have lots of videos.
Animation paths seem to have disappeared from 2008 compared to 2004. Perhaps it has just been changed to such a degree that I cannot work it, but in any event 2004 was more intuitive.
Ultimately, I am disappointed with this reworking and will either need to revert to 2004 for presentations I may need to share with colleagues or switch altogether to Keynote.
Entourage:
This is a nice program with one real advantage that I can see - you can respond to an e-mail and very easily send it from a different e-mail address, which can be nice on occasion when I am trying to reroute people to the correct account. It seems a little less finicky then 2004, but ultimately I do not think I will use it very much as I like to keep my accounts separated and it does not give me the option of selecting 1 account but not the others to check.
Honestly, if directly comparing to 2004 I would rate this 3 stars. If you have 2004 already, don't bother. If you don't have anything, 4 stars for easy to use software for most situations. For a college student using a laptop for course notes, definitely a win. Otherwise, meh.
Necessary evil November 25, 2008
I'm not a Microsoft fan, but the reality is that I sometimes need Office software. Yes, I use Open Office (especially as they now have a native Mac version), and Google Docs, but sometimes I need the real thing. I wish that were not so, but there it is.
The installation probably has more "Continue" buttons than any other piece of software I have ever installed. No hope for "I'll just go have coffee while this installs"; no, you need to keep clicking buttons. It's not because you are choosing things: they just want you to read stuff..
After the install you'll find lots of new icons in your Dock. Who said I wanted them, Microsoft? Rather cheeky of you..
The first thing that pops up is the Microsoft Autoupdater. Apparently there is a "critical" update that needs to be installed[...]. Wonderful news, especially as I can't install it. The Installer just hangs. Yes, yes, of course I quit all other Microsoft apps. I've even tried running the updater manually after restarting my Mac and never touching any other apps. It just hangs. I've looked at it with Activity Monitor; it's doing absolutely nothing. Context switches go up, shared memory goes up and down, but that's about it. I've left it alone for hours, nothing happens..
And then I realized that a dialog window was hidden behind the main Installer window.. oh, *good* programming, Microsoft. It's the "Microsoft Office 2008 Update doesn't understand the message." which they say comes from having Office running.. I clicked "OK" and the Installer continued.
As to using it, well, of course I don't like it. That's partly because I dislike Microsoft on general principle but probably mostly because I'm accustomed to Open Office. I remember trying to get my wife, a long time Word user, to try Open Office. She couldn't stand it, complaining that it wasn't "logical", it was "hard to use" and so on. That's just how I feel about Word, but we're probably both wrong. We like what we are used to.
The start up time of Word is definitely quicker than Open Office. Well, it was until I installed those updates. After that it took a little longer, pretty close to Open Office - maybe a second or two faster.
But.. I'll only use this when I'm forced into it. I bet that sentiment accounts for quite a lot of sales.
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