Salerk

Since this is my first review I decided to start simple (and failed!)

When I went back to University this year, I decided its time to go and grab myself a laptop, after a lot of looking around it ended up being a MacBook Pro. It has the power to run the applications I need for my classes and since I take Biosciences can also run easily the programs that are a lot more graphical orientated, you do not wish to know the pain of waiting for my old computer to render some of the molecules we where looking at.

I will admit to prior being very interested in Mac since they started to use Intel and in the past I had been known to out right refuse to use a Mac stating they where far in-superior to a PC and its vast amount of applications.

I hear by eat my own hat for the blunder that was my ignorance.

Application wise Apple has a vast array of tools for almost everything I could want to use. Papers for all the journals I need to use for class and reference, Evernote has become almost a staple for all my assignments and information sharing between class members. And until the day I took it out of its box I had never even seen what iTunes looked like in favor of Windows Media Player.

Through all of this though there was a problem, and sadly it was not something small that could be put under the carpet, believe me I tried, and its very hard to pretend the elephant shaped lump was an intentional feature of my living room.

And this was office; I have been using MS office since my first computer back in 1996. For a grand total of 13 years been a slave to MS office. Often always purchasing the newest versions or if I am lucky being given them by friends who worked in the computer industry (Thank you John)

I tried out iWork for almost a week (trial version) and perhaps I just needed more time, but I was unable to really re-create what I needed, It did a great job, but when your used to one application, swapping can become very hard.

Now I might be very out of the loop but I was just pointed towards Office 08 for Mac, and I have to say, I might finally be able to retire my PC and stick to the Mac almost permanently, It is the answer to everything I have been asking for.

A very familiar interface that incorporates the useful Ribbon but has not fully removed all the dropdown bars this will allow for a better transition for anyone going from any form of office they have used in the past.

Office 08 Word:

Word 08 is in many ways the most used tool for most people in any walk of life, from sending a message to a loved one to the 5000 word essays your working on for a month with more references’ than words.

If you have used any form of MS word, you will drop into this program with no even a slight bit of problem, one feature I adore is the Palette that contain the main formatting tools, as well as other features including a dictionary, referencing tools, scrap book for random notes.

With the changes here I would be tempted to say Microsoft have made a better tool for the Mac than they have for there own native operating system.

My own professor stated he preferred the Mac version when he saw it saying Microsoft crammed too much into the ribbon and finding things can be a task.

Office 08 Excel:
The Mac: Excel has taken a little more of a curve when it comes to learning, but only because of the placement of the tools for editing, in particular the graphs are easy to set up, but it did take one or two trial and error moments to get it going.

Once I had it more under my belt I was able to do the same as what I was able to achieve with MS Excel 07. Ultimately for general use it is comparable, I have heard of problems with more intense use a common complaint is that VBA and Macros will not transfer over, you can use Apple Script to fix some of this, but it is time consuming. Unless you need VBA at the moment, this will have very little effect. And the usual developers are at work and a possible fix for this will be around at some point, but you can expect it will come at a cost.

Office 08 Power Point:

This is back to the basics, and there is not much I can say here. It works there is the standard functions, I will say I prefer the layout, but there is very little that can not transfer from one to the other with very little problems I have tried six different PowerPoint presentations all designed on office 07 and not a single one had a transfer issue, and one I would say actually looked a lot better.

General Features:

There is one feature that I feel deserved a mention, it is common from word, excel and PowerPoint, and this is in the Palette, it is called Compatibility report. And it does just that as you work on anything it will tell you if there will be any problems saving the file as an older format.

An example would be if you have used the Citations tool and wish to transfer it to an older computer, often you save in the Word 97-08 Format and then open her up to find everything in the wrong place or missing.

No longer, this nice tool will inform you what will no longer work, and also tells you what changes its going to make in the process.

Entourage 08 & My Day:

Many people are used to this from past versions and if your not you may have used windows outlook, I personally never have. I will say I am unorganised and lazy I hate programs that try and help me keep track on everything and since my main mail is Google or the university mail (that will not allow for pop/imap etc) I don’t often require the functions, this will change depending on your usage and situation, there have been many reviews on these programs detailing the work place application and the lacking parts of the design and setup issues so I would recommend Google to find them if that’s information you need.

As a general sceptical user though I will say this is a very nice function, it will talk with the native Mac applications so you will not have to loose anything if you decide at any time to stop using Entourage. And because of the sync being well developed anything that will sync to the normal iCal, Address book etc will also sync with Entourage, I have found I enjoy using this program it combines applications that I rarely used into one package I find I use a lot more. But this is because of MyDay

MyDay sits on your desktop and will show all your to do icons, your events from the calendar and keeps you updated on what is going on at all times, and since using it I have actually discover a side of my self in class that is organised.

Overall I would say the only thing that ever kept me with windows on at least one working computer now was Office, and thank you Microsoft you have developed for me a reason to dump that ugly old computer of mine, and buy an iMac.

The only application I would have liked to see move over also would have been OneNote, but there are many free programs that do the same and some that I feel do better, but the integration into the office package might if done well be a final nail in the bridge for people wanting to move from windows.

I think the only thing I find a displeasure is I am used to how colourful Office 07 is and going back to everything being in a shade of gray and not a nice light blue is jarring, but not an a functional problem, just a personal one and in this day of visual obsession from bad games that get rave reviews because they look stunning almost every aspect of life is filtered through an ideal of the better it looks the better it is. In this case it runs like a sports car, but looks like a lemon.


-- Salerk --

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Hekate, Thou Mother of Might... Robed in Splendour; Beauteous; Bright... Moon Maiden, Mother and Crone... Shine upon us from Thy Lofty Throne...\'
From: Hekate Thou Mother of Might By: Jeanne Riegler