Microsoft Office 2004 Professional (Mac)

List Price: $499.99 Discount Price: $449.99

Features:

• A productivity suite with a host of ground-breaking new features
• Easily share ideas across platforms and around the globe
• Confidently create stunning documents with impressive new tools
• Spend less time managing info and more time using it
• Includes Microsoft Virtual PC for Mac Version 7

Accessories:
Apple Mac OS X Version 10.5.1 Leopard	Apple Mac OS X Version 10.5.1 Leopard [5-User Family Pack]

Customer Reviews:

because... [Posted on 2006-07-29]
This is a review of the other reviews. I don't think saying "why use this when you can use OpenOffice" qualifies as a review.

People use Microsoft Office because it is compatible with a HUGE demographic in the business, educational, and general world of people who rely on computers for doing document development and communication with said docs. You can pretty much assume someone can open a Word or Excel file. Sure, maybe OpenOffice can open those files but good luck editing, saving, and sharing them with Microsoft users. Come on people. I'm not saying take all the red pills, but this one is pretty much a business no-brainer unless you only exchange documents with a few other people.

Good program-but look around [Posted on 2006-09-13]
This is a very good program. In fact, it's an excellent program.

The question is, though, is it excellent enough? Is it worth $400?

As the reviewers below note, there are free alternatives like NeoOffice. I have used these, and while MS Office is very, very good, NeoOffice is nearly as good and free.

If you're spending other people's money (i.e. you're in a business), MS Office is a must, of course. If you're spending your own money, try the free alternatives before committing.

Acceptable product, a bit overpriced, watch out for font issues. Don't buy for Intel Macs! [Posted on 2006-12-10]
First: Product is pricey. Avoid it unless you absolutely need it.
Second: Bad interoperability between Mac and Windows versions. If you use the grab utility to copy/paste screenshots into Word, etc. and expect the document you created to open on a PC, better have Quicktime and TIFF decompressor. (Who had that bright idea?)
Third: Virtual PC DOES NOT WORK on Intel Macs. Best platform is PPC G4/G5. It's a CPU hog on G3, even if you max out your RAM.
Fourth: Here's the kicker. Better get a hold of software like Font Doctor and make sure you're running OS X 10.4+. Corrupt fonts will cause Office apps to crash and burn. Recommend removing all fonts except OS-provided fonts, run font doctor and repair all fixable fonts, then use the Font Book supplied by OS X Tiger (10.4) to bring them back in. Don't forget to reboot between removing fonts and re-adding them. You'll save a world of trouble in doing this.

The Only Office Suite for a Mac, and Better than Windows [Posted on 2006-12-26]
Oddly, Microsoft made a better version of Office for Mac than they did for Windows. Excel has more database features. Word has a few more formatting options. And, of course, PowerPoint was originally written for the Mac, so it is very much at home. These three are five star products. They work well and do just what you expect. They do the things a full-blown office suite is expected to do. If all you need is a text editor, then use TextEdit, or maybe Open Office. But if you need to do some serious office work, this is pretty much the only game in town, especially if you are working on a laptop and don't always have access to an Internet connection.

Virtual PC is a two star product. It runs much too slowly on a G4 Mac. You can expect some compatibility issues. Of course, it will not run at all on an Intel Mac, nor would you want it to. You are better off with Boot Camp or Parallels. But, for the most part, it does exactly what it claims to do.

Most users have a love/hate relationship with Entourage. It is bulky. It stores everything in a huge file where you cannot get at it. If somebody sends you a PC virus it gets stuck in that huge file until it is archived and/or deleted. Granted, it will not hurt the Mac, but it is annoying to have it in there. Entourage will not sync with Pocket Windows devices without additional software not available from either Apple or Microsoft (but check out PocketMac Pro). Entourage's news reader is a joke; it will not even show threaded discussions. Even Microsoft's free Outlook Express for Windows is far better. On the plus side, Entourage has a nice calendar. The address book is very good. And the mail utility will work with web-based mail services such as Hotmail, something that Mail cannot do.

Microsoft is cutting support for Virtual PC, Explorer for OS X, and a few other products, but the rest of Office will be around for a long time. Microsoft claims to be working on a Universal version of Microsoft Office, but given their product development cycle I would not expect release of the next version before sometime in 2008.

Great Program [Posted on 2007-03-24]
Great program. Received the item on time. Great price. Thank you.

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