Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Upgrade

List Price: $239.95 Discount Price: $180.45

Features:

• Streamlined user interface runs natively on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs
• Open XML file formats, the Office Art graphics engine, and other features that result in compatibility and file fidelity
• Professional design is within your power with hundreds of new customizable templates and suite-wide themes, SmartArt graphics, and the new Publishing Layout View in Word 2008
• My Day keeps you connected to all of the day's action. Command your calendar, tackle your tasks, and simplify your day
• Includes: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Entourage, Microsoft Server Exchange Support

Customer Reviews:

Great Free Upgrade - NOT. Thanks Microsoft [Posted on 2008-04-01]
I bought a beautiful new iMac for Christmas for the family (and me). It came with a coupon from Microsoft that permitted me to upgrade (for free) Office 2004 Student/Teacher Edition to Office 2008 Home and Student Edition when it became available in the Spring. I thought, "wow, those guys at Microsoft are pretty neat. What a nice gift and just in time for the holiday." I brought my shiny new iMac home, set it up, and it ran beautifully - of course. In short order, I had Entourage interacting with my Exchange server at work sending / retrieving email. What could be better, the kids had a place to do their homework and I did too.

I got my new version of Office 2008 Home and Student Edition today. I installed it. I started Entoruage, and guess what? It no longer supports Exchange servers. Like buying a new car and finding out that, although last years model had air conditioning, this years model does not - I was stunned. Could my new found appreciation for Microsoft be dashed so suddenly? You bet it could be - those Bas.....!

My only alternative, if I would like to send and receive email at home is to upgrade at considerable expense to the standard edition. So, if I want to retrieve my previous functionality, I get to pay ~$200.00 for an upgrade to Microsofts gracious "free upgrade offer." A truely brilliant peice of marketing.

My company (the one that I own) spends several $100,000.00 annually on Dell computers to be included with our products. Each Dell has a host of Microsoft software on it. I swear that I will do everything I can to have our design teams remove Microsoft's products from ours - sorry Dell. Microsoft is a decietful company and should pay the price for their "bend the customer over" mentality.

Improved user interface, but slower launching [Posted on 2008-04-05]
The Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Upgrade provides an improved interface over earlier versions and compatibility with the new .docx file formats. The downside for me was that on my MacBook (1.83 Ghz, 2Gb, MacOS 10.5.2) it was significantly slower to launch that the earlier version (Office X). For example, starting Word 2008 took 32 seconds vs. 14 seconds for Word X. I found similar slowdowns for other Office 2008 components. I had anticipated that the universal binaries for Office 2008 would provide greatly improved performance on the new MacIntel systems over earlier versions of Office. It was quite a disappointment to see that things went the other way.

No Analysis Toolpack! [Posted on 2008-04-15]
I am a Mac tech. I read all the info about the release of Office 2008. I knew that VBA was gone (requiring an entire rewrite for some programs we had developed.)

But I was shocked, once I installed it, to find that the Analysis Toolpack, which I relied on constantly for statistical analysis, was also gone. I had seen absolutely nothing presaging this.

Bad move. Bad, bad move.

just not worth it [Posted on 2008-04-21]
I got the upgrade for Microsoft Office Mac 2008. Wow... I have never seen such an awful application in my life. It take over 20 minutes for the application to open on my Mac. I say, run!! Run in the other direction. This product is just simply awful and a total waste of money and time. My production has suffered a great deal since it's purchase.

MicroSoft Office 2008 for the Mac [Posted on 2008-05-29]
Since the files produced are xml, they are not compatible with previous version. One has to set the default files to the last version of Office so that others can open your files.

There are still a few bugs--can't open attachments. Must save first and then open from the application.

2008 Office has lots of great features, but I am not sure it's worth it because of the incompatibility with previous versions.

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