FFS Microsoft Word Mac 2008 is THE, as in THE ABSOLUTE, embodiment of SHIT

[dschiller]

Office for Mac 2008 is really, really, properly rubbish, so I've started running Office 2003 for PC (can't be bothered to try 2007) on my Mac via Crossover. I have yet to do something a bit heavier on it, but so far it seems to behave way better than the Mac version. And it doesn't take 15 bloody minutes to launch. Maybe you should give it a try, they've got a trial.

[otispunkmeyer]

pahhh! you cant even escape by opening your file, or even cutting and pasting its contents into a new one, with Office 2007 (for windows) which is essentially office mac 2008's older brother.

you still get hanstrung with the wonky formatting and when you go anywhere near the ribbon bar at the top to play with the headings an stuff you get the whole thing freezing for a couple of seconds. and when you save, you best go make a cuppa tea because its gonna take a while.

there is no escape, once you used office mac 2008 you cant use anything else....even if you desperately want to!

im gonna give OO a whirl, if i like it... office mac can consider its new home as the fucking bin

EDIT

just not my day i guess, Office Mac is a pile of garbage, office 2007 is no better once it has to handle the borked mac docx files and now open office wont even mount because apparently my machine cant recognise it! brilliant. im going to bed, had about as much stress as i can take.

[killpanda]

Don't forget to give iWork a try, it's a very good piece of software

[ViperVX]

Use office 2003. It' way better than 2007, and it runs great on the new Windows 7 beta (build 7000) and/or OSX.

[cvrefugee]

I guess I'm one of the few who actually likes the ribbon interface in Office 2007. The previous version looks so old and ugly...and blue.

[Hidden_Hunter]

I guess I'm one of the few who actually likes the ribbon interface in Office 2007. The previous version looks so old and ugly...and blue.

I like ribbon as well, can't stand using the old version here at work (that and it randomally likes popping up the formatting markup tools)

[Magnet]

My god, don't get me started on using Word on large documents. I think I lost 20 years off my lifespan writing both my Honours and PhD theses with that shite.

My favourite is how it randomly changes styles to bullet points halfway through, then refuses to undo it. Or changes random paragraphs to a heading style.

I ended up writing the whole thing in Normal style, then changing each point one by one, at which point I was a quivering mess smoking my own toenails.

[hansvonaxion]

You can export from iWork's Pages to .doc format. Is that not acceptable?

I don't use word processors much so that's all I have to say, although I think I've had trouble trying to open .doc's in Pages - maybe I need to update my version.

(Oh, BTW, with a little searching you won't have to "buy" iWork either)

[FATMOUSE]

I guess I'm one of the few who actually likes the ribbon interface in Office 2007. The previous version looks so old and ugly...and blue.

To be fair, Microsoft does have quite the stiffy for blue in every Windows they do. The XP default theme and login page, their website, Office, etc.

[toma_alimosh]

^
<tinfoil hat>
They're trying to ease people into the blue screen of death. If it ever happens, it will have a lower impact on people than it did previously, because it doesn't look like a fatal error anymore, it's almost as if it belongs in the operating system for everyday use.
</tinfoil hat>

[otispunkmeyer]

I guess I'm one of the few who actually likes the ribbon interface in Office 2007. The previous version looks so old and ugly...and blue.

i like the ribbon dont get me wrong, i like it even more than the crummy-jittery-actioned tool box you get with the mac version because it just gets in the way and likes to follow you to every space you visit but then doesnt fully return when you go back.

the ribbon, works much better....and in 2007 when you're not trying to make a 2008 document work....its always been fine.

[otispunkmeyer]

My god, don't get me started on using Word on large documents. I think I lost 20 years off my lifespan writing both my Honours and PhD theses with that shite.

My favourite is how it randomly changes styles to bullet points halfway through, then refuses to undo it. Or changes random paragraphs to a heading style.

I ended up writing the whole thing in Normal style, then changing each point one by one, at which point I was a quivering mess smoking my own toenails.

hahah yeah tell me about it. in a report i did last year, every time i updated the contents page it kept putting the entire 3 page product design specification table IN the table of contents!!!!

i even had the PDS table set to Normal text and it still went in there. i had to delete it manually every single time.

^
<tinfoil hat>
They're trying to ease people into the blue screen of death. If it ever happens, it will have a lower impact on people than it did previously, because it doesn't look like a fatal error anymore, it's almost as if it belongs in the operating system for everyday use.
</tinfoil hat>

thats why i used to change mine to red.... RSoD!

[Greatgraddage]

All these large document complains can be solved by using LyX which I mentioned above. It's designed for large documents, automatic table of contents and citation management. Takes a bit of getting used to as you do pretty much none of the formatting yourself but saved me a lot of headaches on my masters thesis and I'm using it again for the PhD.

[Hidden_Hunter]

I use EndNote to do my citation, works very well i've found (asides from some annoying x64 issues)

[Final Daihatsu]

http://www.openoffice.org/

OMFG NOES

That thing is a direct port of Satan, hell and everything evil. Don't use it or you'll die in vain.

[toma_alimosh]

^lol, why such animosity?

[Paco]

[B]That thing is a direct port of Satan, hell and everything evil. Don't use it or you'll die in vain.

lies

openoffice pwnsface

It's what I'd be using if I didn't already have office 07

[Cellos88GT]

Office 2008 really is a piece of shit program.

My mom has it on her Macbook Pro and it crashes all the time, I gave her Office 2004 which runs a hell of a lot better and now shes all good.

[thedguy]

http://www.openoffice.org/

God damned useless. Damn thing chokes on simple macros in my works spreadsheets.

[darkshark0159]

This. Enjoy having to switch back when you realize there are no decent CAD or 3D programs that run natively on Mac.

I suppose I should start looking in to other careers then.