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Microsoft Office or iWork, that is the question
No doubt about it: Microsoft Office is the 800-pound gorilla of productivity suites, both on the Mac and on Windows. In the latest version, Office 2011, the product teams have added lots of zing both in performance and features. Question is, can you go with alternatives? In particular, what about iWork? The answer is, it depends on the apps that you'll be using, the level of functionality you want from them, how you work and who you collaborate with. As there are great deals to be had today on Office ($80 for Home/Student, which only lacks Outlook vs. the Business edition), it's worth thinking about the match-up. [There are other commercial options, like Mariner Write/Calc, open-source alternatives like KOffice, NeoOffice and Open Office.org, and of course, cloud apps like ThinkFree, SlideRocket and Google Docs. Today we're talking iWork. –Ed.] For basic word processing, Pages is up to the task against Microsoft Word. Sure, things are in different places and the lingo may not be as familiar, and that may take some time getting used to. However, if the end goal is to get your thoughts on paper and to have the flexibility to format these words the way you want to, Pages will do the job. And if you need page layout flexibility, Pages' page layout tools makes for a more elegant and easy-to-use solution for documents that require you to position things around.
Google's Cloud Connect plugs Microsoft Office into Google Docs
It's been a pretty busy time for Google Docs this month -- first Google added support for mobile editing, and it's now finally bridging the considerable divide between the cloud-based service and Microsoft Office with its new Cloud Connect plug-in. That functions just as you'd expect, letting you edit files in Microsoft Office (either 2003, 2007 or 2010) and then sync them with Google Docs every time you hit the save button. Likewise, you can also edit your files in Google Docs and share them with others, and then simply pull down the latest revision the next time you open the document in Office. There's still no word on a widespread release for the plug-in, but those interested in trying it out can sign up for Google's early tester program at the source link below.
Outlook 2011 review: Beyond Entourage, not quite Outlook for Windows
TUAW dives into Microsoft Office 2011 with reviews of the apps that make up the suite. The legend lives on, in somewhat different form. The last time there was a version of Outlook for the Mac, it was Outlook 2001, it ran on Mac OS 9, and it only spoke MAPI (the legacy Exchange mail protocol). It lived alongside Office 2001, which already included Entourage for POP mail and contact/calendar management, so the writing was on the wall. Once Mac OS X came along, Microsoft settled on Entourage as the new Mac personal information management app, and Outlook was long thought to be dead on the platform -- until now. Is it a worthwhile part of the 2011 package, or does Apple's Exchange 2007 support in Snow Leopard's built-in apps match up well? Let's discuss. First things first: Outlook 2011 is not actually Outlook as you know, "love," and use it on various flavors of Windows. It is essentially an upgraded and revamped version of Entourage 2008, but it's polished up with some changes that will make some workflows smoother. I have been using it as my primary email client at my day job, and so far it hasn't had the random fits Entourage was known for. Another thing to note is the difference in editions -- if you buy the Home & Student Edition of Office 2011, you won't even get Outlook. You have to buy Home & Business or the Enterprise corporate edition of Office to get Outlook at all, so if your focus is a shiny new email client, it will cost you (or your employer). Click "Read More" to see the new features in this resurrected app for the Macintosh. %Gallery-107477%
Microsoft updates Office for Mac 2011
Microsoft has released an update to Office for Mac 2011 today. The 14.0.1 update weighs in at 110 MB and includes critical fixes for issues that might cause Office 2011 applications to stop responding or quit unexpectedly. Other issues the update addresses include: Excel: Excel-calculated cells are updated when revisions are made to related data. Reliability is improved when the FORMAT macro command is used. Word: Stability is improved when you build equations. PowerPoint: Stability is improved during slide shows. Compatibility with PowerPoint 2007 and PowerPoint 2010 is improved. Outlook: Reliability is improved when you delete messages from multiple IMAP accounts. Email passwords are retained in the keychain after new accounts are imported into Outlook. The update is recommended for all users of Office 2011 and can be downloaded here.
Office 2008 users: 12.2.7 update is available
With about two weeks to go until Office 2011 ships, Microsoft is making sure that Office 2008 is safe and sound with a security and stability update. The 12.2.7 update can be downloaded and installed by running Check for Updates from the Help menu in any of the Office 2008 apps, or letting Microsoft AutoUpdate do its job. What's in the update? For Microsoft Excel, it's a bug fix. According to Microsoft, the update "fixes issues that cause Excel to crash or close unexpectedly sometimes when you try to start an Excel application." And for those of you who use Entourage (Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?), it's about reliability. The update details there say that it fixes issues with Kerberos authentication with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and 2007 as well as an issue where Entourage would create duplicate items in the Exchange 2007 mailbox. You can read all of the details here. The installed update takes up 503.4 MB of your precious hard disk space.
Office 2011 to ship October 26
That's right -- Office for Mac 2011 now has an on-sale date; it's October 26th, which is just about a month away. The suite will be the first Mac OS X version that offers Outlook rather than Entourage, and it will come in a few different flavors. Home and Student 2011 will be available for US$119 (or $149 for a three-copy family pack), and it will come with Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Messenger. Home and Business 2011 will have the whole enchilada and will sell for $199 (or $279 for a two-install pack). The announcement came with the cheery video above, which runs through a few new features of the software and shows you a few of the kind folks running the Mac Business Unit. A couple of us have been using Office for Mac 2011, and we'll have some impressions for you later on. Stay tuned -- if you've been waiting for a brand new Office for Mac, the wait is almost over. [via Mashable and Nadyne Richmond]
Apple's MobileMe News details how iWork for iPad works with iDisk
iWork for iPad was updated yesterday with many changes, one of those being that the mobile app suite now includes integration with the MobileMe iDisk. What does that mean for iPad users who use Pages, Numbers, and Keynote? You can save your documents to the iDisk and then open them either from the iPad or any other internet-attached Mac or Windows machine. The details were posted on MobileMe News, the blog of the MobileMe team. Windows users can point a browser to me.com/idisk and upload existing Microsoft Office documents. Once the documents are in the cloud, they can be opened from the iPad for viewing or editing. Once work has been completed on the documents, they can be saved back to the iDisk as iWork, Microsoft Office, or PDF files. It would be nice if iWork for iPad also supported Dropbox or Box.net, but for the time being, it's good to see that Apple has added support for their own cloud storage solution. [via TiPB]
In Brief: Amazon tips hand on Microsoft Office release date
Computerworld points to an October 26 ship date for Microsoft Office 2011, based on Amazon's page updates indicating the 10/26 availability -- the products have since been switched back to "sign up to be notified" pre-release mode. Gregg Keizler's piece also reiterates the discount options for buying Office 2008 and saving on Office 2011; by purchasing the 2008 versions now, buyers can get $25 or $50 off versus the purchase price of the next version. We expect to hear more about Office 2011 features and fancy bits over the next few weeks. [9to5mac rang us up to say they actually posted this at 11:58pm on Sept. 9, 2010. Thanks!]
New Microsoft brand logos, company tagline revealed at MGX event? (update: no new logos, tagline is a go)
It looks like Microsoft may have revealed something big at its annual MGX (Microsoft Global Exchange) event, namely... new logos for its main brands and a fresh brand motto. "Be What's Next" touts a teaser which has been posted on YouTube, along with a fast moving sequence of morphing logos, shuffling from Windows, to Windows Phone, Xbox, Bing, and finally the familiar Office logo that's been kicking around for a little longer. It's unclear if these are just treatments used for a promo at the event, or if this is a signal that Redmond is dumping its familiar (and frankly dated) iconography for something a little looser, leaner, and hipper, but we can't say it would be a bad thing. It would certainly make sense against a backdrop of potential comeback in the mobile space, gains in search, and the seemingly successful (or at least satisfying) Windows 7 launch. One thing is for sure, MGX is a corporate, non-public opportunity for the Microsoft faithful to cheer the brand (Ballmer received a 30 year commemoration at MGX 2010), so this would definitely be the place to unfurl some new branding. Check the video after the break to see the new style, and hit the gallery below for a bigger look. Update: So... the YouTube video has been pulled. Fear not, we've got our own copy! Update 2: We've just been contacted by Microsoft and told that these are not new logos which will be used on products, rather a standalone treatment to show the flexibility of joined brands. However, the "Be What's Next" tagline is real, and will be showing up here and there. [Thanks, Anonymous] %Gallery-97972%
Entelligence: Time for Microsoft to once again embrace and extend
Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide. A core part of Microsoft's strategy from days gone by was known as embrace and extend. With a reboot of their mobile platform due later this year, is it time for Microsoft to think about moving some of their services and applications to competitor's platforms? To some degree, it's already happening. Microsoft licenses the ActiveSync protocol which allows Android, iOS and other platforms to wirelessly sync with Exchange. It's developed Bing and Live Messenger apps for iOS and also done a deal to bring mobile Office apps to Nokia's platforms. One could argue that in some of these cases Microsoft has given competitors access to what could have been key differentiators for its own mobile efforts. I'm not sure I disagree with that analysis, but now that it's happening, I think Microsoft should think even more broadly about porting some applications and services. Here's what I'd like to see made available for other platforms. Office Mobile: Sure, there are other solutions for viewing and editing Office documents on almost every platform, but none of them carry the Microsoft Office brand. A version of Office for mobile (including a touch-enabled version of OneNote) would be an instant best seller on every platform and a become the de facto standard for mobile office applications. A combination of free document viewers and a suite of applications at a reasonable cost would put Microsoft at the top of mobile productivity and at the same time help continue to drive Office sales for PCs and Macs.
New Hotmail, Microsoft Office 2010 available now
Just a quick note for those of you who have yet to adopt Open Office (or have yet to give up on being productive altogether). Microsoft Office 2010 is available right now for Windows 7 / Vista / XP users. Right this instant. As you read this. It has entered "the realm of the real," as it were. Depending on your needs and your budget, you can pick up one of various flavors: Home and Student (including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote for $150), Office Home and Business (all of the above, plus Outlook for $280), or Office Professional (adds Access and Publisher for a cool $500). If that weren't enough for you, it also looks like Hotmail (remember that?) got some massive improvements with Office Web App integration, new attachment limits up to 10 GB using SkyDrive, and more. What are you waiting for? Check out the source links to get started.
iPad misses out on Office romance, but gains a $900 app and more
Stephen Elop, el presidente of Microsoft's business division has stated that his company has "no current plans" to port its Office productivity suite over to the iPad. Contenting itself with a "wait and see" approach, the Redmond outfit isn't willing to completely close the door of possibility, but earlier hopes of seeing family favorites like Word and Excel on the iPad might have to be doused for the time being. Should that hamper the enjoyment of your new slate, you might want to console yourself with the extravagantly priced SiteClone Publisher, also available for the iPhone, which converts $900 of your hard-earned cashola into a tool that downloads data off particular sites while online, so that the user may access that content even without a connection. Doesn't sound worthy of a tenth of its price, but maybe the government and corporate entities it's aimed at will appreciate it more. Finally, Apple Insider is reporting whispers that Apple retail employees will be getting freebie iPads at some indeterminate point in the future, while NeoSmart has a particularly insightful breakdown of the differences between PowerPC, x86, and ARM CPU instruction sets. Hit up the links below for the full edifying experience.
Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac screenshots leaked
BoyGeniusReport has posted a series of screen shots from the next version of Microsoft Office for the Mac. The screen shots show the updated versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. They also show the first look at the new Outlook for Mac, which replaces Entourage. The screen shots show how the ribbon display, first brought to the PC version of Office in 2007, will be implemented on the Mac. Microsoft's Mac Business Unit first previewed Office for Mac 2011 in February. Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac is being rewritten entirely in Cocoa and is expected to ship later this year. Click on over to BoyGenius for the full gallery.
Word, Excel and OneNote for Windows Phone 7 Series revealed
We actually haven't seen any official shots of the Office apps for Windows Phone 7 Series, but now that Microsoft's emulator has been hacked and unlocked, we've got a glimpse of what creating a Word doc in OneNote looks like -- and while there's a high probability that this a super-early version of the app, it's still revealing in how drastically minimal it is. Microsoft says most people just want to make minor edits and leave comments to Office docs while on the go, not make large edits with copy and paste, so we'd expect to see track changes in the final version, but something tells us the main interface isn't going to look tremendously different than this. One more shot and the video with Word after the break -- hit the source for the second vid with Excel.
Microsoft loses second Word patent appeal, on the hook for $240 million in damages
And the intellectual property rollercoaster continues. Microsoft's second appeal of that $240m judgment banning sales of Word with features infringing on i4i's XML-related patents has been rejected, leaving the Redmond giant with a huge fine to pay atop its undoubtedly sky-high lawyer bills. The appeals court held that Microsoft was explicitly aware of i4i's patents before implementing the relevant XML code into Word -- undoubtedly because i4i had been selling an extremely popular XML plugin for years and had approached Microsoft about licensing it. Yeah, oops. Don't worry, though, there shouldn't be any consumer impact here: old versions of Word aren't affected, and current versions of Word 2007 and Office 2010 don't have the offending features. Still, Microsoft might be able to appeal yet again, depending on a panel ruling on the matter -- at this rate, we'd expect it.
Microsoft updates Office for Mac 2008 and 2004
Microsoft has just released updates to the 2004 and 2008 versions of Microsoft Office. According to the company, the updates, which weigh in at 9.7 MB and 221.5 MB respectively, provide "fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code" as well as improvements to stability and performance. The update for Microsoft Office 2004 can be downloaded here, while those with the 2008 version can find it at this link. As with most Mac OS X-related updates, whether from a third party app or a system update, you should consider backing up your data before proceeding. Keep in mind, as you install this update, that right around the corner is Microsoft Office for Mac 2011. Notable updates for the next version of the suite for the Mac include the replacement of Entourage with Outlook, the return of VBA and, gasp (or hurrah!), a more ribbon-oriented user interface, à la the Windows version of Office.
Macworld 2010: Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite demonstration
If you've ever had a need to create or edit Microsoft Office documents on your iPhone or any other mobile device, you're probably familiar with Quickoffice. It's a solid app that provides a way to transfer documents to your iPhone, open them, make changes, and then save them back to the device. At Macworld 2010, Quickoffice announced some changes to their iPhone product line. The app now comes in two flavors -- Quickoffice Connect [Free, iTunes Link], which is a document viewer, and the full Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite [US$9.99 sale price]. Both apps now have a feature that should make almost everyone happy -- integrated access to multiple cloud services including MobileMe, Dropbox, Box.net, and Google Docs. TUAW editor Steve Sande visited the Quickoffice booth at Macworld Expo 2010 yesterday and was treated to a full demo of the the Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite. We've got video, so see how Quickoffice can help you keep those docs in order by clicking the Read More link below.
Macworld 2010: Microsoft's MacBU talks Office for Mac 2011
The next version of Microsoft's Office suite, slated for arrival during the fourth quarter of 2010, has a new name, enhanced functionality, and even a more streamlined look. TUAW met with members of the Microsoft Mac Business Unit (MacBU) on Thursday to hear how the developers of Office for Mac are responding to requests from users to make it easier to work on documents across platforms. Some of the most welcome additions to the suite from an author's point of view are the co-authoring tools (see below). These tools enable Mac users to work on Office documents across platforms and locations, eliminating issues with version control. Office for Mac 2011 will have a Presence Everywhere feature providing status updates on who is working on a document at a particular time. The suite will also connect to Microsoft Office Web Apps (currently in beta) so that any Office documents can be shared or accessed from any Internet-connected computer. Microsoft has taken a cue from the "tool ribbon" in the existing Windows Office applications and changed the Office for Mac user interface to be familiar to Windows users, yet intuitive to Mac users. The team noted that more than 80 percent of the features used most by Office users are now located in the tool ribbon so that the users don't have to dig around to find tools. The MacBU had previously announced that the Office 2008 collaboration application, Entourage, would be replaced by Outlook for Mac. According to the team, Outlook for Mac utilizes the Exchange Web Services protocol and is a Cocoa app, providing not only additional Exchange compatibility but also better integration with Mac OS X. Many Microsoft customers had requested that Outlook for Mac have the ability to import .PST files from Outlook for Windows, and that wish has been granted. The single database used in Entourage is being replaced with a high-speed file-based database that works well with Spotlight and Time Machine. If you need to make sure that sensitive documents or information are not spread outside the confines of your company's email system, Information Rights Management is now built into Outlook for Mac. That essentially puts a lock on sensitive information, insuring that it isn't readable by non-authorized personnel. Microsoft's MacBU wants to hear from you! The team has a Twitter account (@OfficeforMac), a Facebook page, and a blog, and they'd love to hear your input about this application suite. We'll be sure to keep you updated as we get closer to the release date.
Microsoft may create Office for iPad
T3 is reporting that Mike Tedesco, Microsoft's Senior Product Manager for WindowsBU, stated that a version of Microsoft Office for the iPad is "something that we're looking at." Tedesco stressed that he couldn't make any official announcement today, but from the sounds of things, Microsoft is at least considering a version of Office for Apple's newest creation. The iPad already has the ability to run a productivity suite -- Apple has created iPad-specific versions of its own iWork programs, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote for $9.99 each -- but as T3 notes, bringing Office over to the iPad would go a long way toward establishing it as a legitimate productivity device. Whether those Office apps would be bundled together, offered individually, or cost as much as or more than iWork is, of course, impossible to say at this point. We'll keep you updated as we learn more about Microsoft's intentions. [Via MacRumors]
Making Microsoft Office on the Mac look more PC-like
Previously, I've mentioned that, despite their similar DNA and file interoperability, Microsoft Office for the PC and Mac are different in their own little subtle ways. This is part function: for example, Microsoft Excel on the Mac uses the 1904 date system, while its PC counterpart uses the 1900 system. But it's also part form. Upon first launch, Microsoft Word and Excel on the Mac present a more palette-oriented user interface, with a "toolbox palette," when compared to their pre-ribbon Windows counterparts. For some, this difference in UI schemas may serve as an annoyance. Though I'll be using Word for this example, you can also make these changes in Excel using the same steps. To make Microsoft Office on your Mac look more Windows-like (pre-Office 2007, that is), first close the "toolbox palette." Next, click on "View," and then click on "toolbars," where you'll be presented with a host of toolbars to choose from. Despite a myriad of choices, choosing the "standard" (which is already selected by default) and "formatting" toolbars provides you with the most similar UI layout to that I've often seen in Microsoft Word on a Windows machine. While it would be reasonable to assume that wanting to get rid of the toolbox palette would be more applicable to new PC-to-Mac converts, this isn't necessarily so. Regardless of one's sentiments toward Microsoft, most offices are, well, Microsoft Offices running on Windows. A consistent looking Word and Excel on our Macs could better facilitate one's workflow.
