Office Mac Home and Business 2011 - 2 License Pack |
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Product Description
Work the way you want, where you want. With over 1 billion PCs and Macs running Office, Microsoft Office is the most-trusted and most-used productivity suite around the world. And Office for Mac 2011 is here to help you do more with your Mac on your terms. Use Word to create dynamic papers, Excel to format your data quickly, PowerPoint to help engage your audience and take your ideas further, and Outlook to stay close to your contacts and calendars. And since Office for Mac is compatible with Office for Windows, you can work on documents with virtually anyone on a Mac or PC. It’s the easiest way to create, share, and access your documents from almost anywhere. Office for Mac Home and Business 2011 includes Word for Mac 2011, Excel for Mac 2011, PowerPoint for Mac 2011, and Outlook for Mac 2011.Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #2 in Software
- Brand: Microsoft
- Model: W9F-00014
- Released on: 2010-10-26
- Platform: Mac OS X
- Format: DVD-ROM
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.20" h x 5.40" w x 7.50" l, .45 pounds
Features
- Office for Mac 2011 includes Mac versions of Word 2011, Excel 2011, PowerPoint 2011, and Outlook 2011; the most familiar and trusted productivity applications used around the world at home, school, and business.
- Reliable compatibility with the over 1 billion Macs and PCs running Office worldwide ensures you have the right tools to create, share, and collaborate with virtually anyone, anywhere, with no worries.
- Outlook for Mac 2011: Outlook 2011 lets you see your calendar from within your e-mail, read related e-mails in a single thread, import PST files, and preview attachments from within your email inbox.
- Office Web App support: New Office Web Apps let you post, access, edit, and share Office documents from where you want with nearly any computer with a browser; and coauthor a document with multiple people in multiple locations.
- Also includes Messenger for Mac 8 enabling you to communicate in real time with audio and video support, and Remote Desktop for Mac 2 so you can drive your Windows-based PC from your Mac.
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Product Description
With over 1 billion PCs and Macs running
Office, Microsoft Office is the most-trusted and most-used productivity
suite around the world. And Office for Mac 2011 is here to help you do
more with your Mac on your terms. Use Word to create dynamic papers,
Excel to format your data quickly, PowerPoint to help engage your
audience and take your ideas further, and Outlook to stay close to your
contacts and calendars. And since Office for Mac is compatible with
Office for Windows, you can work on documents with virtually anyone on a
Mac or PC. It's the easiest way to create, share, and access your
documents from almost anywhere.
2-Pack Version
Licensed for one (1) user for install on two (2) Macs. A single pack license is also available.What's New and Improved
Manage your email and calendars with features that simplify staying connected and up to date.
Powerful writing tools help you create outstanding documents, then store, edit, and share your work easily on the web.
Clarify
your financial picture with easy-to-analyze spreadsheets you can post
online to view, edit, share, or coauthor with your team from virtually
anywhere.
Create
powerful, professional presentations that engage and inspire your
audience, and present online as effectively as in person.
- Outlook for Mac Keeps you connected to e-mail, schedules, calendars, to-do lists, and contacts.
- Ribbon Access favorite commands quickly, and personalize your workspace.
- Office Web Apps* Post, edit, and share files from virtually anywhere.
- Coauthoring Simultaneously edit a file with authors in multiple locations.
- Template Gallery Visually select the perfect template for your next project.
- Photo Editing Remove backgrounds or add color filters right within PowerPoint.
- Full Screen View Use full screen to maximize space for reading and writing.
- Presentation Broadcast Broadcast a presentation instantly online, even to people without PowerPoint.
- Improved Publishing Layout View Create visually rich newsletters, brochures, and documents easily.
- Sparklines Create small charts in a single cell to discover patterns in your data.
- Visual Basic Support Automate repetitive tasks by programming your favorite commands.
- Dynamic Reordering Rearrange layers of text, photos, and graphics quickly.
Work the way you want, where you want.
Microsoft Office for Mac adds rich new features to the familiar Office applications you already know, helping you to manage your home and business the way you want. Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Business 2011 2-Pack includes a license for one (1) user for install on two (2) Macs, and includes:Outlook for Mac 2011
Manage your email and calendars with features that simplify staying connected and up to date.- Clean up your inbox by collapsing long email threads into a single Conversations.
- View your calendar within your e-mail and see your schedule displayed within a meeting invitation.
- Easily import your Outlook .pst files when you set up your new Mac.
- Consolidate e-mail from multiple accounts into a single folder.
- Manage your schedule and contacts without opening Outlook.
- Review your attachments with Quick Look, archive your files with Time Machine, and use Spotlight to search your e-mail.
Word for Mac 2011
Powerful writing tools help you create outstanding documents, then store, edit, and share your work easily on the web.- Create visually rich newsletters, brochures, and documents in Publishing Layout view.
- Instantly see styles applied in your document with Visual Styles.
- Work in Full Screen view to maximize space for reading and writing documents.
- Rearrange layers of text, photos, and graphics quickly with Dynamic Reordering.
- View, edit, store, and share documents online with the Word Web App on Windows Live SkyDrive.*
- Share and coauthor Word documents with virtually anyone, whether they're using Office on a Mac or PC.
Excel for Mac 2011
Clarify your financial picture with easy-to-analyze spreadsheets you can post online to view, edit, share, or coauthor with your team from virtually anywhere.- Clarify your data using Conditional Formatting with icons, data bars, and color scales.
- Spot trends with new Sparklines, small charts that fit in a single cell.
- Spend more time analyzing data and less time sifting through it with PivotTables.
- Organize, filter, and format related data with Excel tables.
- Increase efficiency and save time by automating repetitive tasks using Visual Basic.
- View, edit, store, and share spreadsheets online with the Excel Web App on Windows Live SkyDrive.*
- Share and coauthor Excel spreadsheets with virtually anyone, whether they're using Office on a Mac or PC.
PowerPoint for Mac 2011
Create powerful, professional presentations that engage and inspire your audience, and present online as effectively as in person.- Remove backgrounds or add color filters to your photos right within PowerPoint.
- Move beyond the conference room and broadcast your presentations online.
- Rearrange layers of text, photos, and graphics quickly with Dynamic Reordering.
- Rehearse, check your timing, and take notes in Presenter View.
- View, edit, store, and share Office documents online with the PowerPoint Web App on Windows Live SkyDrive.*
- Share and coauthor PowerPoint presentations with virtually anyone, whether they're using Office on a Mac or PC.
Customer Reviews
A Major Overhaul of Office for Mac, but Still a Poor Stepbrother to the Windows Version
Before I start with the review, I would like to say a few things
about myself and my experience with Microsoft Office products. I have
been using various components of Microsoft Office for almost a couple of
decades, on both Windows and Macintosh computers. Right now, I have a
copy of Office 2008 on my Mac Mini , as well as Office 2007 on my
Windows 7 (formerly Vista) laptop. I also occasionally use iWorks on my
iPad, Google docs, and have had some experience with OpenOffice. I use
word processing software on a daily basis, PowerPoint more or less
regularly for the lectures that I give, Excel for various laboratory
exercises, and Apple Mail or Outlook for part of my e-mailing needs.
I obtained my copy of Office 2011 through Amazon Vine products a day
ahead of the official release, and have spent most of today playing
with it and figuring out all of its new and noteworthy features. It is
definitely a more than worthy successor of Office 2008, and a huge
improvement across the board in almost every category. However, based on
my experience, MS Office for Windows is still the gold standard in the
category of business productivity software. This version of Office for
Mac was supposed to be the first "real" Office in over a decade, and
although it comes tantalizingly close to the equivalent Windows version,
it is still far from a full-fledged clone. It will, however, make
Macintosh computers respectable members of the professional business
environment. The biggest improvement in that regard is the final
inclusion of Outlook into the Mac version of the Office. Microsoft has
also reinstated Visual Basic, which is
Some General Observation
Installation was very smooth and quick. There was no need to remove
the previous version of the Office. The full install took up about 1.3
GB of hard drive space.
Office 2011 feels more powerful, more feature-rich and faster than
its predecessor. The increase in speed is definitely noticeable, and if
you use Office a lot in your line of work, this in itself will make it
well worth the upgrade.
In terms of look and feel, the greatest new addition to all Office
components is the introduction of Ribbon. Ribbon is an interface where a
set of toolbars is placed on tabs in a tab bar. It is highly
customizable, and it is context sensitive - various tasks have different
ribbon configuration. Microsoft started using Ribbon in Office 2007 in
place of taskbars. However, their ribbon has caused a lot of confusion
since it was a radical departure from the usual taskbars. Even though
the exclusive use of Ribbon declutters the look of various Office
applications, it was not too intuitive to use at first. Office 2011 uses
both the Ribbon as well as the taskbars, thus making a better and
smoother transition to the new functionality. In this sense Office 2011
seems a hybrid of Office 2007 for Windows and Office 2008 for Mac.
One of the major behind-the-scenes improvements of Office 2011 is
the return of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), which was missing
from previous versions of Office for Mac. This will facilitate creation
of event-driven templates for all of the components of Office 2011.
However, the greatest impact of the reintroduction of VBA will
undoubtedly be felt in Excel, especially in creation of more
sophisticated spreadsheets.
In recent months Microsoft has come up with an online version of
Office that is sophisticated enough for most of one's everyday needs,
and is positioned to compete directly with Google Docs. Office 2011 is
designed to take a full advantage of this new online environment,
including online and real-time collaboration with remote colleagues, as
well as ample (25 GB as of this writing) online storage in form of
SkyDrive. It is possible to directly save and open SkyDrive files from
any Office application, as well as drag-and-drop them using Microsoft
Document Connection which comes as standard with this version of Office.
Personally, I would have liked if it were possible to access SkyDrive
through Finder, but overall I am fairly satisfied with its
functionality.
Word
One of the great new features is the publishing layouts. They turn
Word into a serious desktop publishing tool, as well as a decent website
editor. It will not replace Dreamweaver any time soon, but it will be
more than effective for small-scale websites.
Word comes with many new themes and styles, which make publication
of any sort of new document a breeze. Obtaining new themes and styles
from the net has been streamlined, and can be done directly in Word
itself.
Documents can now be viewed in a full screen view, which hides all
the desktop background as well as both the taskbar and the Ribbon. The
latter can still be accessed by moving the cursor to the top of the
screen. Full screen is useful when you just want to concentrate on the
document itself, whether you are reading it or writing a new one.
My biggest disappointment with this version of Word for Mac was the
failure to include the blogging support. Ever since I discovered
blogging support in Word 2007 this has been my favorite way of writing
and publishing my blog posts. It brought together the full force of a
powerful word processor with the simplicity of publishing with a press
of a button. I was hoping that this feature will be incorporated into
Office 2011, in which case I could start to completely rely on my Mac
for all of my authoring needs. Unfortunately, this has not been the
case. I guess it would be possible to use website templates to create my
blog posts and then upload all the files and the generated html into my
site, but this is a rather cumbersome hack to say the least. Microsoft
may release a blogging add-on in the near future, but right now I am not
counting on it.
Excel
The biggest and most noticeable changes in Excel that will affect
majority of users are in terms of new visual aids and presentation
styles. Now you can pepper even your datasheets with visual icons,
graphics and other tools that help present the information in a much
more intuitively accessible ways. Excel 2011 also uses Sparklines, a
tool that highlights trends in your data. As mentioned earlier, you are
now able to use VBA for more advanced data analysis and table formatting
features. VBA is cross-platform compatible and your work should look
and feel the same whether you are using it or viewing it on a Mac or a
PC.
PowerPoint
Aside from the new look and feel that it shares with other Office
2011 apps, the new PowerPoint seems to have undergone the least amount
of change. There are many new templates and visual tools, but some of
these (such as video recording) are very limited in their usability.
PowerPoint now allows you to directly publish your presentations online,
even without Windows Live account. You can share the link to the online
presentations with others, and they can view them directly in their
browsers. However, it doesn't seem that all browsers are supported, and
some of the more media-intense PowerPoint presentations may not play
accurately.
Outlook
This is by far the snazziest and most user-friendly version of the
Outlook that I have ever used. This is also probably the only Office
component which truly feels native in OS X, which may be the reason why
it feels so user-friendly. As mentioned earlier, Microsoft did not
include Outlook as a part of the Office suite since 1998, and relied
instead on a much weaker Entourage for its desktop mail client. This
version of Outlook works well with both regular email accounts (such as
Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) although I did have some trouble figuring out the
correct server/account/password syntax. The same holds for the exchange
server connections: most of the trouble usually stems from the obscure
documentation for the particular exchange server that you are attempting
to connect with. Once you are up and running, though, it is as smooth
of a mail client as they come. The bad news is that this version of
Outlook is only compatible with Exchange Server 2007 or the later
editions. If your company still uses Exchange Server 2003 (or an earlier
version) you will not be able to use Outlook with it.
Other Apps
Some other apps that are of interest are the already mentioned
Microsoft Document Connection, as well as Microsoft Messenger and Remote
Desktop Connection. Microsoft Document Connection is very useful for
storing various files onto SkyDrive, including non-Office files such as
pdf documents. However, even though SkyDrive comes pre-configured with
folders titled "Music" and "Pictures" I was unable to upload jpeg or mp3
files. This is rather odd, but hopefully it will change in the future.
I don't really get to use Microsoft Messenger all that much, but
from what I can tell this is more or less the standard version of the
app, with a few small tweaks here and there.
Remote Desktop Connection is a neat way of connecting with Windows
machines on your local network. However, it does require that you are
familiar with what sorts of computers you have connected locally, as
well as that all of them are set up correctly for network-sharing.
Conclusion
This is definitely a major upgrade of the Office for Mac, and if you
are a power user getting the latest version of this product is a
no-brainer. This is especially true if you collaborate on documents and
projects with others a lot, or need Outlook for your e-mailing needs.
However, if you are more of a casual user you will perceive Office 2011
more as an evolution than a true leap forward. You will probably do just
fine for now by sticking to Office 2008.
Before I start with the review, I would like to say a few things
about myself and my experience with Microsoft Office products. I have
been using various components of Microsoft Office for almost a couple of
decades, on both Windows and Macintosh computers. Right now, I have a
copy of Office 2008 on my Mac Mini , as well as Office 2007 on my
Windows 7 (formerly Vista) laptop. I also occasionally use iWorks on my
iPad, Google docs, and have had some experience with OpenOffice. I use
word processing software on a daily basis, PowerPoint more or less
regularly for the lectures that I give, Excel for various laboratory
exercises, and Apple Mail or Outlook for part of my e-mailing needs.
I obtained my copy of Office 2011 through Amazon Vine products a day
ahead of the official release, and have spent most of today playing
with it and figuring out all of its new and noteworthy features. It is
definitely a more than worthy successor of Office 2008, and a huge
improvement across the board in almost every category. However, based on
my experience, MS Office for Windows is still the gold standard in the
category of business productivity software. This version of Office for
Mac was supposed to be the first "real" Office in over a decade, and
although it comes tantalizingly close to the equivalent Windows version,
it is still far from a full-fledged clone. It will, however, make
Macintosh computers respectable members of the professional business
environment. The biggest improvement in that regard is the final
inclusion of Outlook into the Mac version of the Office. Microsoft has
also reinstated Visual Basic, which is
Some General Observation
Installation was very smooth and quick. There was no need to remove
the previous version of the Office. The full install took up about 1.3
GB of hard drive space.
Office 2011 feels more powerful, more feature-rich and faster than
its predecessor. The increase in speed is definitely noticeable, and if
you use Office a lot in your line of work, this in itself will make it
well worth the upgrade.
In terms of look and feel, the greatest new addition to all Office
components is the introduction of Ribbon. Ribbon is an interface where a
set of toolbars is placed on tabs in a tab bar. It is highly
customizable, and it is context sensitive - various tasks have different
ribbon configuration. Microsoft started using Ribbon in Office 2007 in
place of taskbars. However, their ribbon has caused a lot of confusion
since it was a radical departure from the usual taskbars. Even though
the exclusive use of Ribbon declutters the look of various Office
applications, it was not too intuitive to use at first. Office 2011 uses
both the Ribbon as well as the taskbars, thus making a better and
smoother transition to the new functionality. In this sense Office 2011
seems a hybrid of Office 2007 for Windows and Office 2008 for Mac.
One of the major behind-the-scenes improvements of Office 2011 is
the return of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), which was missing
from previous versions of Office for Mac. This will facilitate creation
of event-driven templates for all of the components of Office 2011.
However, the greatest impact of the reintroduction of VBA will
undoubtedly be felt in Excel, especially in creation of more
sophisticated spreadsheets.
In recent months Microsoft has come up with an online version of
Office that is sophisticated enough for most of one's everyday needs,
and is positioned to compete directly with Google Docs. Office 2011 is
designed to take a full advantage of this new online environment,
including online and real-time collaboration with remote colleagues, as
well as ample (25 GB as of this writing) online storage in form of
SkyDrive. It is possible to directly save and open SkyDrive files from
any Office application, as well as drag-and-drop them using Microsoft
Document Connection which comes as standard with this version of Office.
Personally, I would have liked if it were possible to access SkyDrive
through Finder, but overall I am fairly satisfied with its
functionality.
Word
One of the great new features is the publishing layouts. They turn
Word into a serious desktop publishing tool, as well as a decent website
editor. It will not replace Dreamweaver any time soon, but it will be
more than effective for small-scale websites.
Word comes with many new themes and styles, which make publication
of any sort of new document a breeze. Obtaining new themes and styles
from the net has been streamlined, and can be done directly in Word
itself.
Documents can now be viewed in a full screen view, which hides all
the desktop background as well as both the taskbar and the Ribbon. The
latter can still be accessed by moving the cursor to the top of the
screen. Full screen is useful when you just want to concentrate on the
document itself, whether you are reading it or writing a new one.
My biggest disappointment with this version of Word for Mac was the
failure to include the blogging support. Ever since I discovered
blogging support in Word 2007 this has been my favorite way of writing
and publishing my blog posts. It brought together the full force of a
powerful word processor with the simplicity of publishing with a press
of a button. I was hoping that this feature will be incorporated into
Office 2011, in which case I could start to completely rely on my Mac
for all of my authoring needs. Unfortunately, this has not been the
case. I guess it would be possible to use website templates to create my
blog posts and then upload all the files and the generated html into my
site, but this is a rather cumbersome hack to say the least. Microsoft
may release a blogging add-on in the near future, but right now I am not
counting on it.
Excel
The biggest and most noticeable changes in Excel that will affect
majority of users are in terms of new visual aids and presentation
styles. Now you can pepper even your datasheets with visual icons,
graphics and other tools that help present the information in a much
more intuitively accessible ways. Excel 2011 also uses Sparklines, a
tool that highlights trends in your data. As mentioned earlier, you are
now able to use VBA for more advanced data analysis and table formatting
features. VBA is cross-platform compatible and your work should look
and feel the same whether you are using it or viewing it on a Mac or a
PC.
PowerPoint
Aside from the new look and feel that it shares with other Office
2011 apps, the new PowerPoint seems to have undergone the least amount
of change. There are many new templates and visual tools, but some of
these (such as video recording) are very limited in their usability.
PowerPoint now allows you to directly publish your presentations online,
even without Windows Live account. You can share the link to the online
presentations with others, and they can view them directly in their
browsers. However, it doesn't seem that all browsers are supported, and
some of the more media-intense PowerPoint presentations may not play
accurately.
Outlook
This is by far the snazziest and most user-friendly version of the
Outlook that I have ever used. This is also probably the only Office
component which truly feels native in OS X, which may be the reason why
it feels so user-friendly. As mentioned earlier, Microsoft did not
include Outlook as a part of the Office suite since 1998, and relied
instead on a much weaker Entourage for its desktop mail client. This
version of Outlook works well with both regular email accounts (such as
Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) although I did have some trouble figuring out the
correct server/account/password syntax. The same holds for the exchange
server connections: most of the trouble usually stems from the obscure
documentation for the particular exchange server that you are attempting
to connect with. Once you are up and running, though, it is as smooth
of a mail client as they come. The bad news is that this version of
Outlook is only compatible with Exchange Server 2007 or the later
editions. If your company still uses Exchange Server 2003 (or an earlier
version) you will not be able to use Outlook with it.
Other Apps
Some other apps that are of interest are the already mentioned
Microsoft Document Connection, as well as Microsoft Messenger and Remote
Desktop Connection. Microsoft Document Connection is very useful for
storing various files onto SkyDrive, including non-Office files such as
pdf documents. However, even though SkyDrive comes pre-configured with
folders titled "Music" and "Pictures" I was unable to upload jpeg or mp3
files. This is rather odd, but hopefully it will change in the future.
I don't really get to use Microsoft Messenger all that much, but
from what I can tell this is more or less the standard version of the
app, with a few small tweaks here and there.
Remote Desktop Connection is a neat way of connecting with Windows
machines on your local network. However, it does require that you are
familiar with what sorts of computers you have connected locally, as
well as that all of them are set up correctly for network-sharing.
Conclusion
This is definitely a major upgrade of the Office for Mac, and if you
are a power user getting the latest version of this product is a
no-brainer. This is especially true if you collaborate on documents and
projects with others a lot, or need Outlook for your e-mailing needs.
However, if you are more of a casual user you will perceive Office 2011
more as an evolution than a true leap forward. You will probably do just
fine for now by sticking to Office 2008.
Greatly improved, still handcuffed
When I reviewed the prior version of Office, I recommended that
users stick with Office 2004. Finally, I can strongly recommend
upgrading to Office 2011.
I should state at the outset that I am primarily a user of Word for
the production of long, annotated documents. I also use Excel and
Powerpoint, but would not consider myself a power-user of these
applications. I have been using Microsoft Word since 1986. This review
is mainly for people who have been Word/Office users and are wondering
whether to upgrade.
All three versions of the Office for Mac 2011 suite contain Word,
Excel and Powerpoint. The Home & Student version does not contain
Outlook; the Home & Business and Academic versions DO contain
Outlook. Outlook replaces Entourage. If you do intend to use Outlook,
keep in mind that this version only syncs with Exchange Server 2007 or
newer (check with your I.T. people to see if you are okay).
Furthermore, Outlook is not merely a renaming of Entourage; some
functions change and/or disappear. You can do a custom install of
Office 2011 and keep Entourage if you wish.
My snapshot of Microsoft's latest release:
Pros:
-Office 2011 is faster. It loads faster. It closes out faster.
There seem to be very few delays in moving through very long documents.
There is no sluggishness on my computer (2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo iMac with 2
GB of memory).
-The interface is improved from earlier versions.
-VBA support is back (critically important for many people; if you don't know what it is, you probably don't need it).
-Side-by-side arrangement of multiple documents. This sounds minor,
but if you compose using multiple document windows, this will have you
rejoicing. Why it has been so difficult to implement is a mystery (you
could do it in earlier versions by tweaking Word or by sizing the
windows manually). Now you can do it quickly from the "Window" menu.
Thank you. Thank you. A million thank yous.
-Better ability to browse and import media from elsewhere on your Mac.
-I am intrigued by the new notebook view; it allows for scribbles and audio inputs.
-There is a new full screen mode which helps me focus on the document; other people will find it hokey.
-Built-in support for collaborative document creation/editing and cloud computing.
Cons:
-The interface may be improved from earlier versions, but the intent
was clearly to make it more like the Windows version of Office rather
than exploit OS X. I think the Mac group at Microsoft is between a rock
and a hard place on this one: they can choose to make Office more
consistent across platforms (think about the demands placed on corporate
I.T. departments that support PCs and Macs), or they can create
something more unique and native to the Mac. I would prefer the latter,
but the former wins. Office for the Mac is handcuffed to Windows.
-The new formatting ribbon still takes up too much screen real
estate. This is no problem on my desktop, but it is an issue on a more
modest laptop. Microsoft has tried to cram everything including the
kitchen sink into the ribbon.
-The toolbar and ribbon are cluttered. For example, you can find
toolbar items repeated in the ribbons. I'm not sure what the design
philosophy is.
-Microsoft continues to refine Word's page layout capabilities (i.e.
the Publishing Layout view) but it is still kludgy. I would be very
tempted by competing programs (e.g. Apple's Pages is a good budget
competitor) if this were my focus.
Other comments:
-Installation was straightforward on both a desktop and laptop. The
process took about 15 minutes. Prior versions of Office are not
removed until you bother to delete them yourself.
-As noted, Microsoft's Mac unit has not tried to rock the boat too
much. Longtime users of Office should have little trouble shifting to
this version.
I will revisit this review as I learn more about the new version's
ins and outs. I do recommend that you check out some of the reviews
from professional publications. This is a major release and there will
be many journalists going over it with fine-toothed combs.
Cheers
When I reviewed the prior version of Office, I recommended that
users stick with Office 2004. Finally, I can strongly recommend
upgrading to Office 2011.
I should state at the outset that I am primarily a user of Word for
the production of long, annotated documents. I also use Excel and
Powerpoint, but would not consider myself a power-user of these
applications. I have been using Microsoft Word since 1986. This review
is mainly for people who have been Word/Office users and are wondering
whether to upgrade.
All three versions of the Office for Mac 2011 suite contain Word,
Excel and Powerpoint. The Home & Student version does not contain
Outlook; the Home & Business and Academic versions DO contain
Outlook. Outlook replaces Entourage. If you do intend to use Outlook,
keep in mind that this version only syncs with Exchange Server 2007 or
newer (check with your I.T. people to see if you are okay).
Furthermore, Outlook is not merely a renaming of Entourage; some
functions change and/or disappear. You can do a custom install of
Office 2011 and keep Entourage if you wish.
My snapshot of Microsoft's latest release:
Pros:
-Office 2011 is faster. It loads faster. It closes out faster.
There seem to be very few delays in moving through very long documents.
There is no sluggishness on my computer (2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo iMac with 2
GB of memory).
-The interface is improved from earlier versions.
-VBA support is back (critically important for many people; if you don't know what it is, you probably don't need it).
-Side-by-side arrangement of multiple documents. This sounds minor,
but if you compose using multiple document windows, this will have you
rejoicing. Why it has been so difficult to implement is a mystery (you
could do it in earlier versions by tweaking Word or by sizing the
windows manually). Now you can do it quickly from the "Window" menu.
Thank you. Thank you. A million thank yous.
-Better ability to browse and import media from elsewhere on your Mac.
-I am intrigued by the new notebook view; it allows for scribbles and audio inputs.
-There is a new full screen mode which helps me focus on the document; other people will find it hokey.
-Built-in support for collaborative document creation/editing and cloud computing.
Cons:
-The interface may be improved from earlier versions, but the intent
was clearly to make it more like the Windows version of Office rather
than exploit OS X. I think the Mac group at Microsoft is between a rock
and a hard place on this one: they can choose to make Office more
consistent across platforms (think about the demands placed on corporate
I.T. departments that support PCs and Macs), or they can create
something more unique and native to the Mac. I would prefer the latter,
but the former wins. Office for the Mac is handcuffed to Windows.
-The new formatting ribbon still takes up too much screen real
estate. This is no problem on my desktop, but it is an issue on a more
modest laptop. Microsoft has tried to cram everything including the
kitchen sink into the ribbon.
-The toolbar and ribbon are cluttered. For example, you can find
toolbar items repeated in the ribbons. I'm not sure what the design
philosophy is.
-Microsoft continues to refine Word's page layout capabilities (i.e.
the Publishing Layout view) but it is still kludgy. I would be very
tempted by competing programs (e.g. Apple's Pages is a good budget
competitor) if this were my focus.
Other comments:
-Installation was straightforward on both a desktop and laptop. The
process took about 15 minutes. Prior versions of Office are not
removed until you bother to delete them yourself.
-As noted, Microsoft's Mac unit has not tried to rock the boat too
much. Longtime users of Office should have little trouble shifting to
this version.
I will revisit this review as I learn more about the new version's
ins and outs. I do recommend that you check out some of the reviews
from professional publications. This is a major release and there will
be many journalists going over it with fine-toothed combs.
Cheers
Outlook does not work with Exchange 2003
If I were reviewing the Home & Student Edition of this software
it would get 10 stars. However, since this is the Business Version, it
only gets 1 star, if any. I purchased the Business Version because I
need it to speak with my business's servers. However you need to have
2007 Exchange server or newer in order for Outlook to work (the only
reason to buy the Business Version). I understand that Microsoft is
hoping that this helps nudge people to buy new servers and thus they
make more profit, but my company is not about to spend tens of thousands
of dollars to upgrade our servers just so that I can have the newest
version of Office. Therefore Microsoft has inadvertently handcuffed me
and I'm sure many more to using Office 2008 just because Outlook won't
work with 80% of the servers in this world.
If I were reviewing the Home & Student Edition of this software
it would get 10 stars. However, since this is the Business Version, it
only gets 1 star, if any. I purchased the Business Version because I
need it to speak with my business's servers. However you need to have
2007 Exchange server or newer in order for Outlook to work (the only
reason to buy the Business Version). I understand that Microsoft is
hoping that this helps nudge people to buy new servers and thus they
make more profit, but my company is not about to spend tens of thousands
of dollars to upgrade our servers just so that I can have the newest
version of Office. Therefore Microsoft has inadvertently handcuffed me
and I'm sure many more to using Office 2008 just because Outlook won't
work with 80% of the servers in this world.
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