Microsoft today released Office 2004 for Mac 11.5.1 Update and Office 2008 for Mac 12.1.2 Update.
Office 2004 for Mac 11.5.1 Update contains several improvements to enhance stability and performance. In addition, this update includes fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code. Applies to: Office 2004 Standard Edition, Office 2004 Student and Teacher Edition, Office 2004 Professional Edition, Word 2004, Excel 2004, PowerPoint 2004, Entourage 2004
Likewise, Office 2008 for Mac 12.1.2 Update contains several improvements to enhance stability and performance. In addition, this update includes fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code. Applies to: Office 2008, Office 2008 Home and Student Edition, Office 2008 Special Media Edition, Word 2008, Excel 2008, PowerPoint 2008, Entourage 2008.
More info and download links here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Chuckles the Microsoft CEO” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Do you really need Microsoft Office? Give Apple’s free 30-day iWork ’08 trial a try and find out for yourself.
Everytime MS does an update, I get all nervous and sweaty with fear! LOL
“Office 2008 for Mac 12.1.2 Update contains several improvements to enhance stability and performance.”
What does it do? Install iWork?
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NeoOfficeJ has been working perfectly fine for me, it’s cross-platform and donation-ware.
Microsoft software has been plagued with security issues on the Mac platform for years, trying to get us into the famous Microsoft “Stockholm Syndrome Effect” where they promise it will get better tomorrow and then tell you the same thing the next day.
Live a happier life, free from stress and frustration, avoid Microsoft products totally. Learn how to non-M$ products and save files in cross-platform/cross OS/app formats.
Pages needs a file compare capability (tied to trackchanges).
Sigh.. unfortunately, MS Office is neccessary to communicate with other PCers… I’d prefer not to have it.. but alas…..
What to do if you were Adobe and MSFT? They know developing software for the Mac is a sure bet so long as Windows dominate the desktop. Now Apple is grabbing markets in new areas of computing, where Adobe and MSFT aim to also compete. Their first instinct is to hold back their efforts for the Mac to freeze out OS X market, but now Apple is slowly refining their own apps better and better, doing that would leave an even bigger opening to lose Mac users forever. I would be surprised if two years from now 90% of the paid software on my Mac didn’t come from Apple or native Mac-based apps.
I helped an “older” friend of mine make the switch and he just couldn’t handle iWork. He needed to share documents with other MSFT users that used Word so I bought him a copy. Did the same for my Mom and myself so I could support both of them.
Hated doing it but to answer MDNs question, yes. There is still a need. iWork is not completely compatible. There are still issues between MSFT Word for the Mac/PC but it’s closer.
What a freakin’ pain. I hate Microsoft.
MDN take = clueless.
Yeah, iWork is seamless with Office docs.
Not.
Yeah, iWork is a great Exchange client.
Not.
We don’t like having to use it, but most corporations will continue to use MS as their standards.
Until then, keep updating MS.
>MacDailyNews Take: Do you really need Microsoft Office? Give Apple’s free 30-day iWork ’08 trial a try and find out for yourself.
Tried it and it overall, it sucks! Maybe in one or two more releases, it’ll be able to replace MS Office. But why switch if you’ve got something that works very well already?
As an alternative to MS Office, try Neo Office, it’s free.
maybe apple should release iWork for PC users. One of the biggest problems I have is keynotes. It is a great program but not easily shared or even viewed. Sure would be nice if they at least make a viewer like MS did with powerpoint years back. Pages and numbers are good but not as crucial.
Sounds like anyone who buys MS Office gets a free membership to the “Buffer Overflow of the Month” club. It’s a gift that keeps on giving. Enjoy!
@Me In LA
Thanks for putting that out there, I was thinking the same thing. Usually MDN is good, but that take was just plain stupid.
Some of us are tied to Exchange for work and can’t do anything about it.
Do you really need Microsoft Office? Give Apple’s free 30-day iWork ’08 trial a try and find out for yourself.
TRANSLATION:
Use iWork!
Not because it’s better than Office but because it’s made by Apple and not Microsoft. You too can use the inferior office solution that may be okay for basic page layout, flyers and invitations, but not for real word processing, spreadsheets or interoperability with the rest of the world.
Go ahead, give it a try!
Dang the MDN Apple evangelism gets to be sickening.
@Me In LA @Brian …. MDN take Do you really need Microsoft Office? …. how is this take stupid …. it was a question …. you answered yes I do need it …. end of discussion …..
So I started the Microsoft AutoUpdate. Guess what — it says no update available.
So I go to the download page. Downloaded the Office 2004 update, ran it, no problem. Then I downloaded the Office 2008 update. Says “Can’t install. No software found to update”. WTF? OK, it’s not in the Applications folder anymore. So I move it back. Still no go. Redownload. Nope. Restart. Nope. Wipe Office 2008. Reinstall Office 2008 from DVD. Now I have to do three updates. SP1 to 12.1.0 works. 12.1.1: “Can’t install. No software found to update”. WTF? I JUST DID A FRESH INSTALL INTO THE DEFAULT LOCATION (not that this should matter for a proper Mac OS X app). OK. Wipe again, reinstall again. This time as admin. Finally without a hitch, but the last leg alone took half an hour. The rest, nearly two.
Fuck Microsoft!
I’ve never seen so many people get their panties in a bunch over a simple software update that does minor fixes.
At any rate, here’s my two cents on iwork vs Office. First off, office is a fantastic suite of programs. I lived and breathed in office for years. The hardest thing about switching to the Mac was giving up outlook. Entourage isn’t as fast, and it’s a little more clunky than Outlook. Apple’s Mail + iCal + Address book all equal outlook as far as outlook’s sections are concerned. But the address book in outlook is WAY more comprehensive than Address Book in OS X.
I also missed (at first) having everything in one app in one window. However, now I prefer them to be separate.
As far as compatibility, I have noticed several times where Pages has issues reading a doc or docx file. However, Word always can successfully open a Doc file created from pages, so that’s a bonus. I would say 95% of the time, the file compatibility is perfect.
As far as features. Pages by far and away destroys Publisher. However, pages is supposed to be a word processor right? Although I have used it many times and have grown used to using it for word processing, it’s not as smooth as Word. I would like to see apple either pull the word processor out and give it it’s own app, or greatly improve pages with grammatical checking, more flexibility with tables, and some of the “auto” stuff that word does, such as when i type 7 or 8 hyphens in a row and hit enter, it makes a horizontal rule.
Dollar for Dollar, iWork is worth every scent. Number’s is awesome, although it slows down if I have a spreadsheet that has over 200 rows in it with 25+ columns whereas excel (mac or pc) does great. For $80, you can get 90% off MSFT Office features. Whereas to office is $200+ minimum (for the upgrade).
Right now, I recommend both. iWork is cheap enough that it is worth the investment (especially if you already have Office). If you don’t have office, then I recommend just iWork, it will suffice. New features will come in future versions that will bring apple to par with Office.
And yes, I need Office 2004 for Visual Basic files, and Office 2008 for Office 2007 files, mostly when they contain Excel graphs. All coming from MS Windows sheeples.
@Bob:
1) Change your name to bOOb
2) You obviously have issues with interpretation
I am astonished that no one mentions OpenOffice. The OS X native beta has been out for months and has been flawless for me. There are even cases where I could not open Windows Office created Excel files in the Mac version of office (2004), but OpenOffice was able to open the files perfectly. Also, performance is excellent on my 2GHz MacBook.
I also have iWork, and while KeyNote is terrific and Pages is not bad at all, Numbers is not in the same class as Excel or OpenOffice for more complicated spreadsheets. 90% of my work can be done in Numbers – don’t get me wrong… It’s just that large spread sheets slow to a crawl and there are still annnoying bugs.
There are just somethings that MDN does not get. I like iWork and use Numbers for simple spreadsheets and Keynote beats PowerPoint hands down. Its Pages that still needs a lot of work. Otherwise until iWork has the basic tools for doing graduate work, like tracking changes among a host of other things, I’ll stick with Office.
One problem (a major one for me) that all non-MS applications share is the lacking support for WMF/EMF elements, such as Excel graphs.
This is of course intended by MS. Have you looked in their documentation for that? Horrible. Half of the functions is not disclosed, so only MS programs can correctly render it.
That they were able to buy themselves an ISO with this crap is scandalous.
both NeoOffice and OpenOffice for mac are excellent. for a lot of folks these two will suffice instead of MS Office.
MICROSOFT ORIFICE
IT CAME FROM BALLMERS OFFICE
Office alternatives are great if you do not need full compatibility with Office for Windoze. I’ve basically given up on the Mac versions since invariably something I do on the Mac programs can’t open on the PC at work.
Is it just me, or did 12.1.2 for Office 08 actually speed things up a little?
OK, it doesn’t warrant the “sn” word, but instead of thick treacle, 08 now feels like a syrup of medium consistency.
Maybe I’m imagining it. Anyone else suffering a similar delusion?