Is Office 2008 still horrible? [mac]

[Justin-]

Short answer: YES

iWork works a lot better.

Good thing i got Office 2008 for free (legally)

+1. I actually got mine for -$80 or so (sold Office 2004 just a few weeks ago).

iWork 08 is great and quick. I greatly enjoy the Office 2008 look and layout, but the thing is so very slow.

[sn00pie]

I have both and I prefer Office 08 for Mac. I'm more familiar with using Word then Pages, so that's the main reason I stick with Word. I haven't had any issues like crashing or anything like that. It does what I need it to do just fine. :)

I don't care about waiting 30 seconds for it too load.

[PyX]

Yes, what's wrong?

Lol I was just wondering how it was possible...

[giga Veteran]

I've actually never had any issues with Office 2008 at all. And with the latest patches, this continues to be the case. There was a minor issue with Spaces, but it's fixed. I use Office 2008 every single day and I love it. I tried iWork and didn't care for it.

I wonder how many people here have actually used Office 2008 for more than a day. I think that some here are saying it sucks simply because hating Microsoft is the trendy thing to do these days.

Try using it on a laptop--simply unbearable. A word processor or spreadsheet application should not take an entire minute to load. The interface should not lag with the mouse.

No, I'm not trying to be trendy. The majority of mac users aren't being trendy when they say that Office 08 is a snail compared to iWork.

[PyX]

I've actually never had any issues with Office 2008 at all. And with the latest patches, this continues to be the case. There was a minor issue with Spaces, but it's fixed. I use Office 2008 every single day and I love it. I tried iWork and didn't care for it.

I wonder how many people here have actually used Office 2008 for more than a day. I think that some here are saying it sucks simply because hating Microsoft is the trendy thing to do these days.

No, I fell in love with Office 2007 as soon as I tried it. It's actually pretty much the only big thing made by MS that I actually like, and I like it a lot, despite all the bugs.

They should have placed the options at the same places, removed the menus at the top (Just keep the Apple logo cuz they have no choice, and a Word menu, period) and make the interface "fit" with OS X. I would have used it every day, and uninstalled my Windows version. And I know I'm annoying with that, but it would have required math expressions as well implemented as in Windows/Office 07

[LiqHead]

BTW might wanna change the title (should be Is) ;).

[Quillz]

Try using it on a laptop--simply unbearable. A word processor or spreadsheet application should not take an entire minute to load. The interface should not lag with the mouse.

No, I'm not trying to be trendy. The majority of mac users aren't being trendy when they say that Office 08 is a snail compared to iWork.

I use Word every day on my MacBook and it loads very, very quickly. It doesn't take anywhere near a minute for me. Maybe at the most, around 5-10 seconds. And I use a wireless Mighty Mouse with my MacBook and it doesn't cause Word to lag.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't think I am. I really don't have any of the issues that are being described here. Maybe I'm just lucky.

[LiqHead]

And for the love of God people it's Office for Mac 2008- not Office 2007! You know who you are. ;)

[sn00pie]

I'm on a base MacBook and I don't get any lag when using Microsoft Word. I have the latest of the updates too...

I have 1GB of RAM :yes:

[Cadium]

I haven't used Microsoft Office on the Mac since Office v.X a few years ago. I prefer iWork because of how well it integrates with iLife '08 and Mac OS X, however I might try Office 2008 some day to see what it is like.

[firequantum]

i'm using Office 2008 on a base MacBook (upgraded to 2GB of RAM) and I also don't experience any problems with slow loading times, takes around 15-20 seconds the first time (cold launch) I launch an Office application, any times after this it loads almost instantly. :wacko:

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

Office 2008 took a while to load on my MacBook - even when I upped the RAM to 4GB.

But when I put it on my MacBook Pro, with still 2GB - it's a lot faster. So I think it's due to the system as well.

[rajputwarrior]

it takes me about 25 seconds to open word and actually be able to type. It has gotten better since its release, but it is still REALLY REALLY slow.

[sanctified Veteran]

I finally installed it along with 600+ mbs of updates (the updates are already bigger than the original suite itself :s)

The cold launch took around 30 secs, subsequent launches are almost instantly, opening an existing SMALL document (tried with different ones and then several times with the same one) takes from 10 to 15 seconds, thats hardly impressive, but I have no other choice. :/

[mattmatik]

I uninstalled my retail purchased copy due to complete frustration! I recently updated to the latest release, went to open Word and I got an error about some file not being corrupted. Tried Excel, same thing. PowerPoint...yup same thing. I was so tired of it being slow anyway but that was the last straw for me.

I am back to 2004 in Fusion. It works.

[EnzoFX]

Well, there is a small performance hit. I installed it on my old iBook, and I noticed it being dramatically slower than '04. I installed it on my desktop, and it's not so bad. Loads in like under 10 secs. This is on a 2.8ghz c2d, 2gb ram...

It probably loads as fast as '07 does on Windows Vista with the same specs.

[Neil]

To slow for me on my MacBook and iWork does what I want.

[sanctified Veteran]

Well, there is a small performance hit. I installed it on my old iBook, and I noticed it being dramatically slower than '04. I installed it on my desktop, and it's not so bad. Loads in like under 10 secs. This is on a 2.8ghz c2d, 2gb ram...

It probably loads as fast as '07 does on Windows Vista with the same specs.

It loads a docx file in over 10 seconds in my macbook pro (2.2ghz C2D) while Office 2007 was almost instant on my old Pentium 4 3.2ghz

[se7en.hu]

I haven't used it for a little while, but it just seemed to cause problems for me, weird problems completely unnecessary, uncalled for!

That sucks for you man.

Edited September 4, 2008 by se7en.hu

[EnzoFX]

"Benched" them, it was 5 seconds on Vista. 10 on OS X. 07/08 - same hardware.

[maxsquared]

I used iWork for whole of my final year project (more than 100 pages of writing), and it was great and pretty. Only thing is it wasn't export well in doc format, has the latest iWork improved this?

[PyX]

15 seconds here, opened for the first time after reboot, with project gallery on

5 seconds, opened for the 2nd time after reboot, with project gallery off

In Vista, office 2007 opens a lot faster... like, not even 5 seconds for the first time after reboot, and it never showed me this stupid project gallery.

[Damian]

Lol I was just wondering how it was possible...

Got the Home & Student edition for free when i purchased my MacBook (only for students at my uni)

[PyX]

Ahhh by buying a Mac, yeah that makes sense

It's probably the only thing I haven't thought about lol

[sn00pie]

Word takes under 20 seconds to load the first time for me. But if I launch it anytime after loading and quitting it once, it takes 5-7 seconds from clicking to being able to start typing. Not bad if you ask me.

Pages didn't do a great job when I tried opening my resume the first time, so my initial experience with it wasn't great. :p