Third Office for Mac 2011 Beta Reveals New Icons, Splash Screens, more

[.Neo]

In that case there would also be little reason to switch over to Outlook, unless you need some kind of email protocol Mail doesn't support. Beyond personal preferences that is.

[.Ark]

Nasty icons and splash screens but I'm excited about the software.

[Xtreme $niper]

In that case there would also be little reason to switch over to Outlook, unless you need some kind of email protocol Mail doesn't support. Beyond personal preferences that is.

Well I'm looking to see what kind of other features that add... I know Mail has most of the features that I would already want (filters, smart folders, etc), which is why it will be tough for Outlook to convince me to switch...

On the other hand, if they wow me with a creative/nifty feature, I might give it a try. I won't know until they release the details.

[qdave]

Nasty icons and splash screens but I'm excited about the software.

Am i the only one who likes em?

[giga Veteran]

Still using a floppy for the save icon? It?s been more than 10 years since a Mac has even had a floppy drive.

[Quillz]

Still using a floppy for the save icon? It's been more than 10 years since a Mac has even had a floppy drive.

Many, many applications still use the floppy disk drive as a visual indicator of a "Save" feature.

[giga Veteran]

Many, many applications still use the floppy disk drive as a visual indicator of a "Save" feature.

Then my criticism applies to those apps as well. No Apple applications use a floppy disk save icon (and they shouldn?t).

[Quillz]

Then my criticism applies to those apps as well. No Apple applications use a floppy disk save icon (and they shouldn't).

I'd agree, but keep in mind that for many people using computers, the standard for years and years when it came to saving to an external device was the floppy. And as far as I know, nearly every version of Office ever has used the floppy disk icon.

[Xtreme $niper]

What would you use instead? A bunch of hard drive platters? To me that indicates a database. And even still, that notion will soon go the way of the floppy as SSDs start to flood the market. I think it's just a simple symbolic icon that everyone understands means "save".

[.Neo]

A "Save" toolbar button doesn't have any place on Mac OS X to begin with.

What would you use instead? A bunch of hard drive platters? To me that indicates a database. And even still, that notion will soon go the way of the floppy as SSDs start to flood the market. I think it's just a simple symbolic icon that everyone understands means "save".

Agreed. Although Apple did replace the Energy Saver preference pane icon from a traditional lightbulb to an eco-friendly one. :p

PS I just noticed Outlook has new sounds. The ones from Entourage were much much nicer IMO, especially the new mail one.

[Xtreme $niper]

A "Save" toolbar button doesn't have any place on Mac OS X to begin with.

Agreed. Although Apple did replace the Energy Saver preference pane icon from a traditional lightbulb to an eco-friendly one. :p

PS I just noticed Outlook has new sounds. The ones from Entourage were much much nicer IMO, especially the new mail one.

Sometimes you take two steps forward, and another one back. lol

[Brandon]

I still don't understand why they don't release Microsoft Access on Mac. I don't have a mac, but so many of the upper-level classes use Access and students that have a Mac have to use the computer lab to do their homework.

[Elliott]

I still don't understand why they don't release Microsoft Access on Mac. I don't have a mac, but so many of the upper-level classes use Access and students that have a Mac have to use the computer lab to do their homework.

I'm sorry, but if a teacher is using Access, they should go shoot themselves. :p

[ienhz]

I still don't understand why they don't release Microsoft Access on Mac. I don't have a mac, but so many of the upper-level classes use Access and students that have a Mac have to use the computer lab to do their homework.

Same with Visio and Project.

[mrmomoman]

Same with Visio and Project.

Don't understand that reasoning. My feeling is that they will not have enough users in that market space to justify porting it over to MAC. I use Concept Draw and SmartDraw 10 in both version for Mac and PC. Just a software junkie I am.

I do not like the new icons. They look horrible - almost cheap looking. It does load a lot faster though.

[Quillz]

To anyone using Beta 3... Are all the applications but Outlook crashing for you? It seems as soon as I try to load Word, Excel or PowerPoint, they get to either the splash screen or the project window and then crash. This didn't happen with Beta 2, and yes, I've made sure to delete *ALL* system preference files.

[revanmj]

To anyone using Beta 3... Are all the applications but Outlook crashing for you? It seems as soon as I try to load Word, Excel or PowerPoint, they get to either the splash screen or the project window and then crash. This didn't happen with Beta 2, and yes, I've made sure to delete *ALL* system preference files.

Works fine for me.

[.Neo]

To anyone using Beta 3... Are all the applications but Outlook crashing for you? It seems as soon as I try to load Word, Excel or PowerPoint, they get to either the splash screen or the project window and then crash. This didn't happen with Beta 2, and yes, I've made sure to delete *ALL* system preference files.

This suddenly happened with beta 2 on my Mac. One day everything was fine, the other everything stopped working. Trashing the preferences (including the folder in Documents) had no effect whatsoever to counter the issue. No idea what other steps could have been taken to fix it.

[enigma-penguin Veteran]

Im having no crashing issues with any of the applications at all, I'm actually liking outlook for mac at the moment and I'll definitely consider picking it up. Previously I only had Office 2004 for Mac and I loathe Entourage, so this is a step in the right direction. (not perfect in the least, but a step)

Though I'm having issues with IMAP rules, has anyone experienced the rules only attempting to apply themselves when you click on an email? (instead of on loading)

Edit: I should note this is on 10.6.3 on a newer MBP and 10.6.3 on a late 07 Macbook, both where installed where an existing version of office 2004 was in place.

[Quillz]

Im having no crashing issues with any of the applications at all, I'm actually liking outlook for mac at the moment and I'll definitely consider picking it up. Previously I only had Office 2004 for Mac and I loathe Entourage, so this is a step in the right direction. (not perfect in the least, but a step)

Though I'm having issues with IMAP rules, has anyone experienced the rules only attempting to apply themselves when you click on an email? (instead of on loading)

No issues at all? Damn, I wonder why it's not working for me...

I did do a custom install. Maybe being a beta that wasn't a good idea. I guess I'll uninstall everything and then do a full (standard) install.

And unrelated, but there are still a few graphical quirks here and there. The Office Installer uses the old "O" icon circa 2004-2008. I imagine it will be updated. And pop-ups generated by Outlook still use the old Entourage "E."

[Xtreme $niper]

And pop-ups generated by Outlook still use the old Entourage "E."

That's actually pretty funny. I thought they would have started Outlook from scratch, but I guess they just re-worked Entourage. Kinda lame.

[.Neo]

That's actually pretty funny. I thought they would have started Outlook from scratch, but I guess they just re-worked Entourage. Kinda lame.

The thing is both Outlook and Entourage rely on a number of sub-applications and frameworks that are located outside the main application's package contents. Those sub-apps haven't been updated yet in this build, hence the numerous Entourage artifacts in Outlook. Also not all image art has been updated yet, so my guess is they just recycled the old ones as a temporary placeholder.

That said, I think it's unrealistic to expect Microsoft just threw all of Entourage's code out the door. Hell, even Mail in Mac OS X Snow Leopard probably still has code in it from its NextSTEP days...

[jelli]

Love the icons, screenshots and splash screens. They look very good.

[Xtreme $niper]

Well NextSTEP libraries themselves still exist heavily in Cocoa and Objective-C so I'd believe that... But at least they don't try to unrealistically support legacy systems from years gone by like Microsoft usually does... But that's completely off-topic so I'll leave it at that.

[MulletRobZ]

Those icons are simple, yet modern. However, I feel Microsoft should have used the same icons for both the Mac and Windows version of Office, and I feel the Windows ones are better IMHO.