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

[Quillz 1,011]

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.

Microsoft has so many millions of customers, including enterprise customers, that continually rely on old Microsoft releases. They're larger than Apple and thus can't simply discontinue support for older technology the way Apple can. Microsoft sold and supported Windows 3.11 up until the end of 2006, for example. Even Windows 1.01 was supported well into 2004.

I'm still having trouble getting Beta 3 to work. Did a completely uninstall, used Spotlight to delete all old preferences and then just did a standard reinstall and still... Only Outlook works. Same thing happens on my MacBook which had no Office software on it at all. Maybe the build I acquired is corrupted, even though it appears to install fine.

[PyX 140]

Very good so far. The icons look greater and greater every day, but they?re too tiny IMO. I don?t think I will keep them when I have the final version.

Plus, it?s still pretty slow to startup.

A lot of placeholders have been changed to real, final icons => Nice thing.

I need to dig up more in this beta, haven?t had the time to play with it a lot. But Beta 2 was good, I guess this one is the same, just in better.

[Quillz 1,011]

The application icons in Beta 3 are 512?512, last I checked. They don't appear to be any smaller than any other application icons.

[Elliott 235]

The application icons in Beta 3 are 512×512, last I checked. They don't appear to be any smaller than any other application icons.

I would think he means small as in small in scale (like not filling up as much of the 512x512 space) compared to other icons on the system, but I'm not really seeing that. Then again, I don't have it installed and can't compare it to other icons in my dock.

[enigma-penguin 17]

I would think he means small as in small in scale (like not filling up as much of the 512x512 space) compared to other icons on the system, but I'm not really seeing that. Then again, I don't have it installed and can't compare it to other icons in my dock.

The icons next to their old counterparts and a few system icons, I don't see the issue. I guess you could call them a little flat, you notice they don't really "pop" as much as the other icons.

[Andrew 2,861]

They just don't look right imo without the gloss and the use of soft colours

[.Neo 1,834]

They just don't look right imo without the gloss and the use of soft colours

How? The Mac OS X Snow Leopard interface isn't exactly shining bright of glossy textures... I have to agree though that they look kind of dull compared to the vibrant appearance of most Apple applications... But I guess that's what's suits Microsoft. :p

[rawr_boy81 41]

How? The Mac OS X Snow Leopard interface isn't exactly shining bright of glossy textures... I have to agree though that they look kind of dull compared to the vibrant appearance of most Apple applications... But I guess that's what's suits Microsoft. :p

Apple has been phasing out glossiness and bling for ages now; anyone remember the pinstripes that were phased out? the excessive use of transparency that is now gone? The new icons are well within the new direction of Apple and the flatness is only because of the the smallish size but there is depth when you look at how the letters are ribbons thus the depth isn't exaggerated as with the case of Office 2008. Personally I find the new icons are more professional and less candy coated OMG ponies!

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".

For Open and Save; Open has an icon with a folder partially open with an arrow pointing out of it, for the save icon a partially open with an arrow pointing into it.

[.Neo 1,834]

For Open and Save; Open has an icon with a folder partially open with an arrow pointing out of it, for the save icon a partially open with an arrow pointing into it.

Sounds like Upload / Download to me rather than Open / Save...

[Xtreme $niper 51]

Microsoft has so many millions of customers, including enterprise customers, that continually rely on old Microsoft releases. They're larger than Apple and thus can't simply discontinue support for older technology the way Apple can. Microsoft sold and supported Windows 3.11 up until the end of 2006, for example. Even Windows 1.01 was supported well into 2004.

And I think it is exactly for that reason that Microsoft will continue to have problems... One of the main reasons why OS X is so nimble and lean is because they get rid of unnecessary legacy code when they deem that it is too old to be supported. In my opinion, if you want to keep using old programs, then you should keep using old hardware. Apple supports legacy systems for quite a long time if you ask me, and I think that they cut off support right when they should. Until Microsoft stops supporting this notion that using old software is okay to do, then they will never have a really solid OS that leaves behind silly holes and performance issues that constantly plague Windows. (*cough*registry*cough*). To be honest, Windows 7 comes a long way in making things a little better, but you can tell there is still a lot of stuff going on in there that they just keep around to please a fraction of the market that wants to use some software that hasn't been updated since Windows 98 days. Bah humbug.

The icons next to their old counterparts and a few system icons, I don't see the issue. I guess you could call them a little flat, you notice they don't really "pop" as much as the other icons.

I think they look great.

For Open and Save; Open has an icon with a folder partially open with an arrow pointing out of it, for the save icon a partially open with an arrow pointing into it.

Yeahh, I can see how that can work. I think some programs actually already use that.

[Andrew 2,861]

How?

Because they are lacking the shine/glass effect, no chrome bezels and even their reflection in the dock is less apparent. You can barely see the Powerpoint reflection!

[.Neo 1,834]

Because they are lacking the shine/glass effect, no chrome bezels and even their reflection in the dock is less apparent. You can barely see the Powerpoint reflection!

Do Address Book, iCal, Calculator, iPhoto, Mail, Keynote, Numbers, all folder icons, TextEdit, Stickies, Image Capture, Front Row etc. have a shine/glass effect and/or chrome bezel? I don't think so. PowerPoint's reflection and shadow isn't any less apparent than Pages sitting next to it... Obviously it will be if you're using a largely orange background that casts a orange shade over the entire Dock... (duh)

[PyX 140]

Well iTunes and Safari and maybe the Finder have a gloss effect, but Office 2008 had an exaggerated shine/gloss/bevel and emboss effect.

[The Guvnor 56]

you think those icons look stupid , try using Adobe CS5 & then see how out of place do CS5 icons look

[xfodder 0]

you think those icons look stupid , try using Adobe CS5 & then see how out of place do CS5 icons look

i know what you mean ... at least it looks like Microsoft put some effort into the office icons ... cs5 looks like something a 10 year old could make

[Quillz 1,011]

i know what you mean ... at least it looks like Microsoft put some effort into the office icons ... cs5 looks like something a 10 year old could make

There was an article somewhere that explained the new branding Adobe was going for in CS5. It makes a lot more sense on Windows than it does on Mac OS X. The general idea is they were attempting to recreate abstract objects, angles, things like that. It was based on the work of a particular artist, I don't remember which one.

[.Neo 1,834]

Beta 4 has been released. Messenger for Mac icon has been updated. Looks pretty nice, much better than the current glossy icon with awkward white border around it. That's something I hate about the Office 2008 icons: the white border gives them an odd 2D look (as if they were 3D before but then been hit by a steamroller) that just doesn't fit in with Mac OS X. At least the new icons look 3D again.

Why is it that Microsoft still doesn't seem to get that borders are out these days on Mac OS X, and have been for quite some time now? And why, oh why, are they still using those poor quality sounds?! Even worse they're still hardcoded into the app, making them extremely difficult to replace.

Oh well, at least it looks pretty in the Dock now. :p

[ThothTD 1]

I'm going to try out Beta 4 and see what it is like, specially the Messenger.

I'll report back soon :)

[.Neo 1,834]

Except for the new "home" screen and app icon it hasn't really changed from beta 3. Home screen looks pretty out of place on Mac OS X.

[Quillz 1,011]

Beta 4 has been released. Messenger for Mac icon has been updated. Looks pretty nice, much better than the current glossy icon with awkward white border around it. That's something I hate about the Office 2008 icons: the white border gives them an odd 2D look (as if they were 3D before but then been hit by a steamroller) that just doesn't fit in with Mac OS X. At least the new icons look 3D again.

Why is it that Microsoft still doesn't seem to get that borders are out these days on Mac OS X, and have been for quite some time now? And why, oh why, are they still using those poor quality sounds?! Even worse they're still hardcoded into the app, making them extremely difficult to replace.

Oh well, at least it looks pretty in the Dock now. :p

Have any other parts of the UI changed with Beta 4? Are the icons from Beta 3 still around?

[Guest]

Love that new Messenger icon, much better :).

[Geoffrey B. 1,415]

Still think I am going to be sticking with Open Office on my Mac for now.

[Xtreme $niper 51]

I used to try to use Microsoft Messenger for a long time... I got fed up with the lack of offline messaging support (something so basic it's frustrating) so I started using Adium and have not looked back since.

They really gotta do something spectacular with this one to get me to go back. A/V support and offline messaging would be a start.

[.Neo 1,834]

Have any other parts of the UI changed with Beta 4? Are the icons from Beta 3 still around?

Nope. Not compared to beta 3 anyway. Only the main application icon has changed.

Still think I am going to be sticking with Open Office on my Mac for now.

:x Personally I prefer iWork over Microsoft Office. Especially Keynote blows PowerPoint anway IMO.

I used to try to use Microsoft Messenger for a long time... I got fed up with the lack of offline messaging support (something so basic it's frustrating) so I started using Adium and have not looked back since.

They really gotta do something spectacular with this one to get me to go back. A/V support and offline messaging would be a start.

Does Adium support offline messaging and A/V for MSN/Windows Live contacts? Messenger 8 will introduce A/V support.

[Brandon H 3,907]

why not just use trillian or meebo for messaging, they work great