[X4U] MS Office 2008 delayed

[Randy B. Singer]

On Aug 4, 2007, at 3:15 AM, Tim Collier wrote:

> Strangely enough, I do have some experience with Office 2007 (PC  
> version), I installed Vista and bought Office along with it for use  
> on the Mac Pro.  They've changed EVERYTHING and I might add NOT for  
> the better.  After a couple of Word documents and then trying to  
> put together an Access Database, I threw up my hands in  
> disgust....now how many manuals am I going to have to read before I  
> get some inkling as to how to use this new "crap"?

Welcome to the Macintosh.  The Macintosh is different than Windows.

As for learning how to "use this new crap", Word, and Office as a  
whole, are high end products.  I don't know of any high end programs  
that can be used without some reading and/or some training.  You  
can't expect to be proficient using Illustrator, Express, FinalCut  
Pro, Photoshop, GoLive, etc. without being trained to do so first.   
If you aren't prepared to learn how to use a high-end program, stay  
away from them.  Stick to consumer level programs.

Word isn't at all hard to use.  In fact, it is quite easy to use.   
But it isn't intuitive to *learn* to use, just like any other high  
end program.  Skipping the two or three hours of training that is  
required to learn to use Word proficiently, and instead spending  
countless hours everyday fighting with the program because you don't  
know how to use it is, IMHO, asinine.  Unfortunately, I see people  
doing this all the time.   It's a stupid as those people who go out  
and purchase the biggest, most powerful motorcycle they can find for  
their first-ever motorcycle.  Or someone who would try to fly an  
airplane without ever having gone to flight school.  And then  
complaining that these are too hard to learn to use.

> From what I've read, the Mac Version for 2008 is going to be along  
> the same line...no thank you very much.

Word is going to have its interface updated, but it won't be like the  
Windows version.

Are you criticizing Mac/Word's new interface without having even seen  
it?  Would you like to know how that sounds...?

> Yesterday, I bought Mariner Write and Mariner Calc.  They  
> handle .xls and .doc documents just fine and you can save them in  
> that format.  I've now removed Word and Excel and am happily  
> Microsoft free.

Perfect.  That is probably exactly what you should have done for your  
level of work.

> Just my experience here, there are alternatives to Office (that  
> also won't cost you an arm and a leg.

If you need a high-end word processor, there is no alternative on the  
Macintosh for using Word.  If you just need to write letters to  
grandma, there are a  ton of choices, and Word is probably entirely  
inappropriate for your needs.

> Be open minded and remember to "think different".

Uh...yeah.  You might want to be more open minded.

> Oh and this email is written using Apple Mail, not Entourage.

Good for you.

___________________________________________
Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html
___________________________________________