[X4U] MS Office 2008 delayed

[Dennis R. Cohen]

On 8/3/07 at 5:48 PM, Tim Collier <timjcollier at mac.com> transmitted the
following electronic message:

>On Aug 3, 2007, at 12:35 PM, Earle Jones wrote:
>
>>
>> On Aug 3, 2007, at 12:05 AM, Randy B. Singer wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> On Aug 2, 2007, at 1:23 PM, Tim Collier wrote:
>>>
>>>> I find that I'm using Pages and Mellel (another Universal Word  
>>>> Processor) more and more and Word less and less.  I hate how slow  
>>>> it loads on my Intel Macs and I'm beginning to doubt that I'm  
>>>> actually going to upgrade when (if) the update ever comes out.   
>>>> Tired of waiting for Microsoft.
>>
>> Tim:   Greetings!
>>
>> Have you tried 'NeoOffice' as a substitute for MS Office?  I wonder  
>> how it compares with Mellel.  The NeoOffice PowerPoint substitute  
>> works well -- so does the spreadsheet. (Intel iMac.)
>>
>> earle
>
>Thanks, but I don't need a spreadsheet.  I do use FileMaker Pro 9 as  
>my database management tool.  I like it a lot.  I've just been  
>looking at Mariner as a Word Processor,  I still like Pages and  
>Mellel but I'm wondering if something else might be just as good.
>Bless all of you who are devoted to Word, but even back when I was  
>still a PC user, I didn't like Office all that much.  Does Word  
>Perfect still exist?

Word Perfect doesn't still exist in a Mac version (except for the very
old ones that can run in Classic on a PowerPC-based Mac).

I agree with Tim about FileMaker Pro (after all, I write books about it
and don't take the time to create a tome on something I don't like).

So far as Word is concerned (the subject of this thread), I still think
of it, as I did back in 1984 with Word 1.0 and 1.05, that it is "the
Listerine of Word Processors" (I hate it but I use it twice a day :) ).
Until somebody comes up with a cross-platform solution that supports
revision tracking and styles as thoroughly as Word does, I don't see
major publishers like Wiley, Addison-Wesley, O'Reilly, or Peachpit
converting their processes. There's a lot to dislike about Word (and the
Word 2007 that my Windows-using friends are bitterly complaining about
suggests that Microsoft's UI designers still have their heads firmly
planted within their anal orifices), but it is still the only currently
viable solution for collaborative cross-platform text development.

I sincerely wish that there was an alternative, but at least with the
Mac version of Word, I can do my work without having to write and edit
on a Windows box (or in a Windows virtual machine).

-- 
Dennis R. Cohen