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| From: Microsoft Software
List Price: $149.95
Buy New: $109.00
You Save: $40.95 (27%)
New (48) Used (5) from $94.59
Rating:  268 reviews
Sales Rank: 2
Format: Dvd-rom
Platforms: Macintosh, Mac Os X
Media: DVD-ROM
Edition: Home & Student
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Operating System: Macintosh
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0.1 x 0
MPN: GZA00006
Model: GZA00006
UPC: 882224526302
EAN: 0882224526302
ASIN: B000X86ZAS
Release Date: January 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 268
 Not Impressed. Further use lowers rating to one and a half stars January 22, 2008
Ian Gordon (Singapore)
41 out of 45 found this review helpful
I just switched to an IMac for my home computer. On my work desktop and my work laptop I operate in a Windows/Office environment. My review concentrates on how easy and compatible this version is to use compared to the Windows version of Office. It is some 10 years since I used a Mac regularly so I am readjusting to the Mac but the issues I raise here are to do with software and not my Mac, which i really enjoy using.
I tried to register my new very legit copy of Office 2008 for Mac online copy but my product number was not recognized. Mmmm. Ok at least it works.
As others have mentioned you can not drag images across and have them reproduce. So tables from web pages get messed up in Entourage emails. But Apple's Mail program will do this.
Likewise images from web pages have to be copied to the desk top and then moved to powerpoint.
This home/student edition has no Exchange support so my calendar will sync down from the server but not up from my Mac. Since my work place already shells out big bucks to Microsoft, as do many education institutions whose staff members will want to use this product at home a little exchange support on this cheaper copy may have been good PR. As it stands we are being punished for either not paying a lot more for a tiny extra feature, or for daring to leave the Windows regime.
And as others have noted the lack of Visual Basic means End Notes is not usable.
[And today I tried to open a PDF file received through Entourage and it would not open. The error message read the file was damaged. When i opened Mail and tried to open the file it opened. I had the same problem last week and put it down to the file not Entourage, or should that be Enter a Rage? My rating is now down one star. January 25, 2008. But today after I received a word document and it would not open I further examined the issue and realized that there is a tiny message in the header of emails with attachments telling you the whole message has not been downloaded. Click on the get entire message and then save the attachment and it will open. I assume this procedure is a security feature of some sort but it does seem over cumbersome. Is this feature a way of Microsoft getting back at those Mac ads mocking PCs for needing so many warning messages and the like when attaching peripherals? So rating back up half a star because you can open attachments but poor guidance about how to do so. January 27, 2008.]
Also what is the use of putting MS Messenger on the disc when it is: a. free to download and b. does not come with audio and video?! Microsoft may as well have included a free plastic toy because this is like a cereal give away gimmick only the toy would have been more useful and fun.
I get the feeling that maybe I should have bought Office 2004.
I needed this product since my work place has a site license for Windows versions but not Mac versions I had to buy it. But I think that I will probably not get the next version, but rather buy a Mac laptop, subscribe to .Mac, and consign my work computer to the storeroom (or try to get a Mac) and switch to the Apple software that came with my Mac, so that I do not have to work around all these issues.
A few notes of caution... January 19, 2008
J. M. Reardon (Orange County, CA USA)
38 out of 42 found this review helpful
It is a "Universal" application, and therefore, this upgrade is a "must have" for users of Office 2004. The speed and general improvement in responsiveness on Intel Macs is quite apparent.
Also, it supports the new Microsoft document formats generated by the Windows Office Suite. Most people will need this, sooner or later, but it is difficult to escape the conclusion that this is a "problem" created by Microsoft that allowed them to sell a "solution". There is no functional benefit to these new formats and they remain incompatible with other office suites, despite claims that they are "open".
Overall, I was disappointed.
The "upgrade" to Entourage is very limited. You'll have no trouble using it, and it is faster, but obvious features are missing (e.g, direct support of web calendar feeds). Entourage 2004 had such potential and yet the new version is virtually identical to the old. In fact, aside from re-compiling the code for Intel processors and making the user interface pretty, it would appear that nothing else was done. Sad.
A caution regarding Entourage: Support for Exchange Servers is not included in the "Home and Student" edition. This is a ham-fisted downgrade from the previous release. If you install the Home and Student edition on a computer that previously was configured to retrieve mail from Exchange, you end up with an unusable installation and no way to "undo" it. When you try to delete the Exchange account, you will go down a path of seriously untested code that hangs Entourage and ultimately makes your computer unstable. The only way out of this is to uninstall the Home and Student edition and (buy and) install the full edition! Beware!
Fortunately, the uninstall and install functions are rock solid.
Finally, the Remote Desktop support that was available in Office 2004 is missing in this "upgrade". If you need that, you'll have to preserve it from your Office 2004 installation before you let Office 2008 silently obliterate it! Fortunately, the old version seems to work afterwards.
And it would be nice to see Mac editions of Groove, and some of the other Win Office components. Another missed opportunity.
On the whole, this is a must-have upgrade that left me feeling disappointed. What has Microsoft been doing with this product for the past 5 years?
 Office 2008 Student/Teacher Version a triple "Screw You" to users! January 24, 2008
Jeff Burr (Los Angeles)
34 out of 38 found this review helpful
As an educational user who uses Entourage 2004 to connect to a Microsoft Exchange Server for school email and contact lists, I am unbelievably frustrated with the lack of Exchange support in the student/teacher versions of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home & Student Edition.
And to add insult to injury, my previous copy of the 2004 Office suite is not eligible for upgrades. This mean's that for me (and hundreds of other users who use a Microsoft Exchange server at school) the only option is to drop the full $399 on the "full version" of the program,Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac.
As if that was not enough, since the educational version offers three user licenses (which I us for my three computers: home, laptop and office) and the "full version" only offers one user license, that $399 price tag just tripled to almost $1200 in software that just last year cost me $150. Microsoft's little change is a HUGE deal! If I want to be legal in my use of their software, I'm gonna have to drop $1200. I can tell you - that isn't gonna happen. Something like this makes Apple's iWork (limitations and all) look more appealing.
So much for the idea that MS and Apple where going to play nice for once. Microsoft doesn't know is elbow from it's @%&, because it was only a few months ago that they offered a brilliant "anti-piracy" program that allowed college students to purchase a legal version of the PC Office Suite at less than $70.
I guess we'll have to see if several months from now, they offer the same thing to Mac users because I'm sure that a "bone-head" move like this is usually what it takes to make people "borrow" software from a "friend". In fact, when I called Microsoft to ask if this was all true, their own tech told me that if I "lost" my unlock key, I could buy another for only $10. I guess even Microsoft's own staff can see just how stupid this move is.
No support in the 2008 education version and no upgrade path from the 2004 education version... what a triple slap in the face to paying customers who don't steal their software.
 Worth the upgrade from previous versions, includes Intel support January 15, 2008
Jeffrey Heaton (St. Louis, MO)
33 out of 49 found this review helpful
This update has been a long time coming, but worth the wait. One of the most basic improvements is that you can now run Microsoft office native on the Intel based Macs. This improves on speed, especially when you have many applications open. Support for previous versions of MS-Office is very good, even better than the Windows version in some cases. I like the multiple floating palettes. It allows me to organize commonly used functions better than in previous versions.
Did MS declare war on Apple, again? September 4, 2008
Privacy Matters (MN, USA)
32 out of 33 found this review helpful
First, where did all of the reviews of this product go? Last time I checked the number was large and the consensus was fairly negative.
With Mac sales up and MS always paranoid, did MS decide that the Mac version of Office could be released with reduced features and more bugs than usual? This software reminds me of what we endured the darkest days of Apple hardware/software in the mid-90s. As examples of feature cuts, Excel 2008 has neither Solver nor any of the analysis add-ins. Fairly simple operations in Excel, such as drawing a graph, sometimes now involve a substantial amount of time to complete. I can't recall the last time that attempting to draw a simple scatterplot produced a warning that due to the "complexity" of the graph, I might experience a long wait. Similar operations were essentially instantaneous in the 2004 version.
The only thing I have found to like about the new Excel is the increase in the number of cells in the spreadsheet.
In Word, as in the bad old days, simply scrolling is an adventure. The screen does not re-draw correctly even in a short document with simple formatting. Be careful about scrolling and then deleting. You may be very surprised by which portion of text disappears.
I've been a Mac user since System 6, and I'm hard pressed to remember an "upgrade" this stripped of features and full of bugs.
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