toggle

AAPL Stock: 570.56 ( + 13.59 )

MacNN News

Microsoft Office 2004 to ship in May

updated 12:30 am EDT, Tue April 6, 2004

Microsoft Office 2004

Microsoft today announced that in eight days, for Mac will be released to manufacturers for production. The new productivity suite is available for pre-order today, from the Apple Store online, Amazon.com, MacConnection, MacMall and MacZone. It will ship by the third week of May, according to Microsoft. �Customer feedback on early versions of Office 2004 for Mac has been overwhelmingly positive; we are really excited to get it out the door and into the hands of our customers,� said Roz Ho, general manager for the Macintosh Business Unit at Microsoft. The new version includes charting improvements in Excel 2004, smart buttons in Word and Excel 2004, new design templates, 'Save As Picture' in Office, and 'Soft Shadows' in Office.

by MacNN Staff

(16)

TAGS :

software, business software

Share the Article

Facebook Twitter Delious Slash Dot Digg

toggle

Comments

medmuse
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2002

0

04/06, 01:20am | report spam | close Reply |
Um...

Oboy. I can hardly wait for the new wizard; a dancing paperclip Satan: "I see you're using Unix derived Mac OS X. Would you like Word to help you send a template letter to SCO?" "Would you like to upgrade to the new MS/Sun Java?"

Please...

MDiddy
Junior Member

Joined: Aug 2001

0

04/06, 01:46am | report spam | close Reply |
iSync Intergration??!?!

I can't find anywhere if this offers synchornization with iSync? I think that should be a vital feature. Being able to sync my calendars/address book with my BT Phone, Clie, & iPod without buying 3rd party software should be a given. Anyone know if its going to be there or not?

bsaxton
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2000

0

04/06, 02:19am | report spam | close Reply |
Processor Hungry

I'm running a 500MHz iMac. I ran Activity Viewer and found that Word alone was eating between 1/4 to 1/3 of my processor time just sitting with an open doc in the background. Anyone else notice this? Slowed my computer down quite a bit.

I had the same problem with Word 98 when my iMac was 333MHz. If I had an MP3 player running in the background (Pre-iTunes and Sound Jam), the sound would skip because Word was hoggin the CPU. I imagine Office X contains over 90% of the code from Office 98 (maybe Office 6!). Anybody know if this is true?

Sure wish Apple could offer a competitive, yet compatible, product for word. AppleWorks and TextEdit just don't quite cut it...

LordJohnWhorfin
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2002

0

04/06, 02:28am | report spam | close Reply |
Word 5.1a

Still the best version they ever made. Office 2004 is a solution in search of a problem.

John Lockwood
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Mar 2000

0

04/06, 06:27am | report spam | close Reply |
The Emperor's New Suit

Perhaps the title above should be "The Emperor's New Suite" as in Office Suite?

Office 2004 very much reminds me of the story by Hans Christian Andersen (see the link below)

http://hca.gilead.org.il/emperor.html

Office 2004 is mostly a cosmetic upgrade with the important addition in that is ALLEGEDLY vastly more reliable.

Microsoft are so busy putting a marketing spin on Office 2004 (to generate even more upgrade revenue) that they have failed to notice that it does not deliver what users want.

It is completely lacking in any important new features THAT USERS HAVE BEEN ASKING FOR.

Word 2004 will STILL NOT support right to left text (for Arabic and Hebrew). Indications are that this MIGHT be added to the next Mac Office version after Office 12 for Windows (which means 2006 at the earliest).

Entourage 2004 is still a very poor MS Exchange client and nowhere near comparable with Outlook for Windows.

MSN Messenger 4 (to be included with Office 2004) still will not support Video and Voice links to MSN Messenger for Windows.

In conclusion Office 2004 has no clothes.

haunebu
Dedicated MacNNer

Joined: Apr 2000

0

04/06, 06:43am | report spam | close Reply |
No thanks.

Office 2004 is a feature incomplete product that delivers minor enhancements nobody asked for, while completely lacking the features users have been clammoring for.

Microsoft is definitely winding down its investment in the Mac platform, and with excellent alternative technologies being provided elsewhere, I couldn't care less.

LouZer
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2000

0

04/06, 08:52am | report spam | close Reply |
Apple

Sure wish Apple could offer a competitive, yet compatible, product for word. AppleWorks and TextEdit just don't quite cut it...

Oh sure, then you all bemoan how Apple is driving all the developers from the platform by deliverying software that competes with the third parties.

And don't be telling me that this only delivers minor enhancements. Didn't you see the demo!!! You can print preview an Excel spreadsheet. And while its still in preview mode, YOU CAN EDIT THE DATA! This is incredible! This is....well, nevermind. Give me some time, I'll find something that Office has added since 2000 that actually is worthy of mention....

phillymjs
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2000

0

04/06, 09:10am | report spam | close Reply |
Did they add MAPI?

No? Then as far as I'm concerned, this is a useless update.

ibookmark
Junior Member

Joined: Mar 2000

0

04/06, 09:17am | report spam | close Reply |
Office 2004

When, if ever, will MS offer an Apple version of Access? Is there any alternatives out there for the Mac?

ibeetle
Registered User

Joined: May 2003

0

04/06, 09:55am | report spam | close Reply |
I use both mac/pc version

My wife and I both use the Mac and Windows versions of Office. Office ultamitly runs better on our Macs. Than on the Wintel boxes at our works.
As others have reported on some macs for some reason Office slows the computer down. On my iMac I have this problem but on my wifes iBook there is no slow down what so ever.

We downloaded open office and are currently playing arond with that but so far my wife doesn't like it. I still haven't made up my mind.

The sad fact is that Microsoft maybe the evil empire. And Windows is a horrorable OS but... Office is good software.

fnevitt
Junior Member

Joined: Jan 2000

0

04/06, 01:07pm | report spam | close Reply |
RE: Office 2004

FileMaker Pro 7.0 is the newest version of a great Mac Database software package. If you are looking for an alternative to Access then I would look at their website where you can download a fully working trail version.

Dale Sorel
Mac Elite

Joined: Aug 2002

0

04/06, 01:12pm | report spam | close Reply |
RE: Office 2004

"I'm running a 500MHz iMac. I ran Activity Viewer and found that Word alone was eating between 1/4 to 1/3 of my processor time just sitting with an open doc in the background. Anyone else notice this?"

Yes :(

Zadig
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Mar 2001

0

04/06, 02:58pm | report spam | close Reply |
Long file names?

I stopped upgrading after the first couple of Office v.X point releases -- did they ever add support for file names longer than 31 characters? In their first few releases, they could open and save existing files with long names, but not create them. Stupid bug, but not mentioned in the Office 2004 site ;-)

Also not mentioned is any integration between Entourage and iCal or Address Book. Not that anyone was requesting that feature or anything.

z10n
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 2003

0

04/06, 04:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
Office 2004 is irrelevant

Anywhere I work, 9 times out of 10 they are going to force me to use a PC. So what's the point? Use your mac for yourself at home, with any program you want, and keep your Office files on your PC.

So you're a MS slave? Even so, there are a million and one programs for the mac that read and write Office native files. It's only FUD that convinces people that you need Office to read Office files. Heck, even Documents to Go on my Palm reads and writes Office native files.

So what is the REAL reason why Office is being developed for the mac? Answer: because windows lemmings won't switch to the mac if their files suddenly don't work. That's the only reason- providing a comfort zone for windows switchers. Most Mac users have dissolved themselves from Microsoft file formats a long time ago.

So I argue Microsoft will never update Office "properly". (A) Microsoft only provides "mac only features" enough to convince mac users that microsoft is supporting the mac experience, yet not enough to convince windows users to switch, and (B) Apple only cares that Office exists for the mac, so Office file formats are not a barrier to switchers.

Sydney Tsai
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Feb 2002

0

04/08, 09:55pm | report spam | close Reply |
From Office 2k.

Some features were introduced in Office 2k windows.
I don't understand that why they just copy and paste the feature...

Also some ripoff from keynotes Transition... how lame.

ogun
Junior Member

Joined: Sep 2001

0

04/09, 08:17am | report spam | close Reply |
office 2004

I sent the following to Mickeysoft some time ago, and got no reply. I just sent it again. I'm not expecting a reply this time, either.

1 Office for Mac currently will not create files with filenames of 32 characters or more. It will _edit_ them. Other Mac apps have had the ability to create files with names of up to 255 characters for _years_ now. Does Office 2004 have this feature? If not, when will it be available?

2 Access is not part of any MS Office for Mac package. Why not?

3 Office 2004 lacks features present in Office for Windows. When will it be feature-complete?

4 Office X eats up to 30% of my CPU time just sitting idle in the background doing nothing, without even a single document window open, so long as even _one_ Office application is running. What on _Earth_ is it doing with those CPU cycles? Has Office 2004 fixed this? Note that this applies no matter which machine I'm running on, whether it's a 266MHz beige G3 or a 1.2GHz5 dual G4. Office in general and Word in particular will grab 20-30% of available CPU time and hog it, even in the background. Given that 30% of a dual 1.25 GHz G4 is more CPU power than the total power of a 266MHz beige, I've got to conclude that the consistent 20-30% hogging is _not_ an accident.

5 Word X appears to have a memory leak. If it is left running it gradually takes up more and more and more memory, even if it is in the background, doing nothing. If left long enough, Word X will grab several hundred megabytes of RAM, and will then crash when brought forward from the background. (Typically this takes about 3-4 days; I found out about this particular bug when one user left Word running in the background and didn't shut down his machine before going off for a long weekend. On returning from the long weekend, the machine worked fine until he needed to open a Word file, whereupon Word 'unexpectedly failed'.)

Frankly, if fixes for these, and especially #1, #4, and #5, aren't part of Office 2004, can you say why _anyone_ would want to waste their money on it?

Show More Comments

Login Here

toggle

Network Headlines

05/23	Google launches redesigned Search app...
05/23	IBM blocking iPhone's Siri on internal...
05/22	Leaked next-gen iPod touch part hints...
05/22	Hulu Plus updates with iPad Retina...
05/22	TiVo Stream to push TV to iPhones,...

Show All

05/23	Google launches redesigned Search app...
05/23	IBM blocking iPhone's Siri on internal...
05/22	Leaked next-gen iPod touch part hints...
05/22	TiVo Stream to push TV to iPhones,...
05/22	With iPad included, Apple leads mobile...

Show All

05/23	Google launches redesigned Search app...
05/22	Leaked next-gen iPod touch part hints...
05/22	Hulu Plus updates with iPad Retina...
05/22	TiVo Stream to push TV to iPhones,...
05/22	Hands on: TouchType case for iPad,...

Show All

03/02	Save $330 on refurb. 15.4-inch, 2.4GHz...
03/01	Pre-owned 8GB iPod touch 2G, drops...
02/29	$150 off Nikon Coolpix S80 Compact...
02/28	Plantronics BackBeat 903 Bluetooth...
02/27	Refurb. Seagate 1.5TB GoFlex Portable...

Show All

toggle

Microsoft Office 2004 to ship in May

updated 12:30 am EDT, Tue April 6, 2004

Microsoft Office 2004

Um...

iSync Intergration??!?!

Processor Hungry

Word 5.1a

The Emperor's New Suit

No thanks.

Apple

Did they add MAPI?

Office 2004

I use both mac/pc version

RE: Office 2004

RE: Office 2004

Long file names?

Office 2004 is irrelevant

From Office 2k.

office 2004

Login Here

Register for our weekly email newsletter:

Connect tools:

Subscribe

to our RSS

Follow us

on Twitter

10 Most Read

10 Most Discussed

MacNN Marketplace

Microsoft Office 2004 to ship in May

updated 12:30 am EDT, Tue April 6, 2004

Microsoft Office 2004

Related Articles

Recent Articles

Um...

iSync Intergration??!?!

Processor Hungry

Word 5.1a

The Emperor's New Suit

No thanks.

Apple

Did they add MAPI?

Office 2004

I use both mac/pc version

RE: Office 2004

RE: Office 2004

Long file names?

Office 2004 is irrelevant

From Office 2k.

office 2004

Login Here

Register for our weekly email newsletter:

Connect tools:

Subscribe

to our RSS

Follow us

on Twitter

10 Most Read

10 Most Discussed

MacNN Marketplace