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Microsoft Office 2008 sneak peak no. 2

updated 02:05 pm EDT, Tue October 2, 2007

Office '08 sneak peak

Microsoft's Mac Business Unit (Mac BU) today unveiled its second sneak peek of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, which showcases the revamped Toolbox with true one-stop destination for some of the most useful tools in Office for Mac. The new feature combines the original Office for Mac Toolbox and Formatting Palettes into a single user interface, providing Mac users with an Object Palette as well as Animation Settings, Citations, and a Formula Builder. The sneak peak includes plenty of screenshots covering the Toolbox, Elements Gallery, Document Elements, Publishing Layout View, OfficeArt, SmartArt Graphics, Building Charts, and "My Day." Details on the Toolbox are highlighted with tips on finding what you need and customization options. [updated]

Notice: image distortion is due to capturing animated flash movies.

Toolbox

Elements Gallery

Document Elements

Publishing Layout View

OfficeArt

SmartArt Graphics

Building Charts

My Day

by MacNN Staff

(19)

TAGS :

software, business software

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eldarkus
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Feb 2004

0

10/02, 02:24pm | report spam | close Reply |
YAWN!!!

Five me a sneak peak at Entourage...

sputschic
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2007

0

10/02, 02:26pm | report spam | close Reply |
Who cares?

Really. If you're forced to use Office because all your friends and associates use Windows or whatever, please consider that perhaps you're the sort of person who doesn't belong on the Mac. Remember, PC thinkers tend to flock together.

Robb
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Feb 2000

0

10/02, 02:32pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: who cares?

So are you advocating that the Mac doesn't belong in the corporate or education markets because of the need to collaborate with Windows users?

sputschic
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2007

0

10/02, 02:36pm | report spam | close Reply |
Source Manager

Look at the screenshot above of the "Source Manager." Proof positive that Microsoft STILL doesn't get it, as if all the Ballmerian enthusiasm for business bullsh*t from Roz Ho and Craig Eisler weren't enough to demonstrate.

What's the over/under on the number of "wizards" Microsoft stuffs into Office 2008?

sputschic
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2007

0

10/02, 02:37pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: Who cares?

@robb: What sort of business needs to collaborate with Windows users? The sort of business stuffed full of PC thinkers. People who have no business on the Mac, in other words. They harm the Mac community and they harm themselves.

Self-segregation is not always such a bad thing.

sputschic
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2007

0

10/02, 02:49pm | report spam | close Reply |
Oh, also:

Here's a telling inside account of the unimaginative, uninspired, and unfeeling proto-Ballmerian approach to Mac development that resulted in the travesty known as Word 6.0: http://blogs.msdn.com/rick_schaut/archive/2004/02/26/80193.aspx

Seems like not much has changed since then. Why are Microsoft engineers so consistently so brickheadedly literal-minded, so linear-thinking, so content to perpetuate the status quo? F*ck them. Even Word 5.1 betrayed symptoms of PC-thinking design, symptoms which have mutated over the successive versions into expression as full-blown diseases in themselves.

jarod
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2005

0

10/02, 03:07pm | report spam | close Reply |
MS must Die

Bloatware is not part of my future. No one needs MS or Office. The current alternatives cover 99% of the world population at the REASONABLE price of $79!

brainiac
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2003

0

10/02, 03:16pm | report spam | close Reply |
UI looks annoying but...

So, sputschic, being a Mac user requires blatant negativity? Being pro or con Windows is irrelevant, a good UI is a good UI and a bad UI is a bad UI regardless of platform. If you can only divide the world into mac and pc "thinkers" then you live a very sheltered life.

gskibum3
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2006

0

10/02, 03:22pm | report spam | close Reply |
Exchange

So is Entourage still going to be so lame with integration with Exchange servers? I still haven't heard about that.

natural1
Junior Member

Joined: Jan 2005

0

10/02, 03:32pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: who cares?

@ sputschic: Many successful, creative organizations use Windows and Office. I work for one. We're working on a cure for cancer...and we would never hire anyone as small minded and bigoted as you. Computers are tools to get a job done - not an end to themselves. Get out much?

Xiaopangzi
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 2003

0

10/02, 03:34pm | report spam | close Reply |
Mixed bag

I'm glad they're keeping and especially expanding the formatting palette instead of trying to mirror the interesting Vista version of Office, but I'm sure that they recycled tons of code as they did for all previous versions after Office began to replace Wordperfect and Lotus 1-2-3 in the Windows world long after we Mac users had been using it for a decade. The last truly Mac-like version was Office 5.1.

I'll never forgive them for the poor implementation of the Search & Replace function. MBU claimed to rewrite Office from the ground up for 2001 and/or 2004, but the poor functionality proved that it was just an import of the Windows versions with a Mac GUI thrown on top, when all they needed to do was make the resulting docs compatible with Windows rather than create a Mac GUI for a poorly designed Windows version.

Anyway, I'm still stuck with having to use MS Office for the foreseeable future, because Mellel, Pages, and dozens of other potential alternatives on my hard disk still don't have the full functionality that I need.

Microsoft could redeem itself if it ever did fully redesign Office from the ground up with all new code slimmed down to the minimal size as the Woz would do according to his philosophy of the minimal possible code to achieve desired functionality. But MS doesn't have the resources or time to do that. The applications will just get bigger and slower over time, filled with so much unnecessary code that makes crashes more likely.

At least it will be Universal, which should speed things up.

designr
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2002

0

10/02, 04:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
Entourage and Exchange?

Less Fluffy BS and more Meat and Potatoes!

Deal
Mac Enthusiast

Joined: Apr 2001

0

10/02, 05:05pm | report spam | close Reply |
Too busy

You're right. Microsoft is too busy making brown music players, repairing broken Xboxes and defending blatant patent infringements to actually worry about writing good software.

Looking at this sneak, they obviously took ideas from Apple's iWork, and they don't even get THAT right.

Problems I can see so far, WAY too much space used for fancy powder puff girl pastel buttons. Can you please leave us a little real estate on our screens for our documents?

Why do all those buttons require clicks? Who wants to go to the right and click and click and click... then back to the graph and click... then BAM the graph is where THEY want it. Then I have to move it to where I want it. Couldn't that graph pallet work more like an iPhone? I want to click slide that row of graphs and let it fling along. Then let me drag the graph off the scrolling pallet to where I want it. And why not have a live graph in those icons based on the data I've selected? Are they even thinking?!

Right now I'm thinking, so much copying, so little ingenuity. When it comes out I'll be thinking, so slow, so many bugs.

Oh yea,... and if they don't get Entourage right in this version, I'm done supporting people who use Office. I'll convince them to use anything BUT Office.

Herod
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2007

0

10/02, 05:09pm | report spam | close Reply |
iPhone

what is an iPhone doing laying on the last of the screen shots?

bhuot
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2003

0

10/02, 06:41pm | report spam | close Reply |
which charity?

"We're working on a cure for cancer...and we would never hire anyone as small minded and bigoted as you. Computers are tools to get a job done - not an end to themselves. Get out much?"

Talk about narrow minded, if you cannot see beyond Microsoft than stick with a typewriter - you will be more productive. Well, just like most charities, you are wasting money. You can get better software for free. Give me the name of the company so I don't accidentally give any money to you. Sounds like you are one of the companies who torture animals to help people. I vote for the animals over the people.

ShadowKatana
Junior Member

Joined: May 2001

0

10/02, 07:33pm | report spam | close Reply |
Geez

Some weird comments here. Self-segregation?!

Some people are taking computers *way* too seriously.

driven
Addicted to MacNN

Joined: May 2001

0

10/04, 08:46am | report spam | close Reply |
Say what you want ...

Say what you want ... I'm looking forward to this release. That said: I'd really like to see what's going to come of Entourage.

If this release is decent I'll buy it. If it's like the Office 2007 release then I'll pass and do what I did on the PC side: Go to OpenOffice.

fritzair
Forum Regular

Joined: Oct 2000

0

10/04, 08:52am | report spam | close Reply |
Pivot Tables

Instead of Office, what do you us to create a Pivot table?

just a poster
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2004

0

10/04, 04:14pm | report spam | close Reply |
That looks hideous

Like lipstick on a pig.

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Microsoft Office 2008 sneak peak no. 2

updated 02:05 pm EDT, Tue October 2, 2007

Office '08 sneak peak

YAWN!!!

Who cares?

re: who cares?

Source Manager

re: Who cares?

Oh, also:

MS must Die

UI looks annoying but...

Exchange

re: who cares?

Mixed bag

Entourage and Exchange?

Too busy

iPhone

which charity?

Geez

Say what you want ...

Pivot Tables

That looks hideous

Login Here

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Microsoft Office 2008 sneak peak no. 2

updated 02:05 pm EDT, Tue October 2, 2007

Office '08 sneak peak

Related Articles

Recent Articles

YAWN!!!

Who cares?

re: who cares?

Source Manager

re: Who cares?

Oh, also:

MS must Die

UI looks annoying but...

Exchange

re: who cares?

Mixed bag

Entourage and Exchange?

Too busy

iPhone

which charity?

Geez

Say what you want ...

Pivot Tables

That looks hideous

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