Office 2008 for Mac boasts inexcusably ugly clipart graphics

[aryayush]

Office 2008 for Mac boasts inexcusably ugly clipart graphics
Posted on Jan. 30, ’08, 12:10 PM PT by Aayush Arya

Joe Clark has posted a Flickr photoset of seven flaws in the latest version of Microsoft Office for Mac, which was released on 15 January of this year—four years after the previous version. Six of the flaws are somewhat insignificant, depending on your level of tolerance and love/hate relationship with Microsoft, but this one concerning the Clip Gallery is just inexcusable, in my humble opinion.



The text looks horrible because there’s no antialiasing. There’s a modal dialog box that blocks access to the whole application over a pretty trivial and unnecessary question, in total disregard for Apple’s HIG. The clipart is so unsightly that it seems Microsoft didn’t bother with text and HIG compliance because they knew no one would ever visit the gallery more than once anyway. Read more...

[Via MacUser]


Like I said, deplorable stuff.

[MetalheadGautham]

why do you macboys even need that Micro$oft Office Suite ? Don't you have something in apple? I vaguely remember Tiger Office, but my mac knowledge is rusty

(why should I bother keeping track of information about something I will never use ?)

[ray|raven]

iWork

[drgrudge]

Because not all the users have a Mac. Let me share my exp. in this Office Suites. I didn't have MS Office installed, only iWork that point of time.

Pages is good, but somehow I feel Word is better. Maybe I'm used to it? The thing is it doesn't has a lot of features (90% of which you won't use) and cluttered unlike Word.

But Pages is a pain in the ass (Mac) as it's not very compatible with .doc files. When I open some .doc file (for editing, otherwise TextEdit should be fine) it crashes sometimes. When I export to .doc, then the tables are not at all coming. I tried Adobe InDesign CS3 too! But that was a pro app and I need some time to start working on it. I needed to get the things done soon and I had no option but to go for Pages and export to .pdf which might not be the ideal way we want to work everytime.

This made me order MS Office 2008. I'm got the Students/Lite edition as I don't use the extra cr@pware coming along in the Standard/Ultimate editions.


I didn't go through any clip art and stuffs but from the nutshell, it looks a decent product. Atleast way better than Office 2004:Mac.

[utsav]

Hey Aayush plz dont post that who posted this stuff and when was it posted.it looks ugly too.

[MetalheadGautham]

Originally Posted by drgrudge

Because not all the users have a Mac. Let me share my exp. in this Office Suites. I didn't have MS Office installed, only iWork that point of time.

Pages is good, but somehow I feel Word is better. Maybe I'm used to it? The thing is it doesn't has a lot of features (90% of which you won't use) and cluttered unlike Word.

But Pages is a pain in the ass (Mac) as it's not very compatible with .doc files. When I open some .doc file (for editing, otherwise TextEdit should be fine) it crashes sometimes. When I export to .doc, then the tables are not at all coming. I tried Adobe InDesign CS3 too! But that was a pro app and I need some time to start working on it. I needed to get the things done soon and I had no option but to go for Pages and export to .pdf which might not be the ideal way we want to work everytime.

This made me order MS Office 2008. I'm got the Students/Lite edition as I don't use the extra cr@pware coming along in the Standard/Ultimate editions.


I didn't go through any clip art and stuffs but from the nutshell, it looks a decent product. Atleast way better than Office 2004:Mac.

thats why we need to use open standards like OpenDocumentFormat instead of propiatary stuff like iWork, M$ Office, etc. Using them will never result in one getting stuck with a single software.

and how can you say iWork's Pages is bad ? Aren't all Macware supposed to be the best of the best ?

[drgrudge]

^^
I've tried this AbiWord, but it sucks. Now I've both iWork and Office 2008:Mac installed.

When did I say Pages is bad? I said "Pages is good, but somehow I feel Word is better. Maybe I'm not used to it?"


All the Macware aren't the best of the best. 95% of the Mac softwares are best of the best. The apps needn't be developed by Apple. The Apps are one of the reason why I use a Mac and will continue to use in future.

[NucleusKore]

Use OpenOffice for Mac
http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/download/index.html

[MetalheadGautham]

Originally Posted by NucleusKore

Use OpenOffice for Mac
http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/download/index.html

+1 for that. OOo is very customisable, and there are mods available to make it look like M$O-2007, iWork, or anything you like.

[aryayush]

Originally Posted by MetalheadGautham

Aren't all Macware supposed to be the best of the best ?

Not all, but most, yeah. And Pages is much better than Word if you don't deal with DOC files on a regular basis.

Originally Posted by utsav

Hey Aayush plz dont post that who posted this stuff and when was it posted.it looks ugly too.

You're supposed to credit the author whenever you post their article somewhere. I do this for every article I post, irrespective of who wrote it. It's called netiquette.

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

@drgrudge , you wouldn't be calling Office 2k7 cluttered would you ?

[drgrudge]

^^
Never used Office 2K7...

[utsav]

Originally Posted by aryayush

You're supposed to credit the author whenever you post their article somewhere. I do this for every article I post, irrespective of who wrote it. It's called netiquette.

giving credit to urself so that no one can say that u copy pasted it without giving credits to the author

[aryayush]

Yeah, I would be very angry at the person who posted my articles somewhere without crediting me. And I don't want to be angry with myself.

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

Originally Posted by drgrudge

^^
Never used Office 2K7...

Then try it or see a Screencast , you wouldn't question MS Office again !

[drgrudge]

^^
I can't get your point. Why would I want to bother abt Office 2007? I don't care about something I might not find any use of.

[hellknight]

Hey you Macboys can also try NeoOffice, it is based on OpenOffice and has a Mac theme or should I say Aqua interface. It doesn't requuires installation of X11 from the OS DVD. Try it.

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

Originally Posted by drgrudge

^^
I can't get your point. Why would I want to bother abt Office 2007? I don't care about something I might not find any use of.

The point that you think(as do most people) that MS office is cluttered .

But Office 2007 is revolutionary , every little feature is there on the ribbon and you can access all the features easily , without any of it feeling cluttered .

[drgrudge]

Originally Posted by Zeeshan Quireshi

The point that you think(as do most people) that MS office is cluttered .

But Office 2007 is revolutionary , every little feature is there on the ribbon and you can access all the features easily , without any of it feeling cluttered .

Like I said earlier, I don't care how the product is for other OS platforms. FYI, Office 2008:Mac UI is different from what have in MS office for Windows (not 2007).

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

It's an attempt to Implement a Ribbon-Like interface for the Mac Version .

But i agree with you , the Mac Interface is nowhere close to the comfort of Office 2007 . My sympathies

[spironox]

err guys i think i beg to differ ..

i use i works and Pages is one of my fav being a follower for MS for long i got pissed out of the word . simply bcoz i dont need so much funtions that word offers !

so i am now using Pages for a long time ..say for 6+months i am comfortable in using that bcoz in SHO scenarion i need a privacy stuff of things that i am working upon .. so pages comes handy .. No Network guys can acess and open .Pages files .. i make exports to .doc/(what so ever format) for the rest of the window users! and hey it doesnt crash !

so bottom point i stick to Iworks ...

regards
Nixon

[ray|raven]

Originally Posted by MetalheadGautham

+1 for that. OOo is very customisable, and there are mods available to make it look like M$O-2007, iWork, or anything you like.

Interesting, could you point me to a few?

[gary4gar]

IMHO, For word processing, MS Office is the best. but my huge concern is of compatibility among different offices suites, and the biggest worry is even the doc made on one version of suit are not rendered correctly on other version. like Ms office 2007 & 2003.

so still there is a need for a de facto standard which every software maker follows, maybe Open Document format can be a answer, but then will software makers accept ODF as a standard or make their own format and press it as standard.

as the later would made the task of standardization more worse!


Regards
Gary

[gxsaurav]

so i am now using Pages for a long time ..say for 6+months i am comfortable in using that bcoz in SHO scenarion i need a privacy stuff of things that i am working upon .. so pages comes handy .. No Network guys can acess and open .Pages files .. i make exports to .doc/(what so ever format) for the rest of the window users! and hey it doesnt crash !

Hmm...last time Word 2003 crashed here was in .........2003

OOXML & ODF both are good & co-exist, it's just that ODF people are scared of competition.

Grudge, you said U don't need 90% of the features Word provides, then why r u even using it???/ Just stick to Pages

[x3060]

its been a long time i have touched ms word . . abby word and notepad works fine with me

[aryayush]

Originally Posted by gx_saurav

Grudge, you said U don't need 90% of the features Word provides, then why r u even using it???/ Just stick to Pages

Monopoly.

He has to use a lot of Word documents and they are best compatible with Word itself.

[NucleusKore]

Have any of you tried OpenOffice on your Mac?

[drgrudge]

Originally Posted by NucleusKore

Have any of you tried OpenOffice on your Mac?

I don't think anyone will use that. Mac users have Neo Office which is OOo with Aqua UI and has integrated dozens of native Mac features.

AFAIK, all the Digit Mac users either use iWork, MS Office or both. None use Open source office suites.


gx_saurav -
Please read what I posted. Like Aayush said, compatibility issues. I'm not using Office 2008:Mac out of choice.

[MetalheadGautham]

@saurav and zeeshan:

Please understand that your idea of "neat and revolutionary" UI is entirely M$ Windows Software based. You are dealing with a Macintosh Issue here. Macboys(and girls) have different intrests when compared to windows users because they are used to something different. The same applies to linux users. I find myself frequently (rather unconciously) pointing my mouse at the top right corner of the windows screen, expecting a shutdown button there. But its no excuse for me to critize windows(there are numerous other ways, but this is not one) because these are just different things.

Weather you are comfortable with something or not depends on how used to something you are. I for example, found linux extremely confusing. I was revolted in the begening when I saw that gnome has two taskbars istead of one. But now, I am so used to it and so fond of it, that I expect it from windows as well.

[goobimama]

The Mac version of Office is not as good as the Windows version of Office. But iWork kicks the rear end of both those suites. Mac:Office is only required if one needs to interact with a lot of Windows users (Read: Doc), which is a mighty lot I might add. So yes, my dad uses Macffice, while I use iWork.

It's an attempt to Implement a Ribbon-Like interface for the Mac Version .

@Zeeshan: This just goes to show that Microsoft can't even make a good copy of their own software