Re: Is it worth it...?

Hi Guy,

Short answer: Nah.

Long answer:

Regardless of the quality of Word 2008, no one here is going to push you to upgrade when you are happy with what you have. That's just general principle, common software-sense. Word 2004 was indisputably better than Word X (IMO) which seemed to be a warmed-over version of Word 2001 hastily ported to OS X asap, but if someone was happy with Word X, I didn't say "oh, you need to upgrade."

Word 2008 is not indisputably better than Word 2004, and depending on the features one uses in both Word and OS, may be worse. But lots of people using Word 2004 would not consider it nearly flawless, even after three years of updates. I actually don't know that Word 2008 is particularly any less reliable than Word 2004, in general, at least now that the 12.1 update is out--I remember a lot of panicky posts when Word 2004 first came out, and similar intermittent problems we couldn't track down, and I think this group is getting more traffic with the revamped website and as switcher numbers go up. Installation problems definitely seem worse than 2004, but that's not an everyday frustration. Things that depend on VBA, yes, may have become insoluble problems with Word 2008, and I think that situation is worse with Excel than with Word.

If you are happy with Word 2004, there's no problem in staying there. I'm not 100% certain, but I believe that the 11.5 combo updater includes the ability to open .docx files with no problem and without installing the converter, and .docx is one of the big things driving the upgrade to 2008 (but you don't need it for compatibility with Office 2003). The other is Intel-native, but that doesn't apply to you.

Word 2008 has some new features that some people like--if you've been skimming the group, you probably know what they are. Publishing Layout, Citation Manager, more features in Notebook Layout, improved Mail Merge. But if you don't need them, why bother?

Note that you do not have to remove Office 2004 when you install Office 2008 (and shouldn't)--I have both on my computer. However, Office 2008 does insist on being the default app over Office 2004. There are currently two updates for Office 2008--a combo 12.1 and 12.1.1. How many you have to install only depends on how recently a combo updater was issued.

Guy Kudlemyer wrote:
Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4.11
Processor: PPC

Because I work for a company that subscribes to the Microsoft Home Users’ Program, I was able to purchase a copy of Office 2008 for Mac for a paltry $19.95. I also bought the 2004 version for the same price several years ago. The 2004 version works nearly flawlessly, and interfaces quite compatibly with the PC’s at work that are all running XP and Office 2003.

I have been watching this news group, as well as microsoft.public.mac.office.excel for several months now, as those are the two applications I need most when I want to work on my employer’s documents at home on my Mac. What I have been able to determine over these many months is that at least Word and Excel (and probably everything else contained in Office 2008) seems to be fraught with problems and dilemmas, many of which appear quite daunting to solve, or are unsolvable.

My questions for the gallery are:
1--Am I correct in my assertion that the problems with the 2008 version are many and difficult to remedy?
2--Is it worth the time, effort, energy, and frustration to install and begin using 2008, when 2004 is serving my needs well already?
3--If I wait to install, how many cycles of Updaters should I wait? (I don’t want to have to install a dozen Updaters after I’ve installed the program. At this point, I believe MS is on their third updater for this version, correct?)

I want to stay relatively close to the leading edge, but I don’t want to be a troubleshooter, only a non-technical user who has a reliable product that works well and doesn’t have to waste copious hours fidgeting with it to get it to work. Anyone care to take a stab at the above questions?

Thanks for any help!

--Guy
Thurston, OR
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Office 2004 for MAC suddenly cant launch
    ... Insert the Mac OS X Install Disc and double-click the Install Mac OS X ... destination disk, select your current Mac OS X disk (in most cases, it will ... Combo Updater from Apple's site to restore the system to a higher version. ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.office)
  • Re: [opensuse]
    ... Mount fails with some stupid error. ... intuitive and informative apps like Synaptic. ... dependency conflicts I just let it install. ... If you don't install Zen Updater openSuSE ...
    (SuSE)
  • Re: install Office 2004 on my new mac - not as Test Drive
    ... There are two reasons it might: either you have an Upgrade Install, ... I went through all of the upgrades until the updater said I did not need any ... McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.office)
  • Re: Hyperlinks in Entourage
    ... said it wouldn't let me download the 10.5.5. ... Mac OS X Update 10.3.8 ... you won't be able to apply the 10.3.8 updater over an installed copy of 10.3.9 ... you would have to reinstall 10.3, then apply the 10.3.8 combo updater and then 10.3.9 delta updater. ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage)
  • Re: Entourage smtp authentication problem
    ... The combo updater is the Apple combo updater. ... Combo updaters will install on ... Mac OS X 10.4.10 Combo Update ... Entourage has no problem sending my first email using ssl and via ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage)