Re: Use Office v. X on new MacBook Pro?
- From: John McGhie <john@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:01:11 +1000
Hmmm... Well, we are all speculating here. Those who know when Office 2008
is coming out are not allowed to tell us. Those who tell us, don't know.
I agree with Bob that we have no clear indication of when Office 2008 will
come out, and some of us believe it is running late.
I also agree that Office 2004 runs better on later versions of OS X.
Although the difference is not great. Not enough to persuade me to buy it
when the new version is coming in less than a year.
To save upgrade worries going into the future, at some point you need to
upgrade to the Full version. I would do that at the time that you change to
Office 2008.
For the first time, Office X/2004 and Office 2008 will be almost totally
unrelated. Office 2008 is a very major change indeed. In auto terms, it's
as if they jacked up the hood and drove a new car underneath! There's not
much of the old code left. Although, of course, I don't "know" that, and I
didn't "say" that -- right? :-)
So while I think we can depend on it having a liberal supply of bugs (every
large and complex piece of software has, including OS X...) these will be
brand new made-for-leopard bugs. The old bugs we know and love will all be
replaced by new, upgraded bugs.
The same bugs will hit us whether we upgrade from Office 2001 or Office X or
Office 2004, or if we have never installed Office before. So it's false
logic to waste money on Office 2004 now hoping to get fewer bugs in Office
2008 when it arrives. You won't, you will get just the same bugs. And the
upgrade price is the same, regardless of which version you upgrade "from".
You either have a qualifying previous version, or you don't. Same price.
On the other hand, when we do get Office 2008, it will be wise to allow
Office 2008 to convert all the files we have into its new format. Office X
does not have some of the features of Office 2004. So its files are very
slightly simpler. And that means they will be slightly easier to convert,
and may thus produce slightly less trouble when you do convert them.
Let me hasten to add that you do not HAVE to convert files to use them in
Office 2008. (Well: Office 2008 can only work in the new format, so it
will convert them anyway, but it will save them back to the old format when
you quit, if you so insist.)
You can continue to use the old file formats: but that would be silly. The
main advantage of Office 2008 is that the new file format is very much more
reliable than the old one.
The only time you might choose not to convert is if you have some
non-Microsoft application that can read only the old formats: this is not
likely to be an issue except in large corporations.
Hope this helps
On 30/6/07 10:53 PM, in article
1183207982.069751.43540@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
"AllegraKussman@xxxxxxxxx" <AllegraKussman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I appreciate everyone's input. With every suggestion I become more
computer literate, so thank you.
Yeah - I'm starting to wonder if it would simply be easier at this
point to purchase the 2004 edition simply to feel a bit more in line
with the direction the software is going and perhaps facilitate the
switch to the 2008 version, if I choose to do so when it is released.
I don't know much about how one version flows into the next as far as
upgrades go --- is it wrong to think that the switch from version X to
the 2008 might be more buggy than moving from the 2004 to the 2008?
Also -- just to make sure I'm fully clear -- if I purchase the 2004
S&T today....in order to upgrade to the 2008 I'd either have to pay
some amount and upgrade to the Standard version OR repurchase a new
S&T 2008 version, yes?
--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/
Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.
John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:john@xxxxxxxxxxx
.
- Prev by Date: Re: new mac book, installed office mac but not completely working
- Next by Date: Open Office Suite
- Previous by thread: Re: new mac book, installed office mac but not completely working
- Next by thread: Open Office Suite
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
