Mac Office 2004 -- Mac Office 2008

[tguild]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

I just received my 2008 version of Office for Mac. I already have iWork installed on my intel MacBook. I also have the 2004 version of Office for Mac available. Is there any good reason to install the 2004 version? I am a very casual computer user.

Tom

 

[Diane Ross]

I just received my 2008 version of Office for Mac. I already have iWork
installed on my intel MacBook. I also have the 2004 version of Office for Mac
available. Is there any good reason to install the 2004 version? I am a very
casual computer user.

Not unless you need VBA in Word. If you don't know what VBA is, then you
don't need it.

 

[tguild]

Diane,

Thank you. I have no idea what VBA is so I guess I don't need it.

Office for Mac 2008 is supposed to be the latest, greatest and best choice for Office on an intel Mac, right?

Tom

 

[Mickey Stevens]

Yes, Office 2008 is the latest version for the Mac. Unlike the Office 2004
applications, the Office 2008 applications are Universal and run natively on
the Mac without on-the-fly emulation in Rosetta as Office 2004 requires.
So, you will likely see a performance gain on your computer in switching to
Offic 2008.

 

[tguild]

Thanks, Mickey.

Tom

 

[john Bartos]

I just received my 2008 version of Office for Mac. I already have iWork installed on my intel MacBook. I also have the 2004 version of Office for Mac available. Is there any good reason to install the 2004 version? I am a very casual computer user.

Tom

I have also recently installed Office 2008, but found that it still has some unresolved issues and some annoying quirks, eg blue lines appearing in the background of documents. It is also much slower to instal. I have gone back to using Office 2004 and will wait for a few more patches to issue before I venture back.

John

 

[Jmobie]

I am long-time Windows user, about to get a MacBook. (I like the GUI of Vista, but Leopard's is even better, and I am sick of the viruses and spyware.)
Anyway, I have already purchased Office 2008 and VMWare Fusion. I also have Office 2007 Enterprise on my PCs. I personally do not use VBA, but I have worked with it before and I might have to use it for my future job. Is the lack of VBA really the only drawback in Office 2008?
Should I return 2008 for 2004 Professional, or stay with 2008 and use Excel 2007 via Fusion when I need VBA, or use Office 2007 via Fusion altogether? I think I would like the updated graphics and tools found in 2008. I'm also not sure how Fusion works and how easily it's integrated into OS X.

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

I am long-time Windows user, about to get a MacBook. (I like the GUI of Vista,
but Leopard's is even better, and I am sick of the viruses and spyware.)
Anyway, I have already purchased Office 2008 and VMWare Fusion. I also have
Office 2007 Enterprise on my PCs. I personally do not use VBA, but I have
worked with it before and I might have to use it for my future job. Is the
lack of VBA really the only drawback in Office 2008?
Should I return 2008 for 2004 Professional, or stay with 2008 and use Excel
2007 via Fusion when I need VBA, or use Office 2007 via Fusion altogether? I
think I would like the updated graphics and tools found in 2008. I'm also not
sure how Fusion works and how easily it's integrated into OS X.

As far as I'm concerned the lack of VBA is the most critical shortcoming of
Office 2008. Since you don't use it, you won't miss it. Office 2004
Professional will do nothing for you, as the professional edition includes
Virtual PC which will not run on Intel machines. Since you already seem to
have copies of vista and Office 2007 and 2008, you should probably purchase
Fusion, or Parallels. Both integrate very will with the Mac OS. You can then
run either version and decide which you like best. Remember though that if
you are running Fusion (or Parallels) you will still need virus and spyware
protection for your virtual machine.

 

[Gene Crane]

I have Mac Office 2004 (US-English) Student-Teacher edition (which I bought on my own) on my iBook G4. The university where I teach in Japan has provided faculty members with an installer CD-ROM of "Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac institutional license (Japanese)". If I install this, will it have English menus, etc.? Also, will I be able to continue using Office 2004 on the same computer?

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

I have Mac Office 2004 (US-English) Student-Teacher edition (which I bought on
my own) on my iBook G4. The university where I teach in Japan has provided
faculty members with an installer CD-ROM of "Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac
institutional license (Japanese)". If I install this, will it have English
menus, etc.? Also, will I be able to continue using Office 2004 on the same
computer?

Based on the title of the CD, my guess is that the menus will be in
Japanese. The installer for Office 2008, asks to remove prior versions of
Office. You can elect to say no and leave both copies on your machine.
However, if you use Entourage, Entourage 2008 will convert your 2004
identity to a new format, making it unusable by 2004. All other applications
can coexist on the same machine, but double clicking a document will launch
the 2008 version of the app. Do not try to run both Entourage 2004 and 2008.

 

[Diane Ross]

You can elect to say no and leave both copies on your machine.

You might even want to set up one in a separate User and use Fast User
switching to go back and forth. In that case I would install Office
(Japanese) in it's on user away from your English applications.

 

[Chalam Plachikkat]

I have Office 2004 on my Mac but will likely be receiving files created using Office 2007 for Windows. Should I expect a lot of compatibility issues? If yes, would these go away if I got Office 2008 for Mac?

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

I have Office 2004 on my Mac but will likely be receiving files created using
Office 2007 for Windows. Should I expect a lot of compatibility issues? If
yes, would these go away if I got Office 2008 for Mac?

It's hard to say. It all depends on what features of Office 2007 are used in
the files being sent to you. If the user saves the files in the 2003
compatibility mode, extensions of xls, doc, and ppt there should be few
problems. If, however, the suer is using a lot of 2007 features and saving
the files in xlsx, dotx and pptx formats you will not be able to use them
without conversion. If you have 2008, you should be able to use the files
but there still may be compatibility issues. The biggest one is that Office
2008 does not support VBA macros.

 

[Mario_Alberto]

I am a user of Office 2004, but might need to migrate to Office 2008 because of the need of sharing and receiving a lot of files made using Office 2007 for Windows. As I am relatively recent user of this software, I wonder if I must simply buy an upgrade CD/DVD of Office 2008 or if I require to buy the full version of it.

Thanks!

 

[CyberTaz]

Upgrades are available. Details can be found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/Office2008/shop-now.mspx

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[angelica]

I'm a new Mac user and just tried to download the Office 2008 package. I completed the download and followed the set-up steps. When I got to "Select a Destination" it won't go further and says "A version of this software required to install this update was not found on this volume." I then downloaded Mozilla because that's what the MacSupport site said to do, but I still run into the same problems. Any suggestions?

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

I'm a new Mac user and just tried to download the Office 2008 package. I
completed the download and followed the set-up steps. When I got to "Select a
Destination" it won't go further and says "A version of this software required
to install this update was not found on this volume." I then downloaded
Mozilla because that's what the MacSupport site said to do, but I still run
into the same problems. Any suggestions?

You can't download the package, you must buy it. The upgrades on the web
site are to update or improve a version you already have installed. It seems
like you have Office 2004. If you wish to upgrade to 2008, you must purchase
a copy, it can not be downloaded.

 

[Kennethjmason]

I just loaded Office:mac2008, Home&student edition, and per the prompts, erased my 2004 office version. Now my documents will not open in 2008, either in Word or in Excel. What do I do next?

 

[Diane Ross]

I just loaded Office:mac2008, Home&student edition, and per the prompts,
erased my 2004 office version. Now my documents will not open in 2008, either
in Word or in Excel. What do I do next?

Have you restarted and updated Office 2008 to 12.1.1? Did you run Repair
Permissions?

We need to know exactly what happens when you try to open. Did you drag to
the dock icon or double click to open.

What version of the OS are you running?