Office 2008 64 bit support?

[nzeringo]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
Processor: Intel

Hi,

Does anyone know if Office '08 is 64 bit compatible? I mean to say, is it coded only for 32 bit computing or is it coded for 64 bit. Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,
Nick

 

[Rob Schneider]

Far as I know, no. But I'm more than curious why you ask. I wouldn't
think that going to 64 bit will have any perceived advantage to person
using an Office application ... may even slow it down.

--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[nzeringo]

Hi RMS,

I ask because if Office can run 64 bit then you should, in theory, see performance increases. This is be true of any application however whether or not you actually get any performance increases of note is the question. While you're right if probably wouldn't matter for Office it would matter for other programs and I wanted to know if there would be a problem with Office if I booted into the 64 bit kernel. Since I posted I booted up OS X 10.6 with the 64 bit kernel enabled and Office runs fine. As I understand things if an application was coded strictly for 32 bit it should not run under 64 bit mode. I'm not an expert so I could be wrong. So Word and Entourage (w/ web services) have opened much much faster with the 64 bit kernel. Before they would take ~5 seconds (longer for Entourage usually) now it is almost instant.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

It's 32 bit. It was out way before Snow Leopard was and back then very
few applications were 64 bit.

I ask because if Office can run 64 bit then you should, in theory, see
performance increases. This is be true of any application however

You can see performances increase regardless as Snow Leopard is a much
leaner and faster system and Office can take advantage of that.

whether or not you actually get any performance increases of note is the
question. While you're right if probably wouldn't matter for Office it
would matter for other programs and I wanted to know if there would be a
problem with Office if I booted into the 64 bit kernel. Since I posted I

In any case, I don't see any advantage at this point to boot in 64 bit
kernel mode. Only disadvantages.
Do you have so much RAM 32 bit addressing is not enough??

booted up OS X 10.6 with the 64 bit kernel enabled and Office runs fine.

Sure, as would any 32 app. It's only a problem for system extensions,
etc.

As I understand things if an application was coded strictly for 32 bit
it should not run under 64 bit mode. I'm not an expert so I could be
wrong. So Word and Entourage (w/ web services) have opened much much
faster with the 64 bit kernel. Before they would take ~5 seconds (longer
for Entourage usually) now it is almost instant.

32 bit app run just find and so do PPC app provided you have installed
Rosetta.

Corentin

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
Processor: Intel

Hi,

Does anyone know if Office '08 is 64 bit compatible? I mean to say, is it coded only for 32 bit computing or is it coded for 64 bit. Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,
Nick

Hi Nick,

Office 2008 is a dual binary, so I think it should run if you boot in
64-bit mode. However, it is not completely a cocoa application, so I
would not expect to see a big speed increase in Office. On the other
hand, I would not expect it to be slower on the whole. Some things might
be faster, but not everything.

Certainly 64-bit applications like Finder and other Apple applications
will be noticeably faster when booting to 64-bit mode thus giving you a
more satisfactory overall performance boost.

I say give it a try and let us know what you think. If you like 64-bit
mode better, there's a Terminal command you can issue that will cause
Mac OS to default to 64-bit mode so you don't have to do the keyboard
combination each time.

-Jim

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Hi Nick,

Office 2008 is a dual binary, so I think it should run if you boot in
64-bit mode.

Well not really, it's a Universal Binary (PPC/Intel 32 bit).
Dual binary is 64/32 bit. 32 bit Intel code still runs with the kernel
in 64 bit mode though (and I suspect that PPC too if you have rosetta).

[...]

Certainly 64-bit applications like Finder and other Apple applications
will be noticeably faster when booting to 64-bit mode thus giving you a
more satisfactory overall performance boost.

Not necessarely. Some applications even run slower in 64 bit mode than
in 32. It all depends on what type of calculations they need to perform.
Dealing with big cunks of data (numbers, as in Excel or pixels as in
Photoshop) greatly benefit from 64 bit, but that's about it.

Corentin

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Nick,

Office 2008 is a dual binary, so I think it should run if you boot in
64-bit mode.

Well not really, it's a Universal Binary (PPC/Intel 32 bit).
Dual binary is 64/32 bit. 32 bit Intel code still runs with the kernel
in 64 bit mode though (and I suspect that PPC too if you have rosetta).

[...]

Certainly 64-bit applications like Finder and other Apple applications
will be noticeably faster when booting to 64-bit mode thus giving you a
more satisfactory overall performance boost.

Not necessarely. Some applications even run slower in 64 bit mode than
in 32. It all depends on what type of calculations they need to perform.
Dealing with big cunks of data (numbers, as in Excel or pixels as in
Photoshop) greatly benefit from 64 bit, but that's about it.

Corentin

Hi,

Well, then I stand by my suggestion that our correspondent give 64-bit
booting a try and see how it goes. It might be better overall, but maybe
not. I'd love to hear how it turns out.

When I tried it on my own machine things were much more responsive,
except I need VBA so I couldn't live in 64-bit mode for more than a
short time.

-Jim

 

[nzeringo]

Hey everyone,

I've been using Office with K64 enabled and it runs much better. In particular opening the programs is much faster. StatPlus also appears to work without problem. Thanks.