Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Student and Teacher [OLD VERSION]

Review by Bruce Aguilar for Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Student and Teacher [OLD VERSION]
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Let’s face it, no matter how much you love your Mac there are times when you might find yourself wishing it was a PC so you could send a Word file to your PC using friend (who doesn’t understand the joys of PDF). Well Microsoft, never being one to miss an opportunity, has delivered the full Office Suite for Mac and designed it to take complete advantage of OS X. What that translates into is simply the best Office Suite experience anyone can have.All the apps (Word; Excel; PowerPoint; Entourage) are included unencumbered and many have features and enhancements that can ONLY be found on the Mac. Excel features customized keyboard shortcuts and the ability to create transparent charts. Word now features easy one button access to all your contacts in Entourage as well as the handy Data Merge Manager. PowerPoint now allows movies and features full compatibility with QuickTime. The layout and feel of Entourage is much improved over it’s PC counterpoint Outlook.At first Microsoft had said that this Student & Teacher version was non-upgradeable(The only difference between this and the more pricey Standard Edition), but they have since changed their minds to allow upgrades as long as you buy before the new version is released. You even get a three computer license! Finally, here’s the proof that Microsoft can be generous when it wants to.I’ve had this suite for many months now and have never loved using these apps more. Sending and receiving Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents is a breeze and I’ve never once had an issue opening a document sent from a PC user. Beyond the functionality, I love the way all these Microsoft apps look like part of OS X in full Aqua glory. If you need to communicate with PC users or simply want the best of both worlds, you can’t do any better than running Microsoft Office v.X Student & Teacher edition on a Mac.

Review by Christopher B. Prentiss for Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Student and Teacher [OLD VERSION]
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I moved to Mac after more than a decade of PC use because I was sick of getting “application not responding” messages. In 9 months of owning my iBook, I think I had one message of this sort, that is until I installed Office for Mac. Welcome back to Microsoft!

Don’t get me wrong, the applications are well designed and presently there is no other office suite that can compete. They look great and aside from a few weird functionality issues I have been happy with Office. But just like Windows, these programs crash all the time. At least once a week Word or Entourage will simply freeze. At lot of times this happens when I am cutting and pasting between the two.

Anyway, be forewarned, if you are a Mac zealot, you might enjoy Office but be prepared to be even madder at Microsoft.

Review by P. E Marshall for Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Student and Teacher [OLD VERSION]
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I recently threw out my virus-infected PC and bought an Apple Powerbook. I was concerned that the switch would limit what I can and cannot do with my computer, but Microsoft Office for Mac has made the transition much easier, as I have been a Microsoft Office user for years. The Mac version runs much smoother than the Windows version, (as does the entire computer.) No problems with lock-ups, no lost data, and the Mac version seems much easier to use than my Windows version. Very straightforward, yet powerful enough for a full range of use, from simple to very complex.

So, for anyone out there thinking of making the switch from PC to Mac, do yourself a favor: get Microsoft Office for the Mac.

Review by Amaurosis Fugax, MD for Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Student and Teacher [OLD VERSION]
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I bought Office 2004 for the Mac as an upgrade to Office X, even though I was not really having any problems with the older version. Office 2004 has been nothing but problems. Excel and Word crash more frequently. There are random but frequent hard drive accesses for no apparent reason. There are problems with removing password protection of Excel files. Worst of all are the font-related bugs in Word that are even worse in Excel. Excel 2004 screws up the letter spacing of fonts as well as line spacing for wrapped text. Everything is bigger by 10-30%. This doesn’t seem to be a problem at first, especially if you are only entering single words or short strings into individual cells. However, I have dozens of forms that were laid out in Excel X that include wrapped text in merged cells. If I open these documents in Excel 2004, the font spacing is all screwed up, requiring complete readjustment of each form. Even worse, Excel 2004 is not WYSIWYG. The screen layout isn’t the same as what gets printed. I find this wholly unacceptable for a major business suite, especially when it worked OK in the previous version. Don’t be fooled by Microsoft’s promise of bug fixes in their recently released Service Pack 1 for Office 2004. They may have fixed a few bugs but not the major ones I have issues with. Check out the comments by users at Macintouch.com, under Office 2004. As for me, I intend to uninstall Office 2004 if possible and reinstall Office X.

Review by noby29504 for Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Student and Teacher [OLD VERSION]
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Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy bashing Microsoft with the best of them, and I think most “upgrades” from Redmond are a waste of money at this point, but Office 2004 for the Mac is not one of those cases.It is simply a must have upgrade.What I love about the new upgrade:1. Long file names
2. Better change/edit management
3. Lots of new features in PowerPoint (although Keynote still looks better displayed)
4. Much cleaner interfaceI’ll give credit where credit is due. This is a fantastic update, one I am glad I paid for. Only one beef, to be balanced, is MS should work on speeding up the apps in the .1 release.