The Good Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 offers good looks that encompass deeper features than other Mac productivity software; business users get full Word mail merge, robust Excel spreadsheets, and better tools in Entourage; amateur desktop publishing features more polished documents; runs on Intel-based Macs. The Bad Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 is pricey; saves work in new file formats by default; Excel drops Visual Basic support; features don't match the depth of those in Office 2007 for Windows. The Bottom Line Office for Mac 2008 may be the best pick for business users, but most people can get by with less costly alternatives. After a, Microsoft plans to release Office for Mac 2008 to brick-and-mortar and online stores on January 15, making this the first update in nearly four years. Office for Mac includes Word, Excel for spreadsheets, PowerPoint for presentations and Entourage for e-mail and time management.

There's no Microsoft Access database application for the Mac, although Filemaker's upcoming release of offers Mac users a new choice. Unlike, the interface changes don't look radically foreign next to the 2004 edition.

That's good news for anyone who doesn't want to relearn the locations of common functions. The 2007 applications for Windows arrange functions within tabs, while the 2008 Mac software largely clusters functions within the same drop-down menus including File, Edit, and View. By and large, most of the changes focus on attempting to help users craft more attractive documents. For instance, Office for Mac features the same templates and Smart Art graphics as the Windows counterparts.

Feb 13, 2017 - System Requirements. On a Mac, PERRLA is compatible with Microsoft Office 2011 or Microsoft Office 2016 on Mac OS X (10.10 or later). Freddie mac pmms rate for the northeast region for 2011. Discuss: Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac review: Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Sign in to comment. Be respectful, keep it civil and stay on topic.

These are premade templates with 3D and translucent designs. There are more welcome and substantial changes as well. Now you can save to PDF, and Automator actions are supported.

The new My Day widget for Entourage floats on the Mac desktop displaying calendar items and to-do lists. This is handy if you rely on Entourage but don't want to run it all the time. Office 2007 for Windows clusters functions within a contextual 'Ribbon' toolbar that displays different options. Office for Mac lacks the Ribbon, but some menu items appear only in step with the task at hand. We found the shape-shifting neither terribly distracting nor useful.

For simple tweaks such as changing fonts, you'll need to consult floating formatting boxes. Being accustomed to Office for Windows, we'd rather find all these options at the top of the screen. Office for Mac saves work in the same, new Open XML formats used by Office 2007 for Windows. We're not thrilled about this being the default option, even though you can save your work in the older DOC, XLS and PPT formats. Won't be available until as long as 10 weeks from now, or 8 weeks after the applications are available in stores. That means for now, should you save work in a new OOXML format in a hurry, someone with the older software won't be able to open it.

Although we're glad that Microsoft offers free converters, we find the forced extra steps annoying in Office 2007. That said, the new document types are smaller and purportedly more secure than their predecessors. You'll need a Mac with 1.5GB free on the hard drive, running at least OS 10.4.9, with 512MB of RAM and a 500MHz Intel or PowerPC processor. Installation took about 20 minutes on our MacBook running the. The least expensive option is the $150 Home and Student edition (formerly Student and Teacher), which lacks support for Exchange and Automator.