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Back to Office: Mac 2008 Home and Student

Microsoft Office: Mac 2008 Home and Student
Price Range
$123.98 - $164.99

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Overall Rating
3 Star Review

Reviewed by: dormammu

Updated:06-18-08

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Word and Excel XML file support (XML is also used for Office 2007 for Windows)

Weaknesses: Excel no longer has Visual Basic.

Overall Evaluation: Excel no longer has Visual Basic. Everyone complained, so Microsoft has committed to bringing it back in the next version. I think this was a calculated way to cut-down on Office 2008's development time and to use the reinclusion of Visual Basic as a seling point for the next upgrade! While the Mac Business Unit is better than the rest Microsoft, they still are just a part of Microsoft. Switch to Apple's iWork '08 which has full Word/Excel/PowerPoint support and is cheaper. You won't be sorry.
Overall Rating
3 Star Review

Reviewed by: compcons

Updated:05-26-08

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Native on Intel Macs, support for XML based file formats

Weaknesses: Loss of Visual Basic (though doesn't affect most home users), still buggy

Overall Evaluation: I've been using this version of Office for almost half a year now, and there are still many times when I'm dissatisfied with it. I've used Office on Windows for years (up to version 2003, still can't warm up to 2007) and when I migrated to Mac a few years ago, I of course had version 2003.My biggest impetus for upgrading was to be the performance improvement by making it a Universal Binary/Intel native piece of software. I was sort of wrong as the apps don't seem that much faster or improved, in fact, sometimes even crash more than the previous version of Office for Mac, most notably in Excel.I'm not a heavy user of any office apps, but do need to constantly use the apps to share files with others. Excel and Word are my strongest points, and the former definitely lacks features compared to the Windows version. Microsoft is simply trying to make the product Mac pretty more than "office" pretty. I am glad they didn't use the ribbon from Office 2007 on the Macs, but that also basically means they didn't add a whole lot new features from Office 2003 either. In fact, many will complain about the lost feature of Visual Basic support.I've recently installed the recent Service Pack 1 and hoping it resolves many of the stability issues I've seen. I don't ever expect this to be a revolutionary product, however.
Overall Rating
5 Star Review

Reviewed by: pyc103

Updated:05-20-08

Duration of ownership:60 Days

Strengths: Familar Office Suite, inexpensive price, 3 licenses

Weaknesses: None

Overall Evaluation: If you're going to buy Mac Office for your Mac, which I think is essential, because who doesnt use Word or Excel, then Mac Office Home Student / Teacher Edition is the best value! It's cheaper than the other versions, and you get 3 licenses to use! There's no crippled software here folks! Full versions, plus exchange support for email in case you use (Entourage - I dont). I will admit, I am coming from as a Windows user, and it's not as intuitive as the toolbar isnt as prominent as it is in Windows. Nevertheless, everything is there that you need.
Overall Rating
4 Star Review

Reviewed by: macsgirl01

Updated:05-06-08

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: very easy to use and has everything you could possibly want.

Weaknesses: none

Overall Evaluation: Was skeptical about this software because I was not familiar with it. Daughter needed it for school and we just bought a macbook. Price was right at officemax on sale for 129.99 and also had a discount coupon for another 20 dollards off. Decided to try it.She likes it so far!
Overall Rating
2 Star Review

Reviewed by: tokamkoto96

Updated:04-23-08

Duration of ownership:1 Months

Strengths: Powerpoint (the only solid improvement) has a lot more bells and whistles

Weaknesses: Entourage (Home & Student) does not support exchange server accounts. Overall Office 08 uses more resources so it is slow on machines that are older than negative 1 year old.

Overall Evaluation: Excel is so-so. It has A LOT more space to work with, but it's meaningless without a powerful computer. Even Excel 04 is slow on my MacBook Pro (purchased new 8 months ago). It also does not appear to have a solver, which is very frustrating when working on statistics problems.Word is word. How complicated can you get with word?
Overall Rating
4 Star Review

Reviewed by: charleskimble

Updated:04-05-08

Duration of ownership:1 Weeks

Strengths: Word, Excel, Power Point, Entourage, Messenger, 3 licences

Weaknesses: No Exchange Support, No Video in Messenger

Overall Evaluation: This is Microsoft's latest version of Office for a mac. H&S is the cheapest of the versions out there. You get Word, Excel, Power Point, Messenger, and Entourage (Like Outlook). You also can install it on 3 different computers. If you get your email from an Exchange server, this version of Office will not work for you. Entourage in the H&S edition doesn't support exchange. You will have to get one of the more expensive versions of Office, their Entourage does support Exchange. The Messenger for Mac doesn't support video chat. This is disappointing since iChat doesn't support MSN.
Overall Rating
5 Star Review

Reviewed by: joefrank64k

Updated:03-29-08

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Familiar Office programs that you know and (hopefully) love

Weaknesses: If you switch between Office 2007 for Windows and Office 2008 for Mac (like I do) then the interface differences can be a little annoying.

Overall Evaluation: Look, there really isn't much to say...if you need/are used to/prefer to iWork MS Office then you have to buy Office 2008 for your Mac.If you have an Intel Mac then you will notice a big improvement from Office 2004 and the neat new tricks in Word make creating documents a breeze.
Overall Rating
4 Star Review

Reviewed by: philcrocetti

Updated:03-29-08

Duration of ownership:2 Weeks

Strengths: Install was easy. Good value for the money.

Weaknesses: None yet

Overall Evaluation: I needed this for receiving Word documents and editing them. I do not use Entourage, so I cannot comment on that component. Overall, Word and Excel are similar enough to the PC version that the learning curve is not steep. I see iWorks can open Word docs, but I wanted full compatibility with Word for the PC. Having 3 licenses for this price is a good value. Word has not crashed yet on my iMac, so I am pleased. I recommend.
Overall Rating
3 Star Review

Reviewed by: snickers2006

Updated:03-18-08

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: similar to the Office for Windows

Weaknesses: formatting palette instead of the toolbar known from Windows

Overall Evaluation: I bought this product for my new Macbook regarding to import my documents from Windows and because I have to be able to write "doc.uments" in the future. What I like is that in general Office 2008 for Mac works similar to the version for Windows. Except from the formatting palette which is different from the known toolbar. This is a weakness because often the screen view is bothered by the formatting palette. But if you need an Office for Mac than you can work with.
Overall Rating
2 Star Review

Reviewed by: arnoota

Updated:03-01-08

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Just like Office for Windows! Fast install, runs smoothly. Built-in Save as PDF option or send to Messenger contacts.

Weaknesses: Does NOT support right-left languages like Arabic. Does not support "print selection" feature.

Overall Evaluation: I just switched from PC to Mac last week, and thus far, have been thoroughly pleased with my switch. I primarily use the Microsoft Office suite (aside from the internet browsers), and so it was really critical that Office works well. There were a few new features that I was pleasantly surprised to find, including a built-in save as PDF option (which I had to separately add to my Windows Office suite) and the option to send my files to Messenger contacts. There also doesn't seem to be a problem sharing documents with Windows users, EXCEPT there were a few formatting changes that were made when transferring a PowerPoint document that was CREATED on a Mac and then transferred to Windows. Not the other way around. But the real disappointment for me is that it does not support right-to-left languages like Arabic. Mac supports Arabic, and Windows' Office supports Arabic, so I do not understand why Office for Mac does not support it. This has been an issue for several years with previous versions of Office for Mac, so the fact that the brand new 2008 suite has not added this feature is a real disappointment, and a shock. Especially so since iWorks and NeoOffice both support Arabic.I cannot comment on Office for Mac's support for other languages.If you only use Office for Mac in English and either do not use or can find a way around the lack of the "print selection" feature, then this product is for you. However, given my absolute need for Arabic support and the fact that iWorks and NeoOffice have supported Arabic for years, I'm giving Office for Mac two stars.