Yes, there's another new version of Office for the Mac. This one is worth it.
Posted by : Dennis Sellers
Mac Advisor
hed: Office comes to OS X
dek: yes, there's another new version of Office for the Mac. this one is worth it.
by Dennis Sellers
Not counting Apple's own Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro, the two most anticipated native applications for Mac OS X have been Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop.
The Mac OS X version of Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, and DVD Studio are still in the works. Don't hold your breath expecting to see them before January. However, Microsoft Office for Mac OS X--dubbed, appropriately, Office X--is here now. And though many Mac fans are understandably averse to Microsoft products, it's an excellent (and very Mac-like) suite of products.
Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit (Mac BU) claims it didn't merely port Office to Mac OS X, but instead completely re-architected the product with 25 million lines of code, 50 shared libraries, 8,257 files, and 800 dialog boxes. What's more, there are 700 new Aquafied toolboxes (Aqua is Mac OS X's user interface). All this work shows, because Office X is gorgeous to behold.
But it doesn't just look pretty. It takes advantage of the operating system's powerful features, including the following:
Office X adds functionality for Sheets (which give users an immediate visual connection between a dialog box and the respective document it affects);
Quartz 2D drawing technology;
Carbon Events Framework (which lets Mac OS X run applications as efficiently as possible);
Native Mac OS X controls;
QuickTime movies and transitions;
Drag and drop, and OS X native navigation services.
It also offers fluid compatibility with other versions of Office. Office X users can share files freely with users of Office 2001 for Mac, Office 98 Macintosh Edition, Office XP, Office 2000, and Office 97 for Windows. To make life simpler in a cross-platform world, Office X includes the awkwardly named "Save As Includes Append File" extension. Although the suite possesses the same file format as the aforementioned Office versions, exchanging files can be tricky because of the differences in how Mac and Windows operating systems distinguish files.
Windows systems require files to include a three-letter extension (such as DOC, XLS, and PPT) to identify the correct application needed to open the file. In the Save As dialog box in each Office X application, the check box that will attach the file extension to the file is automatically checked. What's more, "smart" attachments in Entourage X include the option to append the file extension to outgoing documents to ease sharing files across platforms. I've been able to seamlessly exchange files with my brother, who has Office 2000 running on a PC--though I haven't yet tried Office XP file swapping.
There are several enhancements common to all the components of Office X. There's a new "Based on Recent" category in the Project Gallery, which offers an easy way to base new documents on ones you've previously created. A preview pane displays copies of up to 27 of the most recently used files from each Office X app. You can change the files at will. Since they're copies and not the actual files, you don't have to worry about losing data when you alter them; everything in the original file remains intact.
Many of what Microsoft calls "discoverability features" of Mac OS X have been included throughout Office X. One cool new addition to the Formatting Palette is the Genie Effect. Click on the button in the top right of the palette's window and it floats to the Office X toolbar, conserving desktop space. Click on its toolbar icon and it floats back out to full size.
Office X also offers access to Office Tools on the Web. Office Tools on the Web offers electronic services from the Office Web site. You can use the tools to do things like look up contact information, add that info to Entourage X, or find maps to import into a Word document.
Entourage X
The most revised component of Office X is Entourage, the personal-information manager. Entourage X sports a redesigned and enhanced calendar. The main window arranges buttons and folders more logically than they were arranged in Entourage 2001. It groups six of the most important functions together in two rows of buttons. Entourage X relegates folder navigation to a separate window. These changes make for an improved user experience.
A tri-pane calendar window displays schedules by month, week, or day, and includes a Task List that simultaneously shows the day's events and tasks. New scheduling tools in the calendar make it easier to send and receive meeting requests from Outlook users.
Meeting requests and responses to users reached via the Internet are sent using the iCalendar format, a standard that specifies the formatting and exchange of calendar event information and applies standard formats for meeting requests and responses when sent as e-mail messages.
The X version makes a big improvement on the Custom Views feature. With it, you can create and save personalized views several different ways. Through the main Custom Views tab within the Entourage X user interface, you have access to pre-existing views such as unread e-mail, flagged messages, and messages received today that appear in their mailbox. Plus, you can now see views in their Address Book, Calendar, Notes, and Tasks from the same location.
Word X
Word X has a new multiselection feature that lets you edit multiple pieces of text at the same time. Multiselection lets you command-click multiple selections of text within a Word document and apply formatting, spelling, researching, or any other operation to the chosen selections. You can also use Find All to avoid having to use Find and Replace with text-formatting enabled. As a writer, I use my word processor more than any other application, and these changes are true time savers.
The new Clear Formatting feature lets you remove a document's formatting. Instead of removing and resetting each type of formatting individually, you can use Clear Formatting to swiftly reset characters and paragraphs, set the default text style, and restore hyperlinks.
Word X also takes advantage of Mac OS X's Quartz graphic engine to let you add a percentage of transparency to any drawing or shape. You can lay shapes and images on top of text or one another.
Contact info from the Office Address Book is accessible directly from Word X's Contact toolbar, which makes it simple to insert names, addresses, and phone numbers directly from within Word X. The toolbar even makes it easier to take a new contact from a Word X document, add it to Entourage X's Address Book, and send out info using Word X's Data Merge Manager.
Speaking of which, Data Merge Manager has a cleaner user interface in Office X. You can now choose individual addresses from the Address Book, rather than being forced to merge the entire Address Book as before.
Excel X
Perhaps the coolest change in Excel is how it also takes advantage of Quartz to let you create some really spiffy charts with transparency. What's more, Quartz makes the border and lines in spreadsheet graphics (such as pie charts) clean and smooth thanks to anti-aliasing, eliminating the accursed jaggies.
There are also new customizable keyboard shortcuts. In Office 2001, many of the keyboard shortcuts were changed from Office 98, resulting in some confusion. In Excel X, you can set up your keyboard as you're accustomed to when working in another Office for Mac-based app such as Word X.
Plus, Excel X includes an import wizard for FileMaker Pro 5.5 to let you import data from FM Pro 3 and higher database files directly into Excel X worksheets.
PowerPoint
While I wish it included some new or improved presentation templates, PowerPoint X is still a nice overhaul. It too takes advantage of Quartz to let you create eye-popping graphics by setting a specific percentage of transparency to art.
What's more, PowerPoint X also takes more advantage of Apple's QuickTime multimedia technology. PowerPoint X includes improvements to PowerPoint movies, which let you save your presentations as QuickTime movies. PowerPoint movies now provide a higher level of fidelity between the original presentation and the movie you create. What's more, you can now include any combination of animations, QT transitions, and interactive features such as action buttons and hyperlinks in your PowerPoint movies. And they can be shared with anyone who has the cross-platform QuickTime Player installed. Plus, you can make your slides flow more smoothly during presentations by creating customized QT transitions or choosing from numerous existing ones. You'll also find that Quartz's transparency features in PowerPoint X let you create new Fade In and Fade Out effects between slides.
Also sweet is the fact that PowerPoint X now offers a new, simple way to collect and save all your media in one PowerPoint Package. Movies, sounds, and images intended for use in a presentation can be saved, stored in an individual folder, and transferred intact to other users' machines and electronic media such as CD-ROMs or a network share.
If you traverse the jungles of the business world and love Mac OS X, Office X is a must-have survival tool. Lots of Mac users can survive just fine with Apple's own excellent AppleWorks, which costs about one-fourth as much as Office X.
Here are the topics we cover computer certification computer careers computer training computer games consulting data recovery data security digital entertainment emerging technology gadget reviews handheld computers hardware reviews home automation home networks home office how-to advice internet linux local companies local news local profiles macintosh mp3 players network security online music online security open-source small-business technology soho software reviews technology books technology dictionary vpn web site reviews wi-fi windows wireless technology tech articles tech news press releases tech dictionary education resources career solutions create your personal blog upload your videos become a writer usergroups special interest group SIG 3com cipts adobe adobe certified expert apc ncpi apple achds acpt acsa actc avaya bea 8.1 certified administrator 8.1 certified architect 8.1 certified developer 9 certified administrator bicsi rcdd checkpoint ccmse ccsa ccsa ngx ccse ccse ng plus with ai ccse ngx cisco access routing and lan switching ccda ccdp ccie ccip ccna ccnp ccnp old ccsp ccvp crmam ip communications optical proctored exams for validating knowledge sales specialist storage networking vpn and security wireless lan citrix cca 3.0 cca 4.0 cca 4.5 cca xp ccea 3.0 ccea 4.0 ccea xp ccia ciw ciw associate ciw certified instructor master ciw admin master ciw designer master ciw enterprise developer security analyst comptia a+ network+ security+ server+ computer associates ca cusa cuse cwna cwna cwsp dell eccouncil cea cep certified ethical hacker chfi e-commerce architect emc emc specialist implemenation technology foundations enterasys ese eta exam express exin exin itil extreme networks ena ens filemaker f7cd f8cd fortinet fortigate foundry cne fujitsu fujitsu guidance software ence hdi css hda hdm hdsa hitachi hitachi certified professional hp ais apc app aps ase certified systems developer csa cse master ase huawei hcne hyperion hcp ibm advanced deployment professional advanced technical expert application developer business process analyst certified administrator certified advanced system administrator certified advanced technical expert certified associate developer certified enterprise developer certified solution designer certified specialist certified systems expert database administrator db2 deployment professional enterprise developer eserver certified specialist ibm on demand business solution advisor solution designer solutions developer solutions expert storage administrator system administator iisfa cifi intel isaca cisa isc cissp sscp iseb itil ism cpm juniper jncia jncis legato lcaa lcea lotus clp lpi lpic level 1 lpic level 2 lpic level 3 macromedia mcafee mcdata csnd microsoft crm mbs mcad .net mcdba mcdst mcitp mcp mcpd mcsa longhorn mcsa 2003 mcsa 2008 mcsd .net mcse mcse 2000 security mcse 2000 to mcse 2003 upgrade mcse 2003 mcse 2003 messaging mcse 2003 security mcse 2008 mcts microsoft business solutions microsoft partner competency mile2 cnsa network appliance nac-na nac-nie naca nace nacp network general sniffer certified professional nokia nokia security administrator nortel ncde ncds ncse ncss ncts novell5 cna 5 cne 6 cna 6 cne 6.5 cne cne upgrade omg ocup oracle 10g dba 10g oca 11i 8i dba 9i dba 9i internet application developer oca ocp8 to ocp8i dba upgrade exam pmi project management professional polycom pcve redhat rhce rhct sair sas institute sas scp saas scp snia snia certified architect snia certified professional snia certified systems engineer snia storage networking certification program administrator professional associate symantec scse scsp scta scts teradata tca v2r5 tcad v2r5 tcda v2r5 tcis v2r5 tcm v2r5 tcp v2r5 tia ccnt ctp tibco tcp trusecure ticsa veritas infraguard chamber of commerce vcp vmware certified professional webex linkedin facebook myspace Professional page layout, image editing, vector illustration, and print production Website design, development, prototyping, and blogging Creation of rich interactive content Industry-standard visual effects and motion graphics Video capture, editing, and production; DVD titling; and digital audio, Adobe Photoshop CS3 extended, Adobe illustrator CS3,Adobe indesign CS3,Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional, Adobe Flash CS3 Professional, Adobe Dreamweaver CS3,Adobe Contribute CS3,Adobe Fireworks CS3,Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional, Adobe Premiere Pro CS3,Adobe Soundbooth CS3,Adobe Encore CS3,Adobe OnLocation,Adobe Bridge CS3,Adobe Version Cue CS3,Adobe Device Central CS3,Adobe Stock Photos, Intel Pentium 4 (1.4GHz processor for DV; 3.4GHz processor for HDV), Intel Centrino, Intel Xeon, (dual 2.8GHz processors for HD), or Intel Core, Duo (or compatible) processor; SSE2-enabled processor required for AMD systems Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise (certified for 32-bit editions) 1GB of RAM for DV; 2GB of RAM for HDV and HD; more RAM recommended when running multiple components 10GB of available hard-disk space (additional free space required during installation) Dedicated 7,200 RPM hard drive for DV and HDV editing; striped disk array storage (RAID 0) for HD; SCSI disk subsystem preferred Microsoft DirectX compatible sound card (multichannel ASIO-compatible sound card recommended),1,280x1,024 monitor resolution with 32-bit color adapter Blu-ray burner required for Blu-ray Disc creation OHCI compatible IEEE 1394 port for DV and HDV capture, export to tape, and transmit to DV device QuickTime 7.1.2 software required to use QuickTime features Broadband Internet connection required for Adobe Stock Photos* and other services
