Hands-on: Office For Mac
Over the past few days we’ve been playing around the latest beta release of Microsoft Office for Mac 2011. Many of the changes made are hard to appreciate without actually seeing the application suite in use, and for that reason alone we have assembled a massive gallery of screenshots. On the other hand, images can be meaningless without a bit of an explanation so we’ve put down a brief summary of our initial thoughts. You can check them all out after the jump. Across the board, each application has had its UI completely overhauled as Microsoft has made the wise decision to redo the entire layout of the application suite. Instead of the awful configuration found in Office for Mac 2008, 2011 draws from both Office 2007 and Office 2010 for Windows.
In fact, it did such a good job that we can’t think of a reason why someone who is used to one OS wouldn’t be able to jump into the other and get work done in Office. One of the main reasons for this is Ribbons.
Microsoft has finally conceded that people don’t like using the attractive but horribly implemented Toolbox found in previous versions of Office for Mac. Yes, the option to use the Toolbox is still there, but it’s no longer nearly impossible to get away without using it. One nice thing we will say about the Toolbox is that if you’re heavily into incorporating multimedia into your documents, the Toolbox is now fully integrated with iPhoto, iTunes, Photo Booth and Garage Band. It works phenomenally well. Speaking of things working, Excel finally has working support for macros.
We can’t even tell you how happy this makes nerds like us. But back to Ribbons. They just make life so much easier. Basically every option you could ever want to use is attractively presented to you through the ribbons.
What this does is allow you to save yourself an awful lot of time navigating the menu bar, hence why Microsoft calls the Ribbon a “Fluent User Interface”. Sadly there is a pretty big weak link in Office 2011: Outlook. It seems that Microsoft simply sacrificed brains for beauty. Don’t get us wrong. It’s definitely the best and most powerful email client we’ve ever used on OS X, but after using it for 10 minutes we honestly gave up on it. Because it simply requires more work to get simple tasks done than on the Windows version.
It sucks to say it, but given the choice between using the new Outlook for Mac and virtualizing Outlook for Windows, we’d go with the latter any day. We’ve got more that 50 screenshots lined up for your eyes to feast upon, so check them out, ok? Wait a second read this and tell me if is makes any sense: “Sadly there is a pretty big weak link in Office 2011: Outlook. It seems that Microsoft simply sacrificed brains for beauty.
Don’t get us wrong. It’s definitely the best and most powerful email client we’ve ever used on OS X, but after using it for 10 minutes we honestly gave up on it.” How can it be the best and most powerful email client you’ve ever used for OS X, and yet you gave up on it in 10 minutes?
It sounds like it just plain sucks to me – so how is it the best and most powerful? Outlook is the one thing I miss about Windows. I am really hoping the final Outlook for mac will be carbon copy of the Windows version. Outlook looks exactly like apple mail.
Ms Office For Mac
The icons looks like some Stan Lee wannabe sat down with a five year old and drew icons. My god, Outlook is supposed to be a workhorse, and I look at the screenshots and see nothing of substance. Also, do you know if we are finally able to press F2 to enter formulas in Excel cells, instead of the current double click or clicking of the formula bar. Also, do you know if the formula bar in Excel is permanently visible, or is it a toolbar that needs to be toggled on like the current excel? Anyone who thinks Ribbons is a step forward in UI, knows nothing of good UI design. Ribbons are a crutch to replace poorly designed and layed out menus. MS never could design menus well which is why Ribbons are welcomed on Windows.
Ribbons ignore good tenets of UI such as taking advantage of muscle memory for command access, quick access to commands (requires several clicks to get to the actual functionality, and doesn’t take advantage of “infinite height” like the Mac menubar does), consistency across applications, caters only to novices, and most importantly doesn’t get out of the way when you want to work on the actual content. Well, maybe you’ll see it in person some day and just think back to your post with passing chagrin.
Hands On Office For Mac
The ribbon, for people who “know” how to use it-through experience-makes accessing tools more painless. It completely changes, depending on what element you’re using-an entirely different ribbon appears, offering you the tool set for that object. It makes the “drill down” phenomenon almost disappear, fyi. It’s quite consistent in it’s implementation.
It doesn’t just cater to novices (but you’d have to use it to see how quickly you can access “power user features.” Last ignorant point you make? “ most importantly doesn’t get out of the way when you want to work on the actual content.” Check out this “advanced” function if offers a simple one click “hide this ribbon.” Can you guess what it does?
G45fmdvp32db driver for mac pro. The disk image of the driver will mount, and automatically open the DisplayLink Installer main landing page 4. Double-click on the ‘DisplayLink Software Installer.pkg’ file.
For me the most anticipated program of Office 2011 is without a doubt Outlook. I hate having to virtualise Outlook for Windows in Parallels. It’s seems like a terrible waste of resources simply to run an e-mail client.
Office For Mac Download
The first thing I tried in was to configure Outlook to connect to my work 2003 Exchange server which sadly ended in disappointment. No matter what settings I try, be they via OWA or directly to my exchange server, Outlook won’t make the connection. The same settings work in Entourage. Anyone else had any better luck on Exchange 2003?
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