Any thoughts on Microsoft Office?

[EugW]

Microsoft Office is way better for both casual and professional users. Google docs gets really slow and sometimes freezes especially if it is a long document. I never liked iWork because of the lack of various tools that were offered on MS office. Also MS office offers way more templates than Apple or Google.

For most casual users I think iWork + Google Docs is actually OK. However, if you need some of the more complex or professional features with full document compatibility, iWork isn't going to cut it.

In my house I haven't bothered to put Office on my wife's and the kids' Macs, partially because I don't have enough licences but mainly because they just don't need it. The tools you mention are things they wouldn't use anyway. They're fine with iWork and/or Google Docs. Maybe in the future when the kids move on to bigger and better things, they'll need Office, but right now and for the foreseeable future, they don't. However, for me, I'm about 80% fine with iWork, but I have a bunch of existing Office documents and I work with institutions that are strictly Office, so I have Office on my machines. My main issue with iWork is just that I'm less familiar with it, so sometimes I have to look up online how to do things in the iWork way.

 

[Boyd01]

I've noticed no negative impact on my system from having it installed and of course there's an auto-update program. I'd prefer that to having to continue to log in to their website to download updates!

The included 1TB of OneDrive storage is awesome!

I'm quite happy with Office 365, but as I don't use it a lot anymore, it can take awhile when I do open a file. It most likely needs to either download or install a previously auto-downloaded version. Or maybe sometimes it just needs to check in with their server. Anyway, it's just a minor annoyance and probably wouldn't be noticeable if I used Office daily.

The free storage is really great, and I should start using it more. What I find most remarkable is that the home version (think that's what it's called) allows 5 separate users that can each install Office on 5 different devices. And they each get their own personal 1tb of OneDrive. The last time I checked, there was no requirement for you to be related to the other users.

To me, it's quite remarkable that Microsoft offers all this for $100/year. That is considerably better than anything that Adobe or even Apple offers. And here's another idea... ask your friends and relatives if they have an Office 365 home account. If so, they may be able to give you full access for free under this plan

 

[Bodhitree]

To me, it's quite remarkable that Microsoft offers all this for $100/year. That is considerably better than anything that Adobe or even Apple offers.

Ooh, I wouldn’t say that… it’s hard to beat “free and installed by default“. Pages, Numbers and Keynote come free with every new Mac and they are full-featured enough that most casual users don’t need anything more. It is true that as soon as you start doing anything really professional you may want to upgrade, but the OP used iWork for a long time without needing a better suite.

Office for Mac has quite a few satisfied users, and I might still use it if it wasn’t for Apple dropping 32 bit compatibility. It would get the OP better document compatibility, which is what he seems to be after for his Mac running Mavericks.

 

[PowerHarryG4]

I use Mavericks too daily and I ran into an issue where I couldn't open Docx with Pages 09. If you prefer Pages, on the app store I'm able to download Pages 5.2.2 from my purchased list on Mavericks which from what I can tell has much better compatibility with Microsoft office documents. The only annoyance is it complains that you don't have Icloud every time you open it. I see you mentioned that revamp wasn't very good so this might not be useful.

 

[tensixturtle]

I use Mavericks too daily and I ran into an issue where I couldn't open Docx with Pages 09. If you prefer Pages, on the app store I'm able to download Pages 5.2.2 from my purchased list on Mavericks which from what I can tell has much better compatibility with Microsoft office documents. The only annoyance is it complains that you don't have Icloud every time you open it. I see you mentioned that revamp wasn't very good so this might not be useful.

Pages is generally quite good at opening Word documents but not flawless. I’ve especially had hard times opening up Word documents with tables; the spacing gets all off.

 

[Boyd01]

Ooh, I wouldn’t say that… it’s hard to beat “free and installed by default“. Pages, Numbers and Keynote come free with every new Mac and they are full-featured enough that most casual users don’t need anything more.

I don't really disagree with any of that. But I think you missed my point. I was not talking about the quality of the apps themselves. You can't take your copy of Pages and Numbers and share it with 4 other people (even if they don't have Macs or iOS devices) and those people definitely would not get 1tb of free cloud storage.

 

[eyoungren]

The included 1TB of OneDrive storage is awesome!

There was a time this would have motivated me, but I am wallowing in a vast sea of online and local storage as it is right now. I do have a OneDrive account. I also have a Box account (50GB) a Sync account, a Google Drive account and iCloud (2TB).

But Dropbox was the first for me and I've been with them since around 2010. Right now I'm paying them monthly for 4.1TB of space and only a little over a quarter of it is filled. Combined with a lot of large hard drives on my home network, it's been really difficult to even get myself to login to anything other than Dropbox.

I've still got stuff from around 2015 sitting on Box that I've never used, and the last time I checked One Drive I had to think really hard about why I put the stuff there that I did. It was junk and I still have no idea what I was thinking about when I put it there.

It's just gotten out of hand…

 

[bobesch]

Just get parallels and office 365 for pc. So much better than office for Mac.
(IT pro who is long time Mac user but wants to be as productive as possible).

My Swiss Army Knife is Fusion/Win2k with Office2k and AppleWorks6 alongside with Office:Mac'08 and iWorks.

 

[MysticCow]

I've run ClarisWorks/Appleworks/iWork alongside MS Office for decades.

Same here. You'd be surprised how robust AppleWorks still is today.

 

[orionquest]

The right tool for the right job. If you need Office then get it, stop wasting time and being fiddly and just get work done.

 

[thefourthpope]

Why not both? No law that requires you stop using iWork or uninstall it just because you have Office. I've run ClarisWorks/Appleworks/iWork alongside MS Office for decades. Have both, use what fits your project or need. Office 2011 is a good product for Mavericks.

This is the right answer. I use Office for most tasks, owing to simple compatibility with colleagues. But I use Pages for many other projects, especially when I know I will end up sending as a PDF, such as for my syllabi.

Same as using Google Docs when collaborating on certain projects. Use what works.

 

[ian87w]

I don't like having multiple applications installed on my computer which do the same thing, because it gets confusing to keep track of which app I'm in,

I would forego MS Office and just use Google Docs.

1. No software installation needed. It runs in a browser
2. It's free
3. It does the job for 90% of office tasks most people need
4. It has arguably the best net code for online collaboration with others in real time. Much better than Microsoft's.

For casual users, Google Docs works fine.

 

[tensixturtle]

I would forego MS Office and just use Google Docs.

1. No software installation needed. It runs in a browser
2. It's free
3. It does the job for 90% of office tasks most people need
4. It has arguably the best net code for online collaboration with others in real time. Much better than Microsoft's.

For casual users, Google Docs works fine.

I agree with all of this and I use it almost daily. However, OP had said the following about Google Docs:

Oh, so I can use the web version of Office via Chromium Legacy, and that's currently how I confirm that iWork exports worked properly. But for everyday use I'm not interested in a web app!

 

[MysticCow]

For casual users, Google Docs works fine.

For casual users, Google Docs keeps track of you also!

Office, iWork, or LibreOffice for me any day of the week.

 

[msackey]

[...]

So, my question is, how is this era of Microsoft Office on the Mac?

• Of the versions of Office would be compatible with Mavericks (I'm not actually sure which these are), which is the best one? Are some better than others?
• Are they good Mac apps? Does the visual design feel unified with the rest of the system? Does it follow Apple design guidelines? Do all of the little features you'd expect in a well-designed Cocoa app work as expected? Any complaints?
• Has anyone used both Microsoft Office and iWork '09? Leaving out compatibility, which do you prefer and why?

Overall, I haven't had issues with Microsoft Office on the Mac. I've used many versions of it over the years as I work at an institution that has a corporate subscription. It seems fine. Without really thinking very hard about it, I can't really say if they are following Apple design. I think for the most part I've been able to relatively easily adapt to a range of design changes and so probably don't notice it or at least it doesn't register as an issue.

I prefer Office only because it's use in various industries and I have to work with their documents.

 

[david0128]

This is an interesting thread. I'm falling into the Office 365 user side of the debate - I've not used the Mac iWork programmes much - I really couldn't get over the issues they have when converting to and from other formats - if you work with people that exclusively use office - it can make you unpopular!
Couple of things I want to flag though:
1. Office apps loaded from the App Store on the Mac have less of an ability to install crap like autoupdate on your system. They update via the App Store.
2. Although I'm not a fan of subscription software, I use OneDrive because I also use a windows machine - the synchronisation is perfect.
3. Subscription software isn't so expensive when you purchase the family subscription. The five members of your family don't need to live at the same address and they can each install office on five computers. That's a lot of installs for the monthly fee.
4. The same subscription rule applies to some corporate O365 licences. Each user can have up to five active licensed machines. My organization allows activation of office on a personal machine in addition to the corporate laptop (so it might not cost you anything to use it at home and it doesn't cost your employer anything either - it just depends on their policy.).
5. The online version of the Microsoft office apps have moved forward massively over the last 18 months. The online version of excel can manage links between files and has a menu bar that looks very similar to the desktop version.
6. I use Parallels desktop to use both the windows and Mac versions of excel. There are some more complex functions that I use that only work in the windows version.

Anyhow, although I'm really having to use office for work, I do quite like it. Maybe because I'm just used to it though.

[screenshot is from office online - though a web browser]

 

[1885507]

In years past, I used Office v.X and 2008 with few-if-any issues. I thought '08 was among the better versions on the Mac, albeit a LOT slower than v.X it replaced. 2008 was the last version I purchased. v.X was the first version I ever purchased for Mac (switcher) and remains my favorite because of its Aqua-heavy interface.

I've used every version of iWork since '05, it had a lot of charm in those early days. I used iWork all the way through '09 for college and grad school with few if any issues.

My only issues with iWork crept up with Endnote integration in iWork '13 and were not resolved until a few releases later. Otherwise, iWork has always been a solid product for me, especially Keynote and Pages.

Today, I only use Office (esp. Word and PPT) when there's an issue with export or an old file; otherwise, I only use iWork for everything incl. work-related stuff.

 

[robgreene]

No, it does not. As long as your recommendation for upgrading doesn't mean the purchase of a current Mac or upgrading to versions of macOS that early Intel Macs can't run or be patched to run.

The idea here is to find solutions for the Macs we currently use and the OS versions they can run. With that in mind, we can only update so far.

Even then... if the thread were called "horses" and an OP suggests they're looking for new hooves for their horse that would allow it to go a steady 70-80mph across the country... would it not make sense to let them know that they've pushed their horse to its limit, and are probably now in the market for a car given their needs?

 

[eyoungren]

Even then... if the thread were called "horses" and an OP suggests they're looking for new hooves for their horse that would allow it to go a steady 70-80mph across the country... would it not make sense to let them know that they've pushed their horse to its limit, and are probably now in the market for a car given their needs?

Not every Mac problem is a nail that requires the hammer of a brand new Mac with the latest version of macOS to solve.

If all of us took that solution every time for our problems in the Early Intel and PowerPC Mac forums there would no longer be a need for these two subforums.

I have no doubt this would please every user on this forum who has ever posted that "Get a new Mac!" is the correct solution to every Mac problem.

While defeating the very reasons why us denizens of the Early Intel and PowerPC Mac forums are here.

 

[EugW]

I have the online version of Office 365 through my workplace. It's soooooo laggy. And no, it's not running through my workplace's server. It's through the office.com website directly.

I'm much happier running Office 2016 locally.

 

[robgreene]

Not every Mac problem is a nail that requires the hammer of a brand new Mac with the latest version of macOS to solve.

If all of us took that solution every time for our problems in the Early Intel and PowerPC Mac forums there would no longer be a need for these two subforums.

I have no doubt this would please every user on this forum who has ever posted that "Get a new Mac!" is the correct solution to every Mac problem.

While defeating the very reasons why us denizens of the Early Intel and PowerPC Mac forums are here.

We are also not in the Early Intel forum. We are in the Mac Apps forum.

 

[VirtuallyInsane]

I am working with a 5k Retina 27" Mac from 2019, and it's still on Mojave, and honestly? Microsoft office is fine with it, and OneDrive is working fine too. It's also working great on my M1 MB Pro 13" from 2020 on Big Sur. I have been using Office for years linked with OneDrive and it has been fine for me. Gets the job done, with no complaints.

 

[eyoungren]

View attachment 2131398

We are also not in the Early Intel forum. We are in the Mac Apps forum.

This thread started in the Early Intel Mac forum, which is why I'm even involved. If I've ever posted in the forum you screenshoted then I do not recall. I'm not in this part of MacRumors normally, so I wasn't aware the thread had been moved.

 

[TheShortTimer]

This thread started in the Early Intel Mac forum, which is why I'm even involved. If I've ever posted in the forum you screenshoted then I do not recall. I'm not in this part of MacRumors normally, so I wasn't aware the thread had been moved.

Likewise - hence the references in this thread by you, myself and others to the community philosophy of the Early Intel Mac forum...

 

[hirshnoc]

AppleWorks FTW