Best version of Office for low-end Intels

[retta283]

Just a silly question, but I’ve been culling my Office installs to find the most usable version. Can’t find one that will run good on lower-end systems. As in Core Solo to slow C2D. 2011 is nice, but it runs like a dog. Even my 2012 iMac is brought to its knees by large Excels. 2008 isn’t much better. I loved 2004 but it runs like crap on Rosetta. Stable, but chugging. Office X in Rosetta seems to be going good from what little I try, though I’m not sure how to deploy the .docx patch into this version of Word. I know it exists, but it’s a mystery trying to get a download.

Anyone with experience or comments on this?

 

[TheShortTimer]

Just a silly question, but I’ve been culling my Office installs to find the most usable version. Can’t find one that will run good on lower-end systems. As in Core Solo to slow C2D. 2011 is nice, but it runs like a dog.

This is a surprise because from the moment I saw the topic title, my immediate thought was to recommend 2011! It ran like a champ for several years on my MacBook Pro 1,1 and my MacBook 1,1 - both Core Duo machines with a max of 2GB and Snow Leopard.

Can you elaborate about your experiences with 2011?

 

[retta283]

This is a surprise because from the moment I saw the topic title, my immediate thought was to recommend 2011! It ran like a champ for several years on my MacBook Pro 1,1 and my MacBook 1,1 - both Core Duo machines with a max of 2GB and Snow Leopard.

Can you elaborate about your experiences with 2011?

Most of my troubles with 2011 come from Excel. I work with very large documents regularly, and for some reason Mac versions have always struggled immensely with this task. Scrolling and doing large cut/paste operations is troublesome. There is a slight input delay to everything. I am using it on regular HDDs, which may be part of the issue.

Otherwise, Word performance is mostly okay but sluggish with large/advanced docs. It does have the unique distinction of being the only version in which I can repeatedly crash the program when opening documents. Also, on a somewhat different note I cannot seem to get my hotmail or Gmail to work with Outlook 2011 anymore. I assume it's TLS related.

For what it's worth, most of my experience with 2011 was under Yosemite and newer. Perhaps I ought to give it another try on Mavericks and SL.

 

[retta283]

A small comment as an aside, Office is one of the few cases where Windows spoiled my Mac experience. I used to run Office 2000 and 2003 on very high-end (for the time) Windows 2000 computers, and it was a dream experience. We deployed 2003 after some critical fixes had been rolled out, so we never suffered major bugs. I still think Windows 2000 + Office 2003 was one of the greatest software combos of all time. Loved it. Versus iTunes which sucked on Windows but became one of my favorite Mac apps.

I have heard some musings about getting Office 2003 to run on a Mac under Wine, a forum member whose name I forget had compiled wrappers for each app, but to do it yourself it requires many tweaks in Wine to prevent it from crashing when opening documents or other weird bugs, which is unfortunate. I prefer a simpler solution overall.

 

[Amethyst1]

A small comment as an aside, Office is one of the few cases where Windows spoiled my Mac experience. I used to run Office 2000 and 2003 on very high-end (for the time) Windows 2000 computers, and it was a dream experience.

I stuck with Windows 2000 and Office 2000 until I switched to OS X, and it was great.

I have heard some musings about getting Office 2003 to run on a Mac under Wine […]

I briefly played with Office 2000 under CrossOver Office on a Core Duo and it was super-fast, but I never used it for productivity. I might revisit it.

 

[retta283]

I stuck with Windows 2000 and Office 2000 until I switched to OS X, and it was great.


I briefly played with Office 2000 under CrossOver Office on a Core Duo and it was super-fast, but I never used it for productivity. I might revisit it.

It's been so long that I don't remember if there was anything I preferred about 2000 compared to 2003, but both were rock-solid stable. The UI of 2000 matched the OS of the same year better of course. I slowly phased out Windows 2000 starting around 2004, as XP became necessary for new hardware drivers and progams, but I only completely eliminated it in 2009.

On slower hardware, Win2k vs XP on the same machine 2k would always be better. I felt that it took until later SP2 days for XP to get to the level of dependability it is legendary for. Windows 7 I never felt at home with, a good OS but I was always having issues and the system never was under my control in the way OS X or Win2k had been.

I do have a Windows 2000 VM installed with VirtualBox on some old Macs, but it is a major PITA to work in and get documents in and out of. At least 2k is the last one without that dreaded activation... Never have messed with Crossover, which seems a much more elegant solution. Not sure about how to get a full version of it onto such an old OS these days as the Garden doesn't seem to have it.

 

[Amethyst1]

It's been so long that I don't remember if there was anything I preferred about 2000 compared to 2003, but both were rock-solid stable.

I stayed away from Office XP and 2003 mainly because of the activation and Office 2000 did everything I needed when I used it.

The UI of 2000 matched the OS of the same year better of course.

Yeah, Office XP ironically matched the “Watercolour” theme of the early XP betas; 2003 matched the final UI.

I do have a Windows 2000 VM installed with VirtualBox on some old Macs, but it is a major PITA to work in and get documents in and out of.

So do I. I just use a shared folder mapped to a drive letter. Works fine.

Never have messed with Crossover, which seems a much more elegant solution. Not sure about how to get a full version of it onto such an old OS these days as the Garden doesn't seem to have it.

Maybe I still have the free license and download I was able to snag in the day. In any case, CrossOver is “just” Wine on steroids.

 

[retta283]

I stayed away from Office XP and 2003 mainly because of the activation and Office 2000 did everything I needed when I used it.

Ah, I often forget I have a 'special' copy of 2003. Didn't realize the consumer issues needed that internet activation junk.

So do I. I just use a shared folder mapped to a drive letter. Works fine.

That's what I had tried, but the Windows machine would never update in real-time with the Mac drive contents, only on a reboot. Perhaps I was missing a setting.

 

[Amethyst1]

Ah, I often forget I have a 'special' copy of 2003. Didn't realize the consumer issues needed that internet activation junk.

I mean, there were ways around it, but I like to have properly licensed stuff, even if it's not the latest and greatest.

That's what I had tried, but the Windows machine would never update in real-time with the Mac drive contents, only on a reboot. Perhaps I was missing a setting.

Just tried this and it works. Changes I make on either side are immediately seen on the other.

 

[MysticCow]

I loved 2004 but it runs like crap on Rosetta.

That's sad, because 2004 is the best version of MS Office ever made.

 

[retta283]

That's sad, because 2004 is the best version of MS Office ever made.

Definitely the best Mac version I’ve used. Very stable and on PPC it was always smooth. It still struggled with large Excels for me, but nowhere near the level of 2008 or later. I wish 2008 had been as good as it, or that a universal binary had been issued for 2004.

As it is, I think 2004 is a lost cause because I’ve already got the maximum RAM possible and an SSD. As time goes on I am less pleased with Rosetta on the whole. Performs much worse than I remember.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

I use 08 on most all of my old machines PPC or early Intel. Mostly because it works well and is reasonably fast however office has never been a blazing fast experience regardless of where I am using it. Office is a real porker anyway you barbecue it. I've always focused on trying to maximize ram where possible to improve performance. Best of luck to you.

 

[GMShadow]

Microsoft didn't start bringing Excel up to parity with the Windows version again until 2016, and it's only been recently they finally started bringing the last few things over. No version that runs on old HW is going to do what you need.

 

[retta283]

Microsoft didn't start bringing Excel up to parity with the Windows version again until 2016, and it's only been recently they finally started bringing the last few things over. No version that runs on old HW is going to do what you need.

Luckily for me the featureset is rarely the issue. I do have Office 2016 installed on much newer Macs, which is what I tend to use these days. However Excel is still the same low-FPS scrolling input lag disaster that the older versions were. I have heard things are much better in the most current Mac versions, but I am unaware of whether they are available for one-time purchase. Not a big fan of subscription software.