Pages, Numbers, and Keynote seem to launch in seconds (less than 5) on my MacBook Pro (Mid 2012, 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD) while MS Office apps take FOREVER to launch for the first time on my Mac. This has meant that I no longer use MS Office apps as the default on my Mac. Perhaps its because I have a standard HDD while office apps take so long to launch, or perhaps its because MS does not know the Mac as well and does not take full advantage of the Macs resources. Why do iWorks apps launch so fast on my older Mac?
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Why do iWorks apps launch so fast?
- Thread starter jwolf6589
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If you replaced your spinner (probably 5400RPM) hard drive with an SSD the difference in loading time could probably be reduced by around 5x.
Well...that hard drive is making your computer slower than your iPhone 8 or your Apple Watch!
SSD drives are not always expensive.
I'm very sensitive to being a good steward with my finances and so I look for creative ways to maximize the benefits while minimizing the costs. For example, I spend $80 for an external USB SSD so that I could boot up my 2013 iMac with a dying hard drive. Not only did it make that computer useful again, it ended up being more responsive than when it was new.
For under $100 you can find an internal SSD that would be large enough to hold the OS and apps and store your data files elsewhere. Finding an inexpensive and reliable SSD to completely replace your internal drive would indeed be more expensive.
Just out of curiousity, you could drag and drop (copy) your Office applications from the internal drive to a USB thumb drive and see what the startup time looks like. If that works well, then you can invest a few dollars in a Sandisk nano USB thumbdrive that is little larger than the USB connector itself and keep it permanently installed on the MBP.
No. Few folks remember that MS first published Word and Excel for the Mac long before they dreamed up Windows.
I think the slow launching is for two reasons:
1. The file size
2. MS checks for activation upon launch.
What I would rather they do is check for activation post launch of the program and a huge part of the world will be very happy when opening MS Office apps.
1. The file size
2. MS checks for activation upon launch.
What I would rather they do is check for activation post launch of the program and a huge part of the world will be very happy when opening MS Office apps.
Most of the slow load time is the file size. The remainder is the under-the-covers prep to load. Activation check is a very small percentage of load time.
It doesn't phone home every time it is launched, but will only check if it has not been performed within the specified 30 day interval.
If I have to go through all that hassle I will just stick with my 500GB drive until it breaks or I can afford a 500GB SSD.
The question is: why do Office apps take so much space? Microsoft is relunctant to use default MacOS resources (such as FontBook). Even worse, they don’t event create a common library for all the apps. They literally duplicate resource libraries inside each individual app.
This is a very poor choice by Microsoft, as reflects the huge size difference between iWork and Office apps.
Aha, great info - thanks!
I haven’t got a clue how these apps are built but iWork apps always seem to be good citizens and use default system UI features, whereas MS apps seem to invent their own UI features - even the preferences dialog.
One interesting experiment is to resize the Window of an iWork or office app.
The iWork apps are responsive and dynamically redraw their window contents fast whereas the Office apps tend to be sluggish and redraw their windows at a very slow frame rate.
Anyone know why?
I agree. As a software developer for nearly 40 years, I can only assume that Microsoft includes a compatibility layer that allows more of the native Windows-based source code to function without having to rework it to accommodate the differences with macOS.
Creating a version of Office that is native to macOS is a massive undertaking that Microsoft isn’t willing to invest in. But by developing an intermediate layer, they set themselves up to be able to more easily provide versions for Linux and other OSes.
Interesting side-note: I took each component of the Windows version of MS Office 2007 and put it in a WINEskin wrapper. The resulting file sizes were comparable to MS Office 2016 for macOS. Load time was slightly better than Office 2016 for macOS but performance was even better.
I remember with Word 2011, that fonts can impact load times. Loading all your fonts when it starts up so you can display them in the Font menu. Pages doesn't do that.
I have downloaded softmarker Office 2018 trial .
It is an excellent sw to replace MS Office .
Textmaker is a bit fatty 500 mb -> i have reduced the size , by deleting some stuff i don,t use -> 187 mb.
But Planmaker and Presentation are good: 35 mb and 32 mb.
They run fast even in old hw or new Os like macOS Mojave.
I wanted share ...
It is an excellent sw to replace MS Office .
Textmaker is a bit fatty 500 mb -> i have reduced the size , by deleting some stuff i don,t use -> 187 mb.
But Planmaker and Presentation are good: 35 mb and 32 mb.
They run fast even in old hw or new Os like macOS Mojave.
I wanted share ...
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If you're looking for an MS Office alternative and find iWorks too different, may I suggest OnlyOffice? They're free and looks and behaves pretty much like a typical Word or Excel