1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
|
The long wait is over, Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac arrives on shelves January 13. The new version is the first universal binary for the venerable office program and brings a number of enhancements and new features. It even has some improvements not found in the Windows release of Office 2007.
With Apple gaining in market share and so many of us dividing our time between several operting systems, the differences between the Windows and Mac version of Office might leave you scratching your head. While overall the feature sets of the two are basically identical, the layout and user interfaces are significantly different. Just because you're an ace with one doesn't mean you'll be able to swtich to the other without a few hiccups.
Here's our rundown of some of main differences between the new Office for Mac 2008 and Office 2007 for Windows.
Screenshots:
om1.jpg
The Elements Gallery mimics the functionality of Office 2007's much touted Ribbon Interface -- putting common tasks in an easily accessible space -- but the interface and design is significantly different. If you use Office 2007 at work and 2008 at home the transition won't be seamless
om2.jpg
The Ribbon Interface for Windows Office 2007 is somewhat more full featured than the Mac's Elements Gallery, but also a much more radical departure from past UI designs. Ribbon attempts to replace the old Office menus, whereas Elements Gallery complements them.
om3.jpg
The traditional palette from past versions of Office for Mac remains, but features additional tools like online access to the Encarta Encyclopedia, dictionary and the thesaurus lookups as well as formating tools and more.
om4.jpg
The Windows version of Office doesn't have a strict companion to the tools palette in the Mac version, but instead has those features and tools rolled into the Ribbon interface. To accomplish the same tasks in Windows that you might from the Mac palette you'll need to switch through a couple of different Ribbon-based menus.
om5.jpg
Entourage is the hub for the new Office managing projects, syncing schedules, retrieving your mail and more. There's no support for popular online calendars like Google or Yahoo, but Entourage remains the best bet for those that need to sync with an Exchange Server.*
*I'm not entirely sure about the lack of calendar subscription options but I could never find a way to do it.
om6.jpg
Outlook remains a somewhat more robust program than Entourage and offers an extensions layer which allows outside tools -- like those from Plaxo and others -- to integrate into Outlook.
om7.jpg
MyDay is the at-a-glance scheduling app for the new Office for Mac suite that tracks your appointments, todo lists and more. My Day can also update Entourage on the fly, even if it isn't running. MyDay is designed to give you access to the primary features of Entourage's calendar and scheduling tools without the need to open Entourage. MyDay also includes an option to run in the Mac menubar for quick access.
om8.jpg
The Mac version of Excel is very close to its Windows counterpart, but here the Elements Gallery becomes even more useful allowing quick, visual access to complex charting tools, graphical aides and more.
om9.jpg
Excel on Windows offers similar quick access and visual menus, though most the items are submenus which require a bit of tunneling to find the same elements.
om10.jpg
The new Mac Powerpoint 2008 is very similar to its Windows sibling offering the same functionality in a slightly different wrapper. While Powerpoint uses the Elements Gallery and palette navigation screen, many users may find it less intuitive than Keynote, Apple's presentation software.
om11.jpg
Powerpoint 2007 served up a bevy of improvements over previous versions and, as with Excel, the Ribbon interface makes it much simplier to try out different themes and apply global formating changes with the click of a button.
|
