Office 2008 is out in the field, and we're carefully watching the early data. Yes, that's right, we're watching what you're doing.
'WHAT?!' I can hear the cries echoing 'round the world. When you install Office 2008, one of the last screens during the installation process asks whether you'd like to participate in the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP). (The name leaves something to be desired!) If you opt in, anonymous non-traceable data about how you use Office is occasionally uploaded to us in the background. And if you're wondering what happens to that data, well, I'm looking at it right now.
This data tells us some fantastically useful and interesting things about what happens when real users use our apps in their real-world settings. Jensen Harris from the Windows Office team talked about his team's experience with CEIP. As a result of his post, I bet that somewhere, someone has added a new question to a trivia game: what is the most commonly-used command in Microsoft Office? It's through the CEIP that the Windows Office team learned that paste is the most-used command in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (accounting for 11%, 15%, and 12% (respectively) of all commands issued in each application).
What do we do with the data we collect through the CEIP? It helps us shape our future work. If we learn through this data that a particular feature isn't used very frequently, we have to find out why. It could be that the feature isn't discoverable (that is, you want to use the feature, but you can't figure out where it is or how to use it), or it could be that the feature isn't as useful as it once was. If we learn that people tend to use a given sequence of commands, then we have to figure out what action they're trying to perform and whether there's any way that we can streamline it. This data is hugely useful to us as we start our work on the next version of Office.
If you didn't enable it when you installed Office, you can do so at any time in any of our apps by going to Preferences -> Feedback and selecting “Yes, I want to participate ... “. This is one of the ways that you can help us to help you.
Courtney’s post gives you another way to give us directed feedback about our apps and what you'd like to do with them. And I'd be remiss if I didn’t add in a plug for the usability studies that are conducted by my team -- sign up for them, and if we're in your neck of the woods (most of our studies are conducted at our labs in Redmond, Washington, and Mountain View, California, but we do travel to meet our users elsewhere), you might get a call from one of us asking you if you can spend some time checking out our latest work.
Help us help you. We want to better meet your needs, and giving us data to help us is one way to make that happen.
...if you'd send me my copy of Office 2008 that I ordered the week after Black Friday (hint hint) then I would opt in!
Why don't you tell us why there's been such a delay in shipping the Black Friday upgrades? (I bought a second copy of Office 2004 to get in on the deal.)
What I was told is you anticipated 10,000 people would avail themselves of the deal, but 50,000 of us did and we overwhelmed the duplicator for the "cheap people who want it for nearly free" crowd.
mr.saint
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
From Korea
In advance, I appreciate you for your effort to make the very quality product. But, I am sorry to say that your product is too much poor at localization. That is not about localization in user interface.
It is about poor text encoding. When I type in Korean with PowerPoint 2008, Korean letters are shown broken. if I type "마이크로소프트", meaning "Microsoft", then PowerPoint shows "망잌클롯솦픝트". This mispresentation is shown only in PowerPoint.
If you are watching over me, then, please fix this error. Otherwise, I cannot help but using Apple Keynote.
Further to that, In the process of installation, Office is not installed when mac's language configuration is set to Korean. So I have to set English above Korean.
Dr.Braida
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
International Remote Desktop Version
Does anyone know when an international version of the latest RDP software will become available? The current version will only support US keyboard layouts.
JR1051
Mar 06, 2008
3:16pm
Whatever.....
Downgrade from Outlook.......
No synching to Palms....
Late delivery.....
Sure feels like an intentional push to Windows. Would that be XP or Vista? And which version, home, pro, or what?
Shaftz650
Mar 06, 2008
3:16pm
Quicktime compressor errors??
We have just installed Office 2008 on MAC's in our Publishing Department thinking it would behave in the same way as Office 2004.
We primarily use Office to process data we receive in Excel from PC users in our company for insertion into client presentations. The received data is formatted into graphs & pie charts using Excel and then the chart or graph is copied and pasted into Freehand MX as a vector graphic to be reformatted into corporate colours and styles.
This is having quite a serious effect on our work flow and I am seriously considering downgrading to Office 2004 again as it worked.
After the install of Office 2008 when we try to copy & paste from Excel we receive a “Quicktime compressor” error. All the MAC’s are running the latest software and are all up to date with the latest software updates.
Is there a download that can fix this? Bearing in mind that the chart or graph must remain as a fully editable vector graphic (SVG) image so it can be edited in Freehand or Illustrator. I have tried going through Photoshop but the result are really poor quality low res bitmaps. I have also tried printing the Excel spreadsheet to a PDF but any graphs or pie charts that appear are “Sliced up” or un-editable in Illustrator.
Stuart Reynolds
Mar 28, 2008
8:55pm
Entourage and MS Project
1. I was promised (actually not me personally, but as a collective we, the Mac users were)better/easier connectivity to MS Exchange 2003 servers. It's no damn different, easier, or less painful, that 2004's version of Entourage. And I'm an Exchange 2K3 certified technician.
2. If you really want to "improve" the Office for Mac suite, add MS PROJECT, PLEASE! As a PMP I "live" on MSP, and get tired of having to use Parallels Desktop.
So if you are, in fact, watching/listening to us, let's see if there's any answers.
nils
May 12, 2008
10:29pm
Excel pagebreak preview
previously posted comments indicate your team does not have a stellar record at listening to/responding to user feedback. Here's your chance to prove 'em wrong...
How about quickly correcting the bonehead move that eliminated the pagebreak preview function from excel 2008? The faster the better. Not sure how anyone could've thought it was a wise move to get rid of that useful function!
justin
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
not watching me
because my copy of office has been on backorder for 2 months!
Judy
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
Not able to sync my palm with Entourage 2008
I was so excited when the new Office came out, I bought it the first week. I loaded it on my imac and had no problems. i added a few things to the calendar and went to sync it with my palmone TungstenE2 and it wouldn't work. i contacted palm and microsoft support and was told the software to sync with palm was intentionally left out of Office 2008. I had just spent $150 for a program that it useless for THE MAJOR part of my using Office. I was told i have to spend another $40 to buy a program to make it compatible. (and we all know how loading that kind of software never seems to work right anyway). Needless to say, I AM HUGELY DISAPPOINTED IN THE NEW OFFICE!! Please make a patch so the program is compatible with syncing palms like Office 2004 was.
Thank you.
Not listening
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
Not listening
You haven't listened to our needs for four years, I don't believe that you're going to start listening now.
Sorry.
eponymous
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
Re: we are watching you
How does force quit rank?
Mr. Stat
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
I have enabled SEIP
But I dont think it record the amount of time I spend working in Excel 2003 (via Fusion)?
You should have translated the statistical analysis tools to AppleScript for me... *sigh*
Adrian Bool
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
Microsoft Office accepting connections..?
I installed my copy of MO2008 today and enabled CEIP. My Mac also asked me should I allow Word to accept network connections. Why is Word trying to accept connections from the outside..?
brett_x
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
You're watching?
Good.. can you see that I already have duplicate calendar events because the updated events didn't take away the old one? I was really hoping these exchange sync problems would be cleared up.
Honestly, it's getting tougher to justify spending the money on a product like Entourage when we could have just a few more issues by using the built-in Mail with it's Exchange support.
macmanc
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
Some of us would just like to use it...
You could gather even more feedback if you'd ship the upgrade or at lest release a demo.
Daiya
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
good post
very nice--thanks, Nadyne
Marco Polo
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
You know what I wish you'd watch...
This blog!!!
I hate to break it to you, but many of us aren't buying 2008. Why do you ask?
Let me tell you...
You haven't provided a demo, as you did with 2004. This leaves users unsure if they want to upgrade because they don't know if it will run well on their current setups.
You took away VBA(take note, this will become the rallying cry of the anti-Office 2008 movement of two-thousand and eight)! Hey guys, look, we need VBA. That leaves us with a couple of options. First, we can stick with 2004 and NOT buy your new product, or second, we can buy 2007 and run it on parallels. Hint. Hint. Give it back!
It doesn't really run much faster as a universal application! Not the way it's supposed to anyway. Why are you guys still using Carbon? Let's go Cocoa!
Entourage is a poor man's Outlook. Another news flash guys, the Macintosh is fast gaining market share, even in corporations. We need solid Exchange support, and not just with 2007! Give us Outlook, for goodness sake!
To be honest, 2004 is probably the best we're going to get. It looks like you guys did a GUI makeover for 2008, and that's about it.
Do me a favor, just one: respond to my angst-ridden post. Let us know what you intended to do about these problems. If the answer is nothing, fine! We just won't buy your product, and I'll probably continue to poke daily fun at the Mac BU team. If the answer is... something, well, that's a start.
@Marco Polo: As my boss posted a few days ago (the 'Office 2008 update' post - I'd link, but I don't think HTML works in the comments), we're working on the 12.0.1 update (due on 11 March) as well as the file format converters (coming in June), so the demo isn't quite ready for prime time yet.
We've made continuous improvements to our Exchange support in Entourage. Remember Office 2004 SP2: we added more Exchange support in that release. We know that we have gaps, and we're working to get them into the app in priority order. Don't forget - we're also Entourage users in an Exchange environment, so our knowledge of our gaps is not just academic.
@Judy - One of our goals is to be a good Mac citizen. We support OS technologies that benefit our users. We added support for OS X Sync Services in Office 2004 SP2. (We added support via a service pack because Sync Services was introduced in Tiger, after the release of Office 2004.) In Office 2008, we shifted our focus to improving our Sync Services support because it's much more efficient for us to support OS X Sync Services (which supports LOTS of devices) instead of having to create our own syncing method for each mobile device that's out there. If you find that Sync Services doesn't meet your needs, you can submit feedback to Apple that you'd like them to improve it so that you can seamlessly sync all of your data.
Simon
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
Have you seen that Autofilter has a bug?
Have you seen that in Excel, Autofilter doesn't automatically filter, but that you have to click back in your spreadsheet to get it to filter.
Have you seen that Office doesn't play nice with Spaces?
RG
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
Faster Universal Code..?
Pleaaassseee, it is crwaling slow compared to 2004 on Rosetta. Crashes twice as much as 2004. NO VBA !!!!!, sluggish interface, Thinks for about two to three seconds when issued a Copy to pasete Command, so if PASTE is the most widely used command...then you forgot the Copy because is DAMN SLOW.
The new XML file formats, well yes they are faster than 2004, but overall, performance is terrible ! stability Terrible...just hope you guys are not getting the same sickness that plagues VISTA..bloaded software with useless functionality.
2008 DOES NOT offer any improvements worth moving from 2004, it just looks nicer but other than that it looks as if is just a make up of interface.
sorry guys, waste of years and typical microsoft NOT LISTENING to user needs
Tom
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
Run your headlines past your PR department, if you have one.
I have been a fairly loyal Microsoft Mac user for a long time; I even gave you the benefit of the doubt that the missing conduit issue in 2008 was an oversight, albeit a big one, and that you'd offer it in the service update. But then some arrogant blogger tells me I'm being watched; good lord man, can you be more 'Microsoft'?
RO
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
Re: we are watching you
Office 2008 Excel I've been waiting for several months and now I got it but I am so disappointed. I lost many files (i.e.several days of work and datas) (I don't have any previous version but only new files I typed). I can't open anymore that last file and I got several times the message telling it was a problem and I have to contact Microsoft. ... a nightmare ...
asdf
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
Re: we are watching you
Notebook view is a great tool, but its quite instabel, e. g. when you listen to iTunes and write, you have delays in the music?? thats s****
James Calhoun
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
Calendar
I use Ent for my Business as a Electrical Contractor, what I would like to see is that after recieving a email I can have the option to apply that email to my Calendar as either a meeting or a to do list that will show up on my Calendar.
When applying a new event evef it is a to do or task I would like to have the option for it to show up on a calendar event, and when plugging in my I phone it will down load all my calendar events even if it is a task or a to do list.
What I would do is plug in my nid invitations on my to do list this way when going to a GC location I can pull up my list. right now I have to schedule a meeting type for it to show up on my I phone. it would be nice to all calendar events like the over view option to show up on my phone. right now you only have like meetings that will show up and if I put in a reminder from my email it does not show up on my calendar only my Day.
Sanjeev
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
Where is my upgrade?
Can someone make an official statement if there is a delay in processing the mail-in upgrade offer applications? I have contacted customer support and received a response that it takes 2 to 4 weeks. I would at least want the order website updated with the fact that my application has been received and an expected ship date. Comments?
Watching?
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
Watching?
Your not watching for better support of programs. You only spy so that like the RIAA you can go after people with hacked copies.
Nixon Haus
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
2008 OFFICE...really
Heck, I guess the Microsoft advertising machine is sure hitting the spot. Didn't even know that Mac Office 2008 was available. I guess I'll run over the Apple Store and check it out.
@James - We've built a script into Entourage that might help you. Click on the script menu (it's the graphic in your menu bar), then select 'Create New Event from Message'. The New Message dialog will appear, with most of the details already filled in. You can then select the time and duration so that it will show up on your calendar.
@Watching? - We're not collecting any data that is traceable. We're strictly collecting data about your usage (such as what you're clicking on). I don't even see what countries are represented in the data, let alone anything narrower than that.
Juan
Mar 03, 2008
4:02pm
So then...
you´re seeing that I´m using a Messenger version that would look modern only in a Mac II.
Is it THAT hard for Microsoft to release a decent Messenger client?
C´mon, Nadine... Apple (which is significantly smaller than MS) released two major OS versions in the same time Microsoft even didn´t got one small app...
anonymous and afraid of the NSA
Mar 03, 2008
4:02pm
Office 2008 support?
Microsoft seems to have arrogantly left user support behind. I got a copy of Office 2008, installed it, and now my wife (second user on our iMac 24 running Leopard) cannot set her default Normal style and template. Why? I have no clue, but I suspect the installation is really only clean and really was only ever tested for one user (the administrator) per Mac in OS X. Of course, there's no Microsoft support person to submit a query to or through. Yet another reason to reconsider the switch to Open Office or Pages+Numbers+Keynote. Who knows when this might get fixed by the 2008 product team. Oh yes, one's position in life is irrelevant. I am a CIo and have a Microsoft License Agreement to cover my entire organization. I still can't help.
Jeremy
Mar 03, 2008
4:02pm
Not to throw another stone, but...
1 word...ONENOTE!
WHEN OH WHEN WILL YOU ADD ONENOTE FOR MAC?! Thank God for VMware Fusion.
RE: other comments on this post so far...I was considering upgrading to 2008, but man, all but 1 comment was negative! WTH(eck)? I guess I'll wait.
On the sunny side, thanks for watching or listening or whatever.
Tim
Mar 03, 2008
4:02pm
Exchange
Here's the thing:
You had a perfectly good working version of Outlook for Mac (2001) and then unleashed the beast that is Entourage to us Mac users. Why would Microsoft spend the resources on creating a new email client for Mac users when they could have just updated Outlook?
I keep reading that you're Mac users in an Exchange environment. While this is true due to the fact of where you work, I don't believe you're really trying to give full Exchange support to us Mac users. Thankfully, a copy of Fusion and Office 2003 works perfect for us Intel Mac users. I wish I didn't have to resort to that but after reading the blog for Office 2008 and hardly any mention of Entourage and the changes/features you've worked on, I realized what a joke it is to anticipate the new Office release.
John
Mar 03, 2008
4:02pm
Office 2008 & Math Symbols
One gripe I have with Office '08 is that it does a really poor job of importing symbols from MathType or symbols inserted with MS Math on Office '07. However, Pages '08 will import them without ANY problems! Needless to say, I'm hugely disappointed with Office '08 and using Pages '08 about 98% of the time.
Scott
Mar 03, 2008
4:02pm
What's up with slideshows??
I've been waiting to take advantage of the graphics features in Office 2008 since my friends migrated to Office 2007 on Windows. After upgrading, I put together a great presentation. And it runs like a dog in slideshow! Wow, what a step backward in performance.
So, I read the help section. And it basically says not to use the new graphics features. Well, why on earth are they there?
I'm running on a 2GB MacBook Pro with a 2Ghz+ processor. Even Photoshop CS2 (non native) feels snappy compared to running a PowerPoint slideshow.
I'm hoping y'all are going to pop out an early patch to clean this up. Hard to imagine how QA missed this, and if they caught it, how program management chose to ship.
Michael
Mar 03, 2008
4:02pm
Re: we are watching you
If it's anonymous, then how can you contact back to me? I bought the Office 2008 for the super suite deal last year, didn't receive it yet... was delayed few times, but few days ago, I called, and I was told "10 days".. 10 days I'll get it... really can't wait..... I'll turn the CEIP on once I have it ..
Marco Polo
Mar 03, 2008
4:02pm
Thanks... Nadyne...
Thanks for responding Nadyne, but your post hardly responds to the bulk of my questions. How can you guys work on a campus that uses Outlook, and not feel like second class citizens when using Entourage?
VBA?
CK
Mar 03, 2008
4:02pm
Refund
I wish I could get a refund for Office 2008. I thought it would be better than 2004 because of all the hype, but I was wrong. I understand your desire to keep the Mac software separate from that of Windows, but I do not agree with it. Office for Windows continues to be a better product. I wish I could run it in Mac (not Boot Camp or VMware I already use those).
Fire you marketing department
Mar 04, 2008
11:17pm
Watch me not buy the grossly overpriced Canadian edition
I don't know who your marketing people are but they deserve a pink slip.
Give me a fair market value price based on the US pricing and I'll buy it, otherwise collect data on my not purchasing your product.
Jane Watson
Mar 04, 2008
11:17pm
Re: we are watching you
If you really are watching perhaps you would have noticed that new Entourage doesn't have any alert sounds. You may have also noticed that it is not free and most people paid for it. Let me tell you what I have noticed - you didn't test this software before you released it - otherwise you would have realised that Entourage doesn't work properly. Or perhaps you are profoundly deaf and just didn't hear that the alerts didn't work?
Warren Buffet
Mar 04, 2008
11:17pm
Completely agree with Marco Polo's first post!!!
Please provide a demo of Office 2008. It would help us all know whether we can actually use your product. You provided a demo for 2004 and it was a good decision.
Why did you take away VBA??? This is THE reason that Microsoft Office trounces iWork, NeoOffice, Openoffice, etc. Please add VBA back ASAP!!!.
Some of us are starting to look elsewhere now that so many things have been left out of Excel (VBA, Analysis Tool Pack, Solver, etc). Numbers is starting to look appealing for simple spreadsheet work. Openoffice are working on getting VBA interoperability. Obviously they realize how important VBA is. Why can't the MACBU team???
Having FULL compatibility with the Windows version of Office was the trump card for many of us who use your Mac products. I really hope this is not a sign of Microsoft beginning to abandon the Mac platform.
Rowin
Mar 04, 2008
11:17pm
Cross-language upgrade?
I upgraded from Office 2004 UK to Office 2008 NL version. Doing so I got mixed languages in Entourage, e.g. both Calendar and Agenda for calendar... Would be nice to make this upgrade work. Export/import does the job, but removes links between emails, so that's not really an option.
eponymous
Mar 04, 2008
11:17pm
Re: we are watching you
If only we could get a high level MS exec to use Entourage to connect to Exchange. By the end of the day, Outlook for the Mac would be the MACBU's only priority.
hortonwho
Mar 04, 2008
11:17pm
AAAIIGHHHH!
I've been a PPT user since the first version. Somehow with every upgrade you add marvelous new special tools and remove an oft needed hammer and screwdriver.
I VEHEMENTLY regret purchasing 2008 for Mac and 2007 for PC, yes we're bi-platform here. As a graphic designer production speed it key (I'm not talking processing speed). Anything that adds additional clicks takes than it did before means I can produce less and make less money. That's a problem.
The zoom function went from inconvenient to horribly inconvenient--huge time waster. Why in the world would the zoom always go to the upper-left corner? If there's a work around, then why isn't it in the help documentation?
If there's a Grid and Guides dialog box to help with that, then I sure can't find it. Grid functions seem to have changed, but I can't find answers.
Borders going on the outside of the object edge instead of the center of the edge makes for very challenging alignment. Especially when snap-to snaps the object and not the border edge.
Default attributes of objects should be plain. As it is I have to change the color, line, and shadow on every one, every time. The pick up and apply style tools don't work right now and the format painter can't hold a style past one click. Huge time waster. I should be able to set defaults, If I can, I can't find any information on this in the help documentation.
Things that are simple, should stay simple. One click should not become two (or more).
AND NOW I FIND OUT there are no plans for a viewer? So how functional it that? I feel like I've been snookered. From "the buzz" I expected PC 2007 & Mac 2008 to be more universal and completely compatible.
I've worked in every major graphics package since their first versions. Consistently Powerpoint is the only package that I have to wrestle to the ground to make it do what I want it to do. If only you hadn't taken over the world.
Doug
Mar 04, 2008
11:17pm
Just turned CEIP on
Hope you will be able to see the number of times I try to restart numbering in an outline list and fail or get completely random results. Will you be able to see me clicking in the window and failing to bring it to the front after using another application? When do you expect to iron the bugs out of this beta version?
PHL
Mar 04, 2008
11:17pm
Entourage 2008 is not up to snuff yet
I work in a mixed PC/Mac/Unix/Linux environment (at a LARGE academic institution.) I am on a Macbook Pro using Office 2008 and Exchange Server for e-mail. Almost all of the administration uses Exchange and majority are PC users. Entourage 2008 is better than 2004 but hey it is really frustrating. Why, why, why don't you give typing the priority rather than syncing the inbox (and other boxes) a billion times a day and my typing is greatly hampered as a result?? I have to go offline to do anything. I thought that this would be fixed in 2008, but it is not. Can't typing an e-mail have enough priority so background tasks don't overwhelm the process and make using Entourage a pain in the neck? It is really almost unusable. I have been a loyal Office fan since before Office (original Word and Multiplan!)
@Jane - We're aware of the sounds issue in Leopard, and are working on resolving it.
@Marco Polo - We've talked about VBA in the past. Schwieb, one of our devs, wrote a great post to his blog about the technical issues inherent in it, and a websearch for 'schwieb vba' will turn it up.
@anonymous - I'm not quite sure what you mean by "cannot set her default normal style and template". I've been playing with this to try to get an understanding, but haven't gotten there yet. Can you post the steps that you've tried and what you're trying to accomplish?
Comments | Who's Blogging This
Eric
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
Well...
Why don't you tell us why there's been such a delay in shipping the Black Friday upgrades? (I bought a second copy of Office 2004 to get in on the deal.)
What I was told is you anticipated 10,000 people would avail themselves of the deal, but 50,000 of us did and we overwhelmed the duplicator for the "cheap people who want it for nearly free" crowd.
mr.saint
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
From Korea
It is about poor text encoding. When I type in Korean with PowerPoint 2008, Korean letters are shown broken. if I type "마이크로소프트", meaning "Microsoft", then PowerPoint shows "망잌클롯솦픝트". This mispresentation is shown only in PowerPoint.
If you are watching over me, then, please fix this error. Otherwise, I cannot help but using Apple Keynote.
Further to that, In the process of installation, Office is not installed when mac's language configuration is set to Korean. So I have to set English above Korean.
Dr.Braida
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
International Remote Desktop Version
JR1051
Mar 06, 2008
3:16pm
Whatever.....
No synching to Palms....
Late delivery.....
Sure feels like an intentional push to Windows. Would that be XP or Vista? And which version, home, pro, or what?
Shaftz650
Mar 06, 2008
3:16pm
Quicktime compressor errors??
We primarily use Office to process data we receive in Excel from PC users in our company for insertion into client presentations. The received data is formatted into graphs & pie charts using Excel and then the chart or graph is copied and pasted into Freehand MX as a vector graphic to be reformatted into corporate colours and styles.
This is having quite a serious effect on our work flow and I am seriously considering downgrading to Office 2004 again as it worked.
After the install of Office 2008 when we try to copy & paste from Excel we receive a “Quicktime compressor” error. All the MAC’s are running the latest software and are all up to date with the latest software updates.
Is there a download that can fix this? Bearing in mind that the chart or graph must remain as a fully editable vector graphic (SVG) image so it can be edited in Freehand or Illustrator. I have tried going through Photoshop but the result are really poor quality low res bitmaps. I have also tried printing the Excel spreadsheet to a PDF but any graphs or pie charts that appear are “Sliced up” or un-editable in Illustrator.
Stuart Reynolds
Mar 28, 2008
8:55pm
Entourage and MS Project
2. If you really want to "improve" the Office for Mac suite, add MS PROJECT, PLEASE! As a PMP I "live" on MSP, and get tired of having to use Parallels Desktop.
So if you are, in fact, watching/listening to us, let's see if there's any answers.
nils
May 12, 2008
10:29pm
Excel pagebreak preview
How about quickly correcting the bonehead move that eliminated the pagebreak preview function from excel 2008? The faster the better. Not sure how anyone could've thought it was a wise move to get rid of that useful function!
justin
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
not watching me
Judy
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
Not able to sync my palm with Entourage 2008
Thank you.
Not listening
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
Not listening
Sorry.
eponymous
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
Re: we are watching you
Mr. Stat
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
I have enabled SEIP
You should have translated the statistical analysis tools to AppleScript for me... *sigh*
Adrian Bool
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
Microsoft Office accepting connections..?
brett_x
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
You're watching?
Honestly, it's getting tougher to justify spending the money on a product like Entourage when we could have just a few more issues by using the built-in Mail with it's Exchange support.
macmanc
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
Some of us would just like to use it...
Daiya
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
good post
Marco Polo
Feb 29, 2008
11:55am
You know what I wish you'd watch...
I hate to break it to you, but many of us aren't buying 2008. Why do you ask?
Let me tell you...
You haven't provided a demo, as you did with 2004. This leaves users unsure if they want to upgrade because they don't know if it will run well on their current setups.
You took away VBA(take note, this will become the rallying cry of the anti-Office 2008 movement of two-thousand and eight)! Hey guys, look, we need VBA. That leaves us with a couple of options. First, we can stick with 2004 and NOT buy your new product, or second, we can buy 2007 and run it on parallels. Hint. Hint. Give it back!
It doesn't really run much faster as a universal application! Not the way it's supposed to anyway. Why are you guys still using Carbon? Let's go Cocoa!
Entourage is a poor man's Outlook. Another news flash guys, the Macintosh is fast gaining market share, even in corporations. We need solid Exchange support, and not just with 2007! Give us Outlook, for goodness sake!
To be honest, 2004 is probably the best we're going to get. It looks like you guys did a GUI makeover for 2008, and that's about it.
Do me a favor, just one: respond to my angst-ridden post. Let us know what you intended to do about these problems. If the answer is nothing, fine! We just won't buy your product, and I'll probably continue to poke daily fun at the Mac BU team. If the answer is... something, well, that's a start.
So, what's it going to be?
Nadyne Mielke
Feb 29, 2008
1:01pm
Re: we are watching you
@Marco Polo: As my boss posted a few days ago (the 'Office 2008 update' post - I'd link, but I don't think HTML works in the comments), we're working on the 12.0.1 update (due on 11 March) as well as the file format converters (coming in June), so the demo isn't quite ready for prime time yet.
We've made continuous improvements to our Exchange support in Entourage. Remember Office 2004 SP2: we added more Exchange support in that release. We know that we have gaps, and we're working to get them into the app in priority order. Don't forget - we're also Entourage users in an Exchange environment, so our knowledge of our gaps is not just academic.
@Judy - One of our goals is to be a good Mac citizen. We support OS technologies that benefit our users. We added support for OS X Sync Services in Office 2004 SP2. (We added support via a service pack because Sync Services was introduced in Tiger, after the release of Office 2004.) In Office 2008, we shifted our focus to improving our Sync Services support because it's much more efficient for us to support OS X Sync Services (which supports LOTS of devices) instead of having to create our own syncing method for each mobile device that's out there. If you find that Sync Services doesn't meet your needs, you can submit feedback to Apple that you'd like them to improve it so that you can seamlessly sync all of your data.
Simon
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
Have you seen that Autofilter has a bug?
Have you seen that Office doesn't play nice with Spaces?
RG
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
Faster Universal Code..?
The new XML file formats, well yes they are faster than 2004, but overall, performance is terrible ! stability Terrible...just hope you guys are not getting the same sickness that plagues VISTA..bloaded software with useless functionality.
2008 DOES NOT offer any improvements worth moving from 2004, it just looks nicer but other than that it looks as if is just a make up of interface.
sorry guys, waste of years and typical microsoft NOT LISTENING to user needs
Tom
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
Run your headlines past your PR department, if you have one.
RO
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
Re: we are watching you
asdf
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
Re: we are watching you
James Calhoun
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
Calendar
When applying a new event evef it is a to do or task I would like to have the option for it to show up on a calendar event, and when plugging in my I phone it will down load all my calendar events even if it is a task or a to do list.
What I would do is plug in my nid invitations on my to do list this way when going to a GC location I can pull up my list. right now I have to schedule a meeting type for it to show up on my I phone. it would be nice to all calendar events like the over view option to show up on my phone. right now you only have like meetings that will show up and if I put in a reminder from my email it does not show up on my calendar only my Day.
Sanjeev
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
Where is my upgrade?
Watching?
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
Watching?
Nixon Haus
Mar 03, 2008
11:31am
2008 OFFICE...really
Nadyne Mielke
Mar 03, 2008
12:21pm
Re: we are watching you
@James - We've built a script into Entourage that might help you. Click on the script menu (it's the graphic in your menu bar), then select 'Create New Event from Message'. The New Message dialog will appear, with most of the details already filled in. You can then select the time and duration so that it will show up on your calendar.
@Watching? - We're not collecting any data that is traceable. We're strictly collecting data about your usage (such as what you're clicking on). I don't even see what countries are represented in the data, let alone anything narrower than that.
Juan
Mar 03, 2008
4:02pm
So then...
Is it THAT hard for Microsoft to release a decent Messenger client?
C´mon, Nadine... Apple (which is significantly smaller than MS) released two major OS versions in the same time Microsoft even didn´t got one small app...
anonymous and afraid of the NSA
Mar 03, 2008
4:02pm
Office 2008 support?
Jeremy
Mar 03, 2008
4:02pm
Not to throw another stone, but...
WHEN OH WHEN WILL YOU ADD ONENOTE FOR MAC?! Thank God for VMware Fusion.
RE: other comments on this post so far...I was considering upgrading to 2008, but man, all but 1 comment was negative! WTH(eck)? I guess I'll wait.
On the sunny side, thanks for watching or listening or whatever.
Tim
Mar 03, 2008
4:02pm
Exchange
You had a perfectly good working version of Outlook for Mac (2001) and then unleashed the beast that is Entourage to us Mac users. Why would Microsoft spend the resources on creating a new email client for Mac users when they could have just updated Outlook?
I keep reading that you're Mac users in an Exchange environment. While this is true due to the fact of where you work, I don't believe you're really trying to give full Exchange support to us Mac users. Thankfully, a copy of Fusion and Office 2003 works perfect for us Intel Mac users. I wish I didn't have to resort to that but after reading the blog for Office 2008 and hardly any mention of Entourage and the changes/features you've worked on, I realized what a joke it is to anticipate the new Office release.
John
Mar 03, 2008
4:02pm
Office 2008 & Math Symbols
Scott
Mar 03, 2008
4:02pm
What's up with slideshows??
So, I read the help section. And it basically says not to use the new graphics features. Well, why on earth are they there?
I'm running on a 2GB MacBook Pro with a 2Ghz+ processor. Even Photoshop CS2 (non native) feels snappy compared to running a PowerPoint slideshow.
I'm hoping y'all are going to pop out an early patch to clean this up. Hard to imagine how QA missed this, and if they caught it, how program management chose to ship.
Michael
Mar 03, 2008
4:02pm
Re: we are watching you
Marco Polo
Mar 03, 2008
4:02pm
Thanks... Nadyne...
VBA?
CK
Mar 03, 2008
4:02pm
Refund
Fire you marketing department
Mar 04, 2008
11:17pm
Watch me not buy the grossly overpriced Canadian edition
Give me a fair market value price based on the US pricing and I'll buy it, otherwise collect data on my not purchasing your product.
Jane Watson
Mar 04, 2008
11:17pm
Re: we are watching you
Warren Buffet
Mar 04, 2008
11:17pm
Completely agree with Marco Polo's first post!!!
Why did you take away VBA??? This is THE reason that Microsoft Office trounces iWork, NeoOffice, Openoffice, etc. Please add VBA back ASAP!!!.
Some of us are starting to look elsewhere now that so many things have been left out of Excel (VBA, Analysis Tool Pack, Solver, etc). Numbers is starting to look appealing for simple spreadsheet work. Openoffice are working on getting VBA interoperability. Obviously they realize how important VBA is. Why can't the MACBU team???
Having FULL compatibility with the Windows version of Office was the trump card for many of us who use your Mac products. I really hope this is not a sign of Microsoft beginning to abandon the Mac platform.
Rowin
Mar 04, 2008
11:17pm
Cross-language upgrade?
eponymous
Mar 04, 2008
11:17pm
Re: we are watching you
hortonwho
Mar 04, 2008
11:17pm
AAAIIGHHHH!
I VEHEMENTLY regret purchasing 2008 for Mac and 2007 for PC, yes we're bi-platform here. As a graphic designer production speed it key (I'm not talking processing speed). Anything that adds additional clicks takes than it did before means I can produce less and make less money. That's a problem.
The zoom function went from inconvenient to horribly inconvenient--huge time waster. Why in the world would the zoom always go to the upper-left corner? If there's a work around, then why isn't it in the help documentation?
If there's a Grid and Guides dialog box to help with that, then I sure can't find it. Grid functions seem to have changed, but I can't find answers.
Borders going on the outside of the object edge instead of the center of the edge makes for very challenging alignment. Especially when snap-to snaps the object and not the border edge.
Default attributes of objects should be plain. As it is I have to change the color, line, and shadow on every one, every time. The pick up and apply style tools don't work right now and the format painter can't hold a style past one click. Huge time waster. I should be able to set defaults, If I can, I can't find any information on this in the help documentation.
Things that are simple, should stay simple. One click should not become two (or more).
AND NOW I FIND OUT there are no plans for a viewer? So how functional it that? I feel like I've been snookered. From "the buzz" I expected PC 2007 & Mac 2008 to be more universal and completely compatible.
I've worked in every major graphics package since their first versions. Consistently Powerpoint is the only package that I have to wrestle to the ground to make it do what I want it to do. If only you hadn't taken over the world.
Doug
Mar 04, 2008
11:17pm
Just turned CEIP on
PHL
Mar 04, 2008
11:17pm
Entourage 2008 is not up to snuff yet
Please fix this in the next update!!!
Nadyne Mielke
Mar 05, 2008
12:32pm
Re: we are watching you
@Marco Polo - We've talked about VBA in the past. Schwieb, one of our devs, wrote a great post to his blog about the technical issues inherent in it, and a websearch for 'schwieb vba' will turn it up.
@anonymous - I'm not quite sure what you mean by "cannot set her default normal style and template". I've been playing with this to try to get an understanding, but haven't gotten there yet. Can you post the steps that you've tried and what you're trying to accomplish?