Ick - looks like Office 2008 for Mac won’t meet my expectations
As much as I tend to hate software on Windows, I love Office 2007. Of course, you have to take that in context - it's software, and more specifically an office suite. While it's taken a lot of flack for the complete UI redesign, I've found it to be a long-overdue overhaul. Rather than the random array of icons and toolbars, it presents a logically organized tabbed interface that puts the features you're likely to want right in front of you, and tends to unearth a lot of functionality that you've always wanted but never knew existed. Sure, it takes some getting used to, but in my opinion, it's the way word processors (et al) should have been laid out all along. Unnecessarily shiny? Perhaps, but I think it was done reasonably tastefully (at least as compared to the XP Fisher Price look) - of greater significance was the presentation of the actual contents.
You may commence your flaming.
Needless to say, as a Mac user, I was interested to see how it would translate to the Mac platform in Office 2008. While I considered Office 2004 for Mac an improvement over Office 2003 and earlier, it was never great, and always rather sluggish being one of the last PowerPC apps around. I can't say it quite had that "Mac touch" that makes me greatly prefer the platform, but I felt it an improvement over its Windows counterpart.
So, imagine my disappointment upon seeing AppleInsider's latest installment of the Road to Office 2008 series.
Basically, words have failed me. I'll just summarize with a couple of images from AppleInsider's article which show how Office 2007 translated to the Mac with Office 2008:
