Tag: Microsoft

Even though I love Apple’s iWork, I’ve always had a soft spot for Microsoft Office. In my mind, iWork is like a sleek Ferrari—fun, stylish, and exhilarating for the occasional joyride—whereas Office is the reliable Toyota you use daily to get from point A to B.

That’s why any new release of Microsoft Office for Mac piques my interest. It’s the collision of two ideologies: Apple, the temple of aesthetics, meets Microsoft, the creator of Fisher-Price-themed operating systems like Windows XP (we all remember the bright blues and lime greens). Their offspring can sometimes be spectacular—like the very first version of Microsoft Excel for Mac—or an absolute train wreck, like Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac.

To give credit where it’s due, Microsoft writes excellent code for office productivity software. I can’t imagine a workday without Microsoft Outlook keeping my schedule in check or Excel helping me wrestle meaning out of chaotic data dumps with complex pivot tables.

But that’s the office.

At home, in front of my big-screen Mac, I just want to enjoy my work. I want to cleanse my brain of Windows’ clunky interface and bask in beautifully crafted icons. When I do need to handle office tasks, I prefer to use elegantly designed software like iWork. But Pages and Numbers can only take me so far. Sometimes, I have to brace myself, fire up Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, and get the job done.

And that’s when my Mac transforms into something unholy—a Windows PC.

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac is so poorly designed, so utterly perplexing—especially on big-screen Macs—that J.J. Abrams could have set Lost on its interface. Common features are buried so deep within the labyrinthine menus that they rarely, if ever, see the light of day.

Thankfully, this may finally change with Microsoft Office for Mac 2011. It’s not quite a Lexus, but Microsoft has clearly learned a few lessons. After taking it for a test drive, here are the key improvements I loved:-

Fast and more responsive: I’m blown away by the speed. Applications load up almost instantly, and within seconds, you can dive into Word, PowerPoint, or Excel. Typing in Word feels snappy—letters appear instantly as you type. Compared to the sluggish, unresponsive mess that was Office 2008, this alone is a compelling reason to upgrade.

Snazzier Templates: Okay, Steve Jobs probably wouldn’t be caught dead using any of these PowerPoint templates, but they’re the best I’ve seen in Microsoft Office—hands down. In fact, they’re even better than the ones in the PC version. The best part? Full compatibility. No more exporting beautifully crafted Keynote presentations just to make them PowerPoint-friendly.

Improved User Interface: The dreaded floating “palette” is gone! In its place, we now have the ribbon, which first appeared in Microsoft Office 2010 for PC. Some people love it, others hate it—but personally, I’ve grown to appreciate it. When you’ve got 12 different windows open at once, the ribbon’s structured layout makes life much easier.