Working on a Mac sucks

After many hours of frustration, I've concluded that all the word processing software on OSX suck (at least the major ones).

1. Microsoft Office 2008 - slow, spaces doesn't work correctly with it, excel is really lacking some of the features available on the Windows side, still buggy, etc.

2. Open Office - I really hoped that this would be better than what Microsoft has to offer, but it's slow, frequently stops responding, and just a pain in the great golly jelly bean cute fluffy kitty cats to use. Sometimes, I can't even close a window!

3. iWork - Don't even get me started on this....

I think that Microsoft Office is the best out of all 3, but Office 2007 on windows is just wayyyyy better. Anyone feel the same way? I bought a Mac so I could get work done but this hasn't been the case lately. And just FYI, I've owned my Mac for a year now.

 

I haven't had any issues with iWork '08, yes it has a bit of a learning curve compared to Microsoft Office but once you get used to using it you will be fine.

In terms of Microsoft Office 2008, I've used it twice on an iMac and I absolutely hated it, almost as much as I hated Office for Mac 2004. The Microsoft Mac Business Unit or MacBU can't seem to code for beans.

OpenOffice sucks period in my opinion, regardless of what platform you are using it on.

 

I agree that Microsoft Office 2007 is still best. Office for Mac 2008 is a little buggy, iWork is not as powerful, so all-around king is Office 2007 for Windows.

 

Strange, I've never had any issues with office 08. I always see people complaining about it, but it works fine for me. Though I only use word, but still no problems.

 

Don't you notice how it takes a second or so to save a file? I know 1 second is not a lot but saving is nearly instant on the Windows version. Have you tried using spaces with a document open? Have fun!
Also, there's a delay when clicking through windows for me. Sometimes I'll see a beach ball, which is just plain sad because this is just word processing.

Oh in case anyone is wondering, I'm working on a Macbook Pro 2.2 ghz Santa Rosa with 4 gb RAM.

 

Never really had any of these issues, although I don't use spaces.

Either that, or I just don't notice them.

 

Get Vmware Fusion and run XP on top of OSX in Unity mode. Works quite well.

 

Just get Office 2004, thats what i did

 

i admit OSX office 08 sucks
but i need it for school works

 

you have to remember this one is free so there is no real reason to complain

 

Have to agree with spaces and Office issues, that has been a real pain in the butt for me, as I use spaces alot. But the latest service packs for office have really improved the stability and speed.. at least for me. Now its at a point were it is acceptable to use. I did try out iWork, and I really liked keynote, but numbers and pages just didn't have the stuff I need... so its back to 08.
I can say that it did take me a few months to get used to using it, windows version is much better, but now after a year or so, I'm as if not more efficient and productive then I was on my PC. So install the service packs, and push thru, you'll get there in the end.
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I would totally do that, but what if I'm using my battery? That would be quite a drain on the battery life right? And not to say that idea is dumb but why should anyone have to resort to doing that? I just pisses me off that there isn't a decent productivity program for OSX.

Ah yes, I have been installing the service packs. I heard the latest one is buggier than ever, but I still installed it.

 

I find iWork 08 more than decent for a productivity program. Maybe I'm not one of the more advanced users and I don't demand a lot of out of it but I find that for the features iWork and Office have in common, iWork implements them better although Office is waaayyy more advanced. I tried Office 08 for Mac on my friend's Macbook and it's definitely not as good as 07 for the PC.

I have no real complaints about iWork although it did take quite a while to get used to how it works.

 

Have you tried NeoOffice?
In my opinion, OpenOffice works great for me on my Ubuntu, I don't know why it'd be so bad on the Mac.
EMZ=]

 

I'm not sure about spreadsheets and presentations but for heavy word processing I usually use the minimalist Writeroom to write my documents and then open them in Word to do formatting.

 

u'll guys are giving me second thoughts about switching to a mac and M. office is something i use alot.

 

Try TextMate.

 

Don't have second thoughts. I just switched from a PC to a Mac and using MS office as much as I did (on my PC) was a concern for me on the mac. I bought office for mac and now I'd never go back to a PC.

Sure folks say office for mac is not good, but it's been fine and dandy for me.

 

It depends what you want to do in office. If you just want to write some text or make a presentation you will be fine. If you are an excel user you will be missing a lot of features in office 2008. Macros don't work at all, everybody I know uses macros so I am running VMware with WinXP and Office 2003. Outlook users have no real alternative for the mac too.

 

I have yet to have any problems with Office on OSX. But then again, I wouldn't quite say that I am running it on an Apple either.

 

You could run a VMWare/Parallels session of Windows XP with Office 2007 but that turns out to be a rather expensive proposition just to run Office on the Mac.

 

I understand you are offering help but your remedy is not as easy as eating cake. You have to buy a copy of Windows ya know. It's not like were all granted a copy of Windows and a copy of Vmware and a copy of Office 2007.

 

iwork does everything i need it to.

 

Vmware Fusion is like $50. 2007 is about the same as 2008 in price. Many people already have XP licenses they no longer use. But if not XP is pretty cheap nowadays. A lot of people dual boot so it is really a $50 extra as Vmare can boot off the Bootcamp partition. Now for the $50 you get to use Windows apps in OSX. If you havent tried it I suggest you do. And no this isnt some ludicrous solution I just dreamed it, there are alot of people who does this to keep a single word editor and because how bad editors are on OSX.

You make do with what you have. There just isnt a word editor in OSX that is as good as Office 2007. Why would it be more of a drain on your batteries? At worst it will be higher RAM usage and a CPU overhead on the applications you are running. But in reality it wont make a drastic difference.

 

Microsoft Office 2007 for Windows is without a doubt their most solid product. They did everything right with office 2007.

 

For me Office 2008 has been good. The latest service packs make things alot better. My biggest compalaint is that in MS win 2007 I get that nice littel box up top to write in. And in Office 2008 it's not there. And that stupid delete one selected box at a time in Excel drives me absolutly bonkers.

I also notice creating graphs in 2007 and opening in 2008 you lose the page break settings. So they have to be setup again. That get's old after a while.
If 2008 coudl function the same as 2007 I woudl be a very happy camper.

 

Office 08 is way too buggy in my opinion too.

 

I agree that Office 08 is buggy, but recent updates allow me to work for months now without any bugs. I am really frustrated with Office 2008 the first few times I have used it because I am so used to Office 2007 (having used it for more almost two years) and still like it best, especially the part where it couldn't read my 2007 equations. If you guys would give some time to get used to Office 2008, you will be OK with it but will still find 2007 to still be slightly better. However, it seems the reference and citations have been updated in Office 2008 from 2007.

 

vmware fusion is a system hog (no more than it needs to be, but just because it is running another entire OS on top of the mac os x)

it will drain your battery pretty fast, on top of taking however much memory you assign to it, and one of your cpu cores.

however, that doesn't make it entirely useless. vmware is still pretty cool and i use it regularly to do random windows things in osx without needing to reboot. i don't think i would use it as a long term solution to any problem, but it is good software to have.

also- windows server 2003 (windows xp) and server 2008 (vista) are available for free to students via dreamspark.

office 2007 is very cheap via theultimatesteal.

 

I have been quite pleased with Office 2008. I have no complaints, and have not suffered any of the 'issues' listed. I also use it all day, every day.

 

I think that microsoft is not as motivated to correct their OSX software than on windows, but I think that's too much politics for this thread.

To the OP, why not just dual boot windows and run office there?

 

The worst offender of the Office 08 suite is, by far, Excel. What I found out is that Excel 08 is pretty much incompatible with Excel on Windows. It's a total joke.

My professor distributes pre-made Excel workbooks for the class to use in lab reports because he is a nice guy, and I thought, well I have Office 08 for OS X so I should be fine, WRONG. Excel 08 instantly threw up some insane error telling me certain "features" being used in the workbook would be lost because they are incompatible with Excel...WHAT? Microsoft pretty much markets Office 08 on compatibility and they can't even get that right. PowerPoint is better, but sometimes I'll notice text anomalies like words that have bunched together because the spaces didn't make the transition or whatever (gives me great faith in OOXML ).

Word is the best of the bunch, but, IMHO, it's slow, clunky (hate the floating palette), and far below Word 2007. Working with charts or document elements is just...painful in Word 08. Ugh.

As soon as I get the chance, I'm moving to opensource.

 

Whoa man, you need to calm down. There was nothing in my post that stated your solution was ludicrous, your post just came across like it's no big deal, just use VMware, Just use Windows, just use Office 2007 as if it was all free.

You did mention $50.00 for Vmware, not everyone has that type of money to blow on software, you didn't mention how much Windows would be, but it certainly isn't $50.00 to EVERYONE unless you are a student buying it from school.
The OP already has Office 2008, are you suggesting that he fork down more cash for another license to Microsoft for the Windows version? He's looking for better Mac solutions.

What do you mean that you suggest that I install Windows on my Mac? I don't need it, but based on your post you make it seem like that no one can get along on their Mac without Windows and that my friend is Ludicrous.

 

Well said! I agree 100%!

 

It is less than $50 on Ebay and $70 in B/M store (it was free for awhile too). The point is that there is no better Mac solution.

 

I have never had any problems using office 2008, it has always worked fine for me even when using spaces or any other application.

Office 2008 for Mac is much more powerful than 2007 as far as I am concerned, notetaking mode alone is worth it. not to mention a much less retarded interface.

 

i know how it feels. i felt same way when i first got mac. thats why i now dual boot. i have windows installed with office on it. i recommend that you do the same.

 

have you tried using office on windows? the 2008 version on mac is so retard compared to the pc version of office.

 

+1!
(10 char)

 

Okay, so you don't have $50.00 to "blow" on software, but you have, what? $1599.00? $2499.00 to "blow" on a computer?

 

Open office 3 was a great improvement over 2.4. I use iWork or OpenOffice. I have all 3 of them installed, iwork, OO, and office 08.

 

I use Windows just for gaming. I got my Mac because they're supposed to be great for students right? If I'm booting into Windows to do work, then the Mac is not serving it's purpose, at least for me. I guess it comes down to what people do with their computers. If I'm booting into Windows each time to do my work, then all I'm really using my Mac for is surfing the web, listening to music, and watching videos, which seems like such a waste. However, I do prefer working in OSX only because it's easier to have a bunch of windows open at once.

Sometimes when I try to copy and paste, it will "freeze." I can still move the window around, but I can't type anything and I can't close the window. The only way to close the window is to do a "force quit" on the program. Really annoying, hence the reason why I'm disappointed in it.

And to everyone else, yes I have Office 2007 installed on my Bootcamp partition and it runs great. I especially like how it takes like 1 second to start up.

 

apparently the mac version is better with grammar...

I have used office on Windows, the Mac version has much more useful features that I actually use and is easier to use in my opinion.

so basically I completely disagree with what you are saying is all.