Microsoft Offering Office 2008 Free Trial For Mac

Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 may be the best pick for business users, with major updates to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage. After a, Microsoft plans to release Office for Mac 2008 to brick-and-mortar and online stores on January 15, making this the first update in nearly four years.

1. Microsoft Offering Office 2008 Free Trial For Mac Torrent

Office for Mac includes Word, Excel for spreadsheets, PowerPoint for presentations and Entourage for e-mail and time management. There's no Microsoft Access database application for the Mac, although Filemaker's upcoming release of offers Mac users a new choice. Unlike, the interface changes don't look radically foreign next to the 2004 edition. That's good news for anyone who doesn't want to relearn the locations of common functions.

The 2007 applications for Windows arrange functions within tabs, while the 2008 Mac software largely clusters functions within the same drop-down menus including File, Edit, and View. By and large, most of the changes focus on attempting to help users craft more attractive documents. For instance, Office for Mac features the same templates and Smart Art graphics as the Windows counterparts. These are premade templates with 3D and translucent designs. There are more welcome and substantial changes as well. Now you can save to PDF, and Automator actions are supported.

The new My Day widget for Entourage floats on the Mac desktop displaying calendar items and to-do lists. This is handy if you rely on Entourage but don't want to run it all the time.

Office 2007 for Windows clusters functions within a contextual 'Ribbon' toolbar that displays different options. Office for Mac lacks the Ribbon, but some menu items appear only in step with the task at hand. We found the shape-shifting neither terribly distracting nor useful. For simple tweaks such as changing fonts, you'll need to consult floating formatting boxes.

Being accustomed to Office for Windows, we'd rather find all these options at the top of the screen. Office for Mac saves work in the same, new Open XML formats used by Office 2007 for Windows. We're not thrilled about this being the default option, even though you can save your work in the older DOC, XLS and PPT formats. Won't be available until as long as 10 weeks from now, or 8 weeks after the applications are available in stores. That means for now, should you save work in a new OOXML format in a hurry, someone with the older software won't be able to open it.

Although we're glad that Microsoft offers free converters, we find the forced extra steps annoying in Office 2007. That said, the new document types are smaller and purportedly more secure than their predecessors. You'll need a Mac with 1.5GB free on the hard drive, running at least OS 10.4.9, with 512MB of RAM and a 500MHz Intel or PowerPC processor.

Installation took about 20 minutes on our MacBook running the. The least expensive option is the $150 Home and Student edition (formerly Student and Teacher), which lacks support for Exchange and Automator. At $400 or $240 to upgrade, the full Office for Mac that we reviewed feels pricey, even though it includes Exchange support. The $500 Special Media Edition handles Exchange and adds media-management software. Fortunately, those who have recently purchased Office for Mac 2004 can for free.

Still, the fees feel hefty next to the $80. Indeed, seem like a bargain, even though they offer fewer tools. Mac users can choose from iWork '08, the free OpenOffice 2, or tools with free online components including ThinkFree, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, and Zoho Office.

These are all dandy for composing and editing text documents, juggling spreadsheets, and creating slide-show presentations. Word Although the look and feel are refreshed, Word isn't drastically different from its predecessor. Its changes should mostly please those creating documents they want to show off. We really like Publishing Layout View's elementary desktop publishing tools. Document Elements building blocks make swift work of adding cover pages, tables of contents, and the like. OpenType ligature support improves the appearance of fonts in Word. Those in academia should appreciate new reference tools, although there are only four citation styles.

Users who wrangle with form letters will find that Mail Merge has become more intuitive, with step-by-step instructions. Bloggers don't get a custom layout in Word as with Office 2007, but that's not a big loss given Microsoft's lack of support for the latest Web coding standards. Perhaps the biggest selling point for the new Word is the ease with which it can make documents easy on the eyes.

Excel As well as making charts easier on the eyes, Excel for Mac 2008 adds tools for stepping through complex formulas. Formula Builder walks you through building calculations, keeping recently used ones at the top of its memory. As you type in the Formula bar, Excel will autofill values that may match. Excel has expanded and can now handle a total of 17.18 billion cells, as many as its Windows cousin. The Elements Gallery offers Ledger Sheets, templates for commonly used tasks such as juggling a household budget or managing company payroll. We find these handy for getting started with a project.

However, we prefer the elegant layouts, outside-the-grid setup, and print preview tools within Apple's Numbers for light users of spreadsheets. Probably the worst thing about Excel 2008 overall is its lack of support for Visual Basic. While power spreadsheet users will find Excel richer than other programs, those who rely upon macros are sure to be disappointed and may be better off keeping Excel 2004 or even switching to Excel for Windows. PowerPoint Microsoft continues to tout its Smart Art graphics, which can turn a bulleted list into nearly any kind of diagram or flowchart with a few quick clicks.

However, as with Office 2007 for Windows, we find Smart Art initially a bit less intuitive than advertised. The Toolbox's new Object Palette keeps formatting options in one place. You can resize elements with a zoom slider in a snap, just as Dynamic Guide lines help to align text boxes and pictures. PowerPoint stands out from Apple's Keynote and other competitors in key areas, such as control over audio narration. And there are more layout and slide transition themes. While making a public presentation, a detailed digital clock is meant to help keep you on track.

A Thumbnail View like the one in Office 2007 may help to keep from losing your place. You can flip through slides on location using an Apple Remote. And there's an option for sending a presentation to iPhoto, making it accessible as a PNG or a JPEG for iPod viewing.

Entourage Although Mac users can rely upon the free Mail, Entourage offers more features fit for business. The 2008 upgrade offers more practical functions than its 2004 counterpart, such as an Out of Office assistant that lets you craft vacation messages specific to the recipient.

Filters for junk mail and phishing are beefed up. There are To Do lists, accessible in the My Day widget along with appointments and the color-coded calendar. You can accept or reject a meeting directly within a calendar event. Meetings can be forwarded directly to others, and conflicting and adjacent appointments are better managed. The workspace is more customizable overall, thanks to toolbar tweaks and the Favorites menu.

My Day is a helpful snapshot of upcoming To Do items and appointments, although its bluish appearance can't be customized. We just wish that it showed an entire day's events instead of hiding the morning's appointments in the afternoon and displaying overdue appointments in a separate pop-up window. Setting up Entourage for a Gmail account took no time. However, after claiming to have succeeded at setting up our Hotmail account, Microsoft failed to explain why it couldn't do that after all. For that, we searched Help and learned that Hotmail's lack of free POP support was the culprit. Messenger for Mac Microsoft also throws in this free instant-messaging application, which enables users of its IM tool and Yahoo Messenger to contact each other.

Messenger for Mac enables users to check spelling, pick from among many emoticons, and see what others are listening to on iTunes. Companies using Live Communications Server 2005 can encrypt their messaging, and users can chat with those using iChat, AOL, AIM, Yahoo, and MSN. Service and support Microsoft offers searchable inline and online help menus, which answered most of our questions, as well as Web-based community forums. Live e-mail or phone help costs $35 for a pair of requests, not cheap but still less than Apple iWork's fees. Video support is not (yet) available.

Conclusion Overall, we found ourselves wondering why someone would splurge for Office for Mac 2008. Sure, it's a step up from the 2004 version, and the only one that runs natively on Intel-based Macs. But other companies serve up software that's compatible with Office documents and costs half as much, if not less-or nothing at all. IWork '08, for one, handles the newest, XML-based Office files pretty well.

Office for Mac also skips some niceties that give its an advantage over rival software, such as the interface slider bar for zooming in on a document. The document element templates may be attractive and helpful, but the selection feels skimpy next to Office 2007 for Windows, and Smart Art isn't as intuitive to use as advertised. It's too bad that the easy-to-find metadata inspector and other touted security features for saving work in Office 2007 are absent. Plus, we'd like to see more integration among the applications. For example, in Office for Windows, a chart pasted from Excel into Word will change when you manipulate its underlying data set in Excel.

Nevertheless, people who rely heavily upon productivity software for such tasks as bulk mailings or crunching scientific calculations in spreadsheets may prefer Microsoft's package over others. Although we like Apple's attractive, introductory Numbers spreadsheet application, for instance, Excel for Mac is more robust, handling a million rows of data. At the same time, Excel 2008's lack of Visual Basic support is a serious flaw that shafts power users.

Still, Entourage's update may motivate more businesses to use Office on a Mac. Word also offers richer features than Apple Pages, such as mail merge form letters that can accept data from sources other than the Mac Address Book. There's better support for long documents as well. File compatibility is another reason to skip, say, which can read Office's new files but can't fully edit dynamic charts and Smart Art graphics.

If you and fellow project collaborators plan to alter all elements of documents saved in Microsoft's newest formats, you'll have to spring for Office for Mac 2008. Full Specifications What's new in version 12.3.6 This update fixes critical issues and also helps to improve security. It includes fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code. General Publisher Publisher web site Release Date March 13, 2013 Date Added March 13, 2013 Version 12.3.6 Category Category Subcategory Operating Systems Operating Systems Mac OS X 10.4/10.5/10.6/10.7 Additional Requirements None Download Information File Size 209.7MB File Name Office2008-1236UpdateEN.dmg Popularity Total Downloads 1,388,379 Downloads Last Week 681 Pricing License Model Purchase Limitations Not available Price Paid.

Office For Lawyers - Microsoft Office for Mac OfficeForLawyers.com Mac Enter your search terms Submit search form Web OfficeForLawyers.com Mactopia support.microsoft.com Question of the Moment Q: Will there be a version of Microsoft OneNote for the Mac? I.LOVE. OneNote! A: There hasn't been one announced yet and I wouldn't count on it, to be honest. Your best bet would be to use something like to run Windows applications on your Mac and install OneNote in the virtual desktop. Microsoft has announced.

It's probably not going to be as full-featured as the regular version but might be good enough and should work from all of the major browsers, including the iPhone. News Microsoft is now offering a 30-day free trial of Office 2008 for Mac.

Resources Here are some useful resources for lawyers to use for more information on Microsoft Office for Mac. Hosted my Mac Office MVPs. Sites. A site actually run by Microsoft about Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac.

A review of Office 2008. Ben Stevens excellent blog on all things Mac for Attorneys.

Newsgroups Microsoft has free support newsgroups available for nearly every product they make. In these newsgroups you can read questions and answers that other people have posted for the product or you can post your own questions and get answers from the other posters. How to Ask a Question: When posting a question to a newsgroup please be sure to indicate what software you're using, what version of the software you're using, what SPECIFICALLY you are trying to do and what happens when you try to do that (especially any error messages you may be receiving). It is also helpful if you tell us what you have already tried in an effort to fix it so that we don't waste time telling you to try things you've already attempted. What's an MVP?

Microsoft Offering Office 2008 Free Trial For Mac Torrent

An MVP or 'Most Valuable Professional' is a volunteer who has been recognized by Microsoft as an expert on a particular technology. You'll commonly find them in the Microsoft Support Newsgroups, but they can sometimes be found in other forums or lists. They can be very helpful but keep in mind that they are only volunteers providing assistance in their spare time. NNTP NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) is the traditional way of accessing newsgroups. The traditional Microsoft program for NNTP is Outlook Express though in Vista this has been upgraded and renamed to 'Windows Mail'.

Click the links below to open the Microsoft Outlook newsgroups in your NNTP reader:. Web Forums Since NNTP is a tad esoteric Microsoft has introduced a web interface for their support newsgroups. These are the same newsgroups you get via NNTP, just in a web browser.

Click the links below to open the Microsoft Outlook newsgroups in your web browser:. Last Updated.