Office Mac Home and Business 2011 - 2 License Pack

Before I start with the review, I would like to say a few things about myself and my experience with Microsoft Office products. I have been using various components of Microsoft Office for almost a couple of decades, on both Windows and Macintosh computers. Right now, I have a copy of Office 2008 on my Mac Mini , as well as Office 2007 on my Windows 7 (formerly Vista) laptop. I also occasionally use iWorks on my iPad, Google docs, and have had some experience with OpenOffice. I use word processing software on a daily basis, PowerPoint more or less regularly for the lectures that I give, Excel for various laboratory exercises, and Apple Mail or Outlook for part of my e-mailing needs.

I obtained my copy of Office 2011 through Amazon Vine products a day ahead of the official release, and have spent most of today playing with it and figuring out all of its new and noteworthy features. It is definitely a more than worthy successor of Office 2008, and a huge improvement across the board in almost every category. However, based on my experience, MS Office for Windows is still the gold standard in the category of business productivity software. This version of Office for Mac was supposed to be the first "real" Office in over a decade, and although it comes tantalizingly close to the equivalent Windows version, it is still far from a full-fledged clone. It will, however, make Macintosh computers respectable members of the professional business environment. The biggest improvement in that regard is the final inclusion of Outlook into the Mac version of the Office. Microsoft has also reinstated Visual Basic, which is

Some General Observation

Installation was very smooth and quick. There was no need to remove the previous version of the Office. The full install took up about 1.3 GB of hard drive space.

Office 2011 feels more powerful, more feature-rich and faster than its predecessor. The increase in speed is definitely noticeable, and if you use Office a lot in your line of work, this in itself will make it well worth the upgrade.

In terms of look and feel, the greatest new addition to all Office components is the introduction of Ribbon. Ribbon is an interface where a set of toolbars is placed on tabs in a tab bar. It is highly customizable, and it is context sensitive - various tasks have different ribbon configuration. Microsoft started using Ribbon in Office 2007 in place of taskbars. However, their ribbon has caused a lot of confusion since it was a radical departure from the usual taskbars. Even though the exclusive use of Ribbon declutters the look of various Office applications, it was not too intuitive to use at first. Office 2011 uses both the Ribbon as well as the taskbars, thus making a better and smoother transition to the new functionality. In this sense Office 2011 seems a hybrid of Office 2007 for Windows and Office 2008 for Mac.

One of the major behind-the-scenes improvements of Office 2011 is the return of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), which was missing from previous versions of Office for Mac. This will facilitate creation of event-driven templates for all of the components of Office 2011. However, the greatest impact of the reintroduction of VBA will undoubtedly be felt in Excel, especially in creation of more sophisticated spreadsheets.

In recent months Microsoft has come up with an online version of Office that is sophisticated enough for most of one's everyday needs, and is positioned to compete directly with Google Docs. Office 2011 is designed to take a full advantage of this new online environment, including online and real-time collaboration with remote colleagues, as well as ample (25 GB as of this writing) online storage in form of SkyDrive. It is possible to directly save and open SkyDrive files from any Office application, as well as drag-and-drop them using Microsoft Document Connection which comes as standard with this version of Office. Personally, I would have liked if it were possible to access SkyDrive through Finder, but overall I am fairly satisfied with its functionality.

Word

One of the great new features is the publishing layouts. They turn Word into a serious desktop publishing tool, as well as a decent website editor. It will not replace Dreamweaver any time soon, but it will be more than effective for small-scale websites.

Word comes with many new themes and styles, which make publication of any sort of new document a breeze. Obtaining new themes and styles from the net has been streamlined, and can be done directly in Word itself.

Documents can now be viewed in a full screen view, which hides all the desktop background as well as both the taskbar and the Ribbon. The latter can still be accessed by moving the cursor to the top of the screen. Full screen is useful when you just want to concentrate on the document itself, whether you are reading it or writing a new one.

My biggest disappointment with this version of Word for Mac was the failure to include the blogging support. Ever since I discovered blogging support in Word 2007 this has been my favorite way of writing and publishing my blog posts. It brought together the full force of a powerful word processor with the simplicity of publishing with a press of a button. I was hoping that this feature will be incorporated into Office 2011, in which case I could start to completely rely on my Mac for all of my authoring needs. Unfortunately, this has not been the case. I guess it would be possible to use website templates to create my blog posts and then upload all the files and the generated html into my site, but this is a rather cumbersome hack to say the least. Microsoft may release a blogging add-on in the near future, but right now I am not counting on it.

Excel

The biggest and most noticeable changes in Excel that will affect majority of users are in terms of new visual aids and presentation styles. Now you can pepper even your datasheets with visual icons, graphics and other tools that help present the information in a much more intuitively accessible ways. Excel 2011 also uses Sparklines, a tool that highlights trends in your data. As mentioned earlier, you are now able to use VBA for more advanced data analysis and table formatting features. VBA is cross-platform compatible and your work should look and feel the same whether you are using it or viewing it on a Mac or a PC.

PowerPoint

Aside from the new look and feel that it shares with other Office 2011 apps, the new PowerPoint seems to have undergone the least amount of change. There are many new templates and visual tools, but some of these (such as video recording) are very limited in their usability. PowerPoint now allows you to directly publish your presentations online, even without Windows Live account. You can share the link to the online presentations with others, and they can view them directly in their browsers. However, it doesn't seem that all browsers are supported, and some of the more media-intense PowerPoint presentations may not play accurately.

Outlook

This is by far the snazziest and most user-friendly version of the Outlook that I have ever used. This is also probably the only Office component which truly feels native in OS X, which may be the reason why it feels so user-friendly. As mentioned earlier, Microsoft did not include Outlook as a part of the Office suite since 1998, and relied instead on a much weaker Entourage for its desktop mail client. This version of Outlook works well with both regular email accounts (such as Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) although I did have some trouble figuring out the correct server/account/password syntax. The same holds for the exchange server connections: most of the trouble usually stems from the obscure documentation for the particular exchange server that you are attempting to connect with. Once you are up and running, though, it is as smooth of a mail client as they come. The bad news is that this version of Outlook is only compatible with Exchange Server 2007 or the later editions. If your company still uses Exchange Server 2003 (or an earlier version) you will not be able to use Outlook with it.

Other Apps

Some other apps that are of interest are the already mentioned Microsoft Document Connection, as well as Microsoft Messenger and Remote Desktop Connection. Microsoft Document Connection is very useful for storing various files onto SkyDrive, including non-Office files such as pdf documents. However, even though SkyDrive comes pre-configured with folders titled "Music" and "Pictures" I was unable to upload jpeg or mp3 files. This is rather odd, but hopefully it will change in the future.

I don't really get to use Microsoft Messenger all that much, but from what I can tell this is more or less the standard version of the app, with a few small tweaks here and there.

Remote Desktop Connection is a neat way of connecting with Windows machines on your local network. However, it does require that you are familiar with what sorts of computers you have connected locally, as well as that all of them are set up correctly for network-sharing.

Conclusion

This is definitely a major upgrade of the Office for Mac, and if you are a power user getting the latest version of this product is a no-brainer. This is especially true if you collaborate on documents and projects with others a lot, or need Outlook for your e-mailing needs. However, if you are more of a casual user you will perceive Office 2011 more as an evolution than a true leap forward. You will probably do just fine for now by sticking to Office 2008.

When I reviewed the prior version of Office, I recommended that users stick with Office 2004. Finally, I can strongly recommend upgrading to Office 2011. I would wager that this will be the major version for the next five to six years, in the same way that 2004 has been widely adopted and stable for the last six years.

I should state at the outset that I am primarily a user of Word for the production of long, annotated documents. I also use Excel and Powerpoint, but would not consider myself a power-user of these applications. I have been using Microsoft Word since 1986. This review is mainly for people who have been Word/Office users and are wondering whether to upgrade.

All three versions of the Office for Mac 2011 suite contain Word, Excel and Powerpoint. The Home & Student version does not contain Outlook; the Home & Business and Academic versions DO contain Outlook. Outlook replaces Entourage. If you do intend to use Outlook, keep in mind that this version only syncs with Exchange Server 2007 or newer (check with your I.T. people to see if you are okay). Furthermore, Outlook is not merely a renaming of Entourage; some functions change and/or disappear. You can do a custom install of Office 2011 and keep Entourage if you wish.

As of late 2010, many of the negative comments about this version revolve around Outlook (missing features, syncing, import problems). If you are a power Outlook user, I would take this as a big warning flag and a potential reason to wait for the next update from Microsoft.

[Update 4/11: Microsoft released the first service pack for this suite in April of 2011. The update fixes a number of problems/shortcomings across the suite, including some that led to highly critical remarks about Outlook. For a list of changes, do a search for Microsoft Knowledge Base article 2525412.]

[Update 7/11: Office 2004 for Mac does NOT work under the recently released OS X Lion. This is a good opportunity to upgrade to Office 2011. Microsoft's Mac group has indicated, however, that it will be some months before this latest version exploits Lion's new features (e.g. autosave). I am finding no compatibility issues, however, between Lion and Office 2011.]

My snapshot of Microsoft's latest release:

Pros:
-Office 2011 is faster. It loads faster. It closes out faster. There seem to be very few delays in moving through very long documents. There is no sluggishness on my computer (2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo iMac with 2 GB of memory).
-The interface is improved from earlier versions. While I have qualms about it, I think it is the best one that Microsoft has offered for Office. After using the suite for the last 9 months, I have come to appreciate the context sensative ribbon. I find that I am spending less time digging for obscure commands.
-VBA support is back (critically important for many people; if you don't know what it is, you probably don't need it).
-Side-by-side arrangement of multiple documents. This sounds minor, but if you compose using multiple document windows, this will have you rejoicing. Why it has been so difficult to implement is a mystery (you could do it in earlier versions by tweaking Word or by sizing the windows manually). Now you can do it quickly from the "Window" menu. Thank you. Thank you. A million thank yous.
-Better ability to browse and import media from elsewhere on your Mac.
-I am intrigued by the new notebook view; it allows for scribbles and audio inputs.
-There is a new full screen mode which helps me focus on the document; I really like this feature but other people will find it hokey.
-Built-in support for collaborative document creation/editing and cloud computing.

Cons:
-The interface may be improved from earlier versions, but the intent was clearly to make it more like the Windows version of Office rather than exploit OS X. I think the Mac group at Microsoft is between a rock and a hard place on this one: they can choose to make Office more consistent across platforms (think about the demands placed on corporate I.T. departments that support PCs and Macs), or they can create something more unique and native to the Mac (i.e., fully optimized for the Mac). I would prefer the latter, but the former wins. Office for the Mac is handcuffed to Windows.
-I find the interface easier to use than old versions, but I still find myself fighting with it at times (e.g. the Excel sort button toggles between A to Z and Z to A each time you press it... why?).
-For power Excel users, this version does not yet have an Analysis Tool Pack.
-I would have liked to see a bit more discipline in how options are presented. To give an example, when choosing how to look at a particular Word document there are no less than four different places where one can specify some aspect of the page view (e.g. outline view, 150%, etc.). Each place is slightly different from the next, however, so you can't simply eliminate three of the four. They all go in. I cringe at how frustrating things must be back at Microsoft; they have to make sure they have backward compatibility on the interface (because it is hard to teach old dogs new tricks) and they likely want to introduce improved ways of doing things. I would like to see them get rid of the baggage at some point (in the same way that they dumped Windows Mobile and went with Windows Phone 7).
-Microsoft continues to refine Word's page layout capabilities (i.e. the Publishing Layout view) but it is still kludgy. I would be very tempted by competing programs (e.g. Apple's Pages is a good budget competitor) if this were my focus.

Other comments:
-Installation was straightforward on both a desktop and laptop. The process took about 15 minutes. Prior versions of Office are not removed until you bother to delete them yourself.
-***UPDATE*** I had one major compatibility issue with old documents (originally created with Office 2004). My document files had various Excel graphs that could be read in earlier versions of Word, but in this version the software said there was insufficient memory and showed a blank. Fortunately, I was able to find old copies of the documents that this version COULD read (maybe Office 2008 corrupted them?) and I simply cut and paste the tables. So if you've got some critical, old documents, you'll want to make sure they open completely in this new version. That said, once I discovered the problem, I much preferred to fix the files than return to the old versions of Word (just shows you how much I appreciate this upgrade).
-***UPDATE*** If you find that other people are having trouble opening up your .docx files, even when they have the latest Office Suite and should be completely .docx compatible, do a "save as" in the prior .doc format. My experience is that files that have been under revision for years can sometimes become unreadable in .docx when opened in Windows (even when other .docx files transfer just fine).
-As noted, Microsoft's Mac unit has not tried to rock the boat too much. Longtime users of Office should have little trouble shifting to this version.

I will continue to revisit this review as I learn more about the new version's ins and outs.

Cheers

The only reason to buy this version of Office 2011 (Home and Business) is to get Outlook. The home and student version offers more licenses for less money and you get everything but Outlook. It was the same with Entourage in the 2008 versions.

But this time Microsoft promised a real Outlook! No more virtual machines and Outlook 2007 - Oh yeah.

Unfortunately what we got was a repackaged Entourage. You can see all of the same underpinnings but in a fancy new skin. Much of the PC outlook functionality just isn't there and there is none of the MAPI interface - its all OWA so no better than WebMail functionality for the most part. On the plus side, the new skin is very nice, and its a bit faster and not quite as flakey as the Entourage 2008 (but have still had several incidents in as many days). But its no Outlook 2007 by a long stretch. And while you normally get some phone support for Office 2011, the second you hook Outlook up to an Exchange server (and why else would you use it) the support for Outlook is no longer free and is going to require a paid support contract (min $99 for one incident).

As to all the other apps - they start faster, generally feel snappier, offer much better compatibility with Office 2007 for PC, and while not as stable as Office 2008 is right now, not as flakey as 2008 was when it was first released. I also like that the interface is much closer to Office 2007 for PC. While I like Mac programs in general to be Mac like, I more appreciate the similarity with the PC version in this application suite. The one serious problem I have encountered with the core suite so far is a change in the way Pivot tables work in Excel. Some of my spreadsheets that use pivot tables no longer work properly in Excel 2011 while they work fine in Excel 2007 or 2008. Still working on that issue.

So I would not recommend Office 2011 Home and Business for the Mac to anyone. Get the Home and Student version without the so called Outlook. OS Xs native mail and calendar Exchange support gives you almost everything the new Outlook 2011 does (but admittedly not as fancily wrapped). The core suite of Word, Excel, Powerpoint is a very worthwhile upgrade for 2011. Outlook isn't.

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