Rating: 
Summary: Quirky but I like it
Review: I've been using Office 2001 for a week, so I haven't yet discovered all of the ins, outs, ups, and downs. The application doesn't seem to be digested well by all some of the earlier G-3's. There was, however, one feature that made it worth the price for me. My first project was to edit and revise a 71 page document that had originally been written in Wordperfect something or other and uploaded/downloaded via ftp. The document navigator window in Word literally saved my sanity. Downside was the very long time it took when changing bullet/number formats. So far, thumbs up.
Rating:
Summary: Reasons to upgrade from Office 98
Review: If you are a contented user of Office 98, there are not many reasons why you *should* upgrade to Office 2001. Functionalities and file formats are the same, for instance, so it's not an absolute must. Some reasons why you might consider upgrading: * You are a upgrade queen and, like me, enjoy using the latest, niftiest software. * You work in an office environment where other people use Office for Windows. For you, Entourage and the new calendar/appointment software will get you integrated with the Windows world even more--while retaining your Macness on your desk. * You want an integrated calendar, address book, and task manager instead of what you've been using so far (Now, Palm Desktop, etc.). One caveat: Office 2001 doesn't seem to play friendly with memory management. There seem to be conflicts with RAM Doubler 9 and/or Internet Explorer 5.5 (other users have reported these goings on too, which you can read more about on MacFixit's Web site). You may want to wait for Connectix and/or Microsoft to release their first fix-it patches for Office 2001 to ensure a smooth transition--particularly advisable if you make your living using Office on your Mac. Otherwise, this upgrade isn't a "must." It is a fine upgrade, notably faster, quite a bit more attractive, lots of subtle but useful functionality enhancements. Entourage is spectacular, too. But if Office 98 meets your needs, you can feel confident about sticking with it for a while, too.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much Windoze; not enough Mac.
Review: Like a good boy, I had been regularly purchasing various Microsoft-for-the-Mac upgrades for a very long time. How long has it been? It's been so long that my first copy of Excel (1.0, in 1985) was free, because at the time I possessed registered copies of MS Multiplan and MS Chart. That's a long time by anyone's measure. My most recent Excel upgrade prior to MS Office for the Mac 2001 was Excel 95; I took a bye on Office 98 principally because I've never been particularly fond of MS Word (even in the Mac versions that had worked reasonably well). For most of the fifteen years or so that I've been using Macs almost exclusively, my word processor of choice has been WriteNow: Lean, mean, full of most of the features that I need, still running on OS 9.2.2, and, regrettably, discontinued (abandoned would be a more appropriate term) several years ago. However, with the ever-increasing hegemony of Windoze-based business networks, and with the fact that Excel 95 cannot run on a G4 Mac with OS 9.0 or newer, I bit the bullet and purchased this Office 2001 package. And, while I've now pretty much climbed its learning curve, the experience hasn't exactly been one that I'd write home about. Here are a few nits I choose to pick (some small, some not so small): * Somewhere between Excel 95 and Office 2001, Microsoft programmers seem to have lost track of the fact that Macs have both "Return" and "Enter" keys. (Windoze machines have no "Return" key.) The "Return" key no longer functions as it did, scrolling down one cell in an Excel spreadsheet; it now does precisely the same thing the "Enter" key does (which is limited to whatever one chooses from the "Preferences" menu). Not very bright! * In like fashion, the MS programmers decided to reassign several of the common "Command" key functions (Fill Down, Fill Across, Insert, Delete, Clear, etc.) to the "Control" key, again in some ill-founded effort at "cross-platform"compatibility. (Imagine my surprise when I first went to insert a row or column, only to find that my selection was formatted in italics!) In the process, the ergonomic superiority of the Mac keyboard, requiring less "stretch" effort to activate these keyboard shortcuts, has now been sacrificed to the Bill Gates God of Uniformity. And Microsoft continues to place the Font menu on a toolbar, not as a Mac-standard menu. Not very bright! * While tools have been added to the toolbox library, the ability to customize toolbars for one's own use has actually been reduced! And the tools don't always load consistently, suggesting some bugginess that requires a Microsoft patch or two, not yet available. And, unlike previous Excel upgrades in my experience, this one appears to provide no additional chart types. Not very bright! * Word is incompatible with RamDoubler 9.0 (another patch still not available). But, for once, my newest (G4) Mac has more memory than RamDoubler can deal with. Nevertheless: Not very bright! * Word files - as always - are bloated for reasons that have little to do with content or formatting. (As a comparison, a 25-page file, containing a few tables and some minor formatting, which occupies 91K of HD space as a WriteNow 4.0 file and 96K as a WordPerfect 3.5e file, occupies 194K as a Word 2001 file.) If not "Not very bright!", then "Why?" * The ubiquitous Windoze paperclip "Advisor" has been transmogrified to a less-than-winsome "flex-toy Mac." Gimmee a break! * Entourage is incompatible with Outlook or Outlook Express. Its inclusion is specious at best, and one wonders how many will use this module. * Once again, as far as a database module is concerned, Mac users are left in the lurch. Access continues to be notable by its absence (not that it is every database user's "dream program"), and FoxPro has long been history as far as Microsoft support is concerned. Moreover, a Mac port of SQL is just a fantasy. And VisualBasic is only present in crippled form, to support the modules that are VB-capable. There are a few (very few, I'm sad to say) gains: * PowerPoint works fine. But I have little need for it, save for the odd PP file that gets attached to my e-mail thanks to some chain letter or other. * The modules run acceptably fast. But I think this has as much or more to do with G4 speed and available RAM as it does to "tight" coding by software engineers. * Word works acceptably well (but not particularly great) as a platform for HTML coding. * I've got the cross-platform compatibility that my business-related activities require. For those G4 users needing a single module but not needing "full" cross-platform compatibility for other applications, my advice is to limit yourselves to just the Office 2001 module (saving some bucks), hang on to your WriteNow 4.0 program (it'll run just fine on OS 9.x G4's) or download a free copy of WordPerfect 3.5e, take a bye on Entourage (Outlook Express works just fine, and is bundled free with Explorer), and, if you need a database program, there's always FileMaker Pro. Summary: A "forced" upgrade for G4 Mac users who must use Excel. More steps backward than forward for those of us who prefer Macs but need the cross-platform compatibility. At best, three stars, and then only with the greatest of reluctance.
Rating:
Summary: The problem of Entourage
Review: Microsoft once again has not solved the problem of moving from PC to MAC-- if you have your life stored in PC outlook, don't even think about buying this. Switching to MAC is great... porting over applications is not bad. Porting over email and contacts is a disaster. Microsoft support is not much better-- spent 2 hours on the telephone trying to find anyone who could even address the issue. Never did. Bottom line: for MAC users with Office 98, not much functionality is gained. For PC users moving back to MAC, plan on fat-fingering in all of you data.
Rating:
Summary: Great For Students!
Review: Most reviews of Microsoft Office discuss how well it works in an actual office setting. Which isn't wrong, because that's where it's primarily being used... in offices. :) But, as a student, I have found that this is great for us too! I'm a Psychology major, and I find all these programs invaluable. With "Word", I can do all my papers and assignments. With "Excel" I can do statistical analyses for my Psych research reports. You can also make some pretty cool graphs and charts, if you're a Chem or Bio or Psych major. It's much easier to enter info into the spreadsheet, and make a chart, than in Appleworks. If you've ever tried to do that on Apple or ClarisWorks, and had a hard time, you'll breathe a huge sigh of relief. With "Entourage" I can keep in touch with my friends back home, and my professors and TA's (teaching assistants). It's also a great program to keep track of assignment due dates, and test dates... with the "reminder" feature. I actually haven't used "Power Point" yet, but it looks nifty, and will probably serve a student well, too. So, if you're a student, and are wondering whether or not to get this, do it!! :) My only complaint is that too many plug-ins have to be installed. But you don't have to go searching all over the web for them, they're right on the CD-ROM. I would recommend buying it through your school bookstore though, because the academic price is a lot less harsh on the wallet. Take care and happy computing!
Rating: 
Summary: Office 2001 for the Mac - Too Buggy
Review: Office 2001 shouldn't have been released - it crashes the computer, and has so many features I'll never use. But - there's some good functionality there - such as the integration between Outlook and Word.
Rating: 
Summary: why can't it be great?
Review: Okay, so they're a monopoly. So why not take advantage of that market power and make a great product instead of a lousy one? Powerpoint is reactive. It just tweaks a very mediocre tool instead of making it intuitive and powerful. Excel abandons so many of the little things you're already used to. Command D no longer fills down. Command T no longer converts relative to absolute. Sigh. And word is more of the same, with that stupid little paper clip guy. I'm afraid to upgrade to entourage... maybe someday. The short version: if you're hoping that this round of upgrades will dramatically increase your productivity, you will be sorely disappointed...
Rating:
Summary: ($$$) ...
Review: Once you get over the learning curve of Office for Mac 2001, it is far superior to the Windows counterpart. They moved items around, came up with a new format window, and moved controls over to the left hand side of the screen. However, I am impressed with the overall flow and feel of the products. There isn't too much in the way of new functionality here, which was a bit of a disappointment. Resolution of imported graphics into PowerPoint has to be unbelievably high to get a good projection on a large screen. As a person who works with graphics and color quite a bit, the improved options for choosing almost any color you can think of is quite welcome. I haven't made the jump to OS-X yet, so I haven't experienced that version. But if you are still running 9.x - I highly recommend this version.
Rating:
Summary: Very pleased with the PowerPoint improvements
Review: Once you get over the learning curve of Office for Mac 2001, it is far superior to the Windows counterpart. They moved items around, came up with a new format window, and moved controls over to the left hand side of the screen. However, I am impressed with the overall flow and feel of the products. There isn't too much in the way of new functionality here, which was a bit of a disappointment. Resolution of imported graphics into PowerPoint has to be unbelievably high to get a good projection on a large screen. As a person who works with graphics and color quite a bit, the improved options for choosing almost any color you can think of is quite welcome. I haven't made the jump to OS-X yet, so I haven't experienced that version. But if you are still running 9.x - I highly recommend this version.
Rating:
Summary: My Crow Soft
Review: The one thing I can say about Microsoft is that the programs they design for Macintosh seem to be notably better than their peecee equivalents. Office 2001 follows suit. Visually and functionally, this version isn't too much different than prior versions - yet this time they purport a seamless link between Mac and peecees with Office data. Macs pretty much have done this on their own for a while - but OK now it's seamless. The new addition to the team is Entourage - which is certainly a high-quality email program. In stereotypical Microsoft fashion, it doesn't like to access its own Hotmail accounts...hmmmmmm...what's that all about? It also comes with Internet Explorer 5, which is what you might call yoogly - which is ugly with a capital, boldfaced "U" at the front. It too, has slight improved functionality over it's peecee counterpart. It is a free program so there's no real need to pay for this. If you've already got a version of Office, you may want to stick with it and save your cash.
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