#Office for mac 2011 review plus#
#Office for mac 2011 review free#
#Office for mac 2011 review mac#

#Office for mac 2011 review mac#

One notable feature in Office 2010 for Windows that isn't matched in Office 2011 for the Mac is the Windows' version Backstage view, which puts all file-management and printing features on a single, spacious menu. Some of the suite's best new features are directly copied from Apple iWork 09, but that doesn't make me any less glad to have them, and it's good to have Apple-style elegance combined with Office's unique power. I also like a new full-screen view that lets me edit a Word document without being distracted by the desktop, dock, or menus. This means I can finally record and edit Word macros in OS X, and, better still, I can use all the macros I've recorded or written over the years for use in the Windows version. I'm also delighted to see the return to the Mac version of the Visual Basic for Applications automation language. One advantage of the Mac version is that it uses both the ribbon and the standard Mac top-line menu, for maximum ease of access to its many features. I wish Microsoft had included an option to use the Ctrl-F1 keystroke that the Windows version uses for the same feature. In the Mac version, if you want to hide or reveal the ribbon using the keyboard, you need to press Option-Command-R. For example, the ribbon on the Mac version includes tabs for traditional charts and the text-based SmartArt charting feature, but puts mail-merge features on a drop-down menu instead of on a tab as in the Windows version. It's similar to the ribbon on the Windows version, with a few changes that reflect the graphics-oriented world of the Mac. I tested this by editing documents at the same time from a Mac and a Windows machine, and the whole procedure was surprisingly smooth, although I needed to click a Save button on each machine before the actual content that I had created on one machine was visible in the other.īut the best thing about the new suite for most real-world users will be its jackrabbit speed-unlike the pokiness that made the previous version almost unusable.

#Office for mac 2011 review free#

The most newsworthy changes in the suite include the shiny new Outlook and the collaboration feature that lets multiple users edit a document simultaneously when the document is stored on Microsoft's free SkyDrive cloud-based storage or on a SharePoint server.

#Office for mac 2011 review plus#

The Home and Business version matches the Home and Student version plus Outlook 2011, which replaces the Entourage mail, calendar, and contact manager app in recent versions. The Home and Student version includes Word 2011, Excel 2011, PowerPoint 2011. Office for the Mac comes in two versions, a Home and Student Version (single user package, $119 three-user family package $149) and a Home and Business Version (single user package, $199 licensed for two machines, $279). Overall, it's the best office suite ever for using the Mac as a serious platform for getting work done. Office for the Mac still has some minor weaknesses, and at least one feature that's less powerful in than the previous version-Office no longer syncs calendars with iCal. For the first time, OS X has an office suite I can imagine using full-time. I used to suspect Microsoft of deliberately holding back Office for the Mac so that Windows users wouldn't be tempted to abandon Windows for OS X. If you're a casual, light-duty office-suite user or a student, iWork '09 ($79, 4 stars) is still a great option, but if you've got heavy-duty work to perform on the Mac, you'll want Office for the Mac 2011.

It even includes a few features that outclass anything in its Windows-based counterpart, Microsoft Office 2010 ($499, 4 stars). Compared with Office for the Mac 2008 and its predecessors, Office 2011 is innovative, better-designed, startlingly faster, vastly more powerful, and far more compatible with Office for Windows. After a string of disappointing releases, the new Mac version of the world's most widely-used office suite is a spectacular success, and an unexpected triumph for Microsoft's Macintosh group. With Microsoft Office for the Mac 2011 (Home and Student version, $119 Home and Business version, $199), Microsoft has finally gotten it right.