At first glance you might think that this was some form of strange alien code. People in the know will tell you that these symbols represent the most commonly used office applications in the world. Nothing to report to the X Files yet then! What is unusual is that this is Office 2011 for the Mac, and the O represents Outlook.
The first and probably most important thing to mention is the price. The previous version of Office 2008 weighed in at an astonishing £399.99 for the Business Edition. This version is just £189.99 and for an extra £50 you can get an additional license as well. Well-done Microsoft. There is also an even cheaper Student Edition that does not include Outlook.
So, cheap is good but is it any good?
I have used the previous versions of Office for Mac and enjoyed a love hate relationship. My biggest issue has been with Entourage, which is truly one of the worst email clients I have ever used. It did get slightly better with 2008, but was still a long way from a pleasurable experience. Also, composing documents on the Mac and then porting to Windows was completely hit and miss. You never quite knew how that important proposal or presentation was going to look when it reached your client at the other end.
Enough talking let’s get this thing installed.
Popping the DVD into the drive starts the installation and the first thing you notice is Rosetta is not required. This means code is running natively and not through a translation program. The installation screens are pretty and very easy to follow. Amazingly, the whole install process takes about 10 minutes to complete. As the product is only a few days old, there are no updates to apply and you are pretty much done.
We now have those instantly recognizable symbols in our dock, along with Messenger, Document Connection and Remote Desktop.
We are going to briefly look at two parts of the Office suite, the new Outlook Client and Document Connection. Rest assured the other applications feature the new ribbon interface borrowed from their Windows cousins, and look fantastic on the Mac. You will feel instantly at home with them if you have used Office 2007 or Office 2010 on Windows. Microsoft also suggests that they have nailed Mac to Windows compatibility. I might just believe them.
Entourage is dead. Long live Outlook.
Microsoft have done the humane thing and put Entourage to rest. They really had no choice, as any new version would have been dammed by inference. Anyway, the name always reminded me of that cheesy American TV show about teenagers behaving badly.
Lets fire this bad boy up.
Configuration was always complicated on the previous versions. The wizards never seemed to work and you always had to dive in and set things up manually, ensuring information was entered in exactly the right format. The only information I have to provide is my full name, email address, server name, user name and password. Done.
The familiar connected symbol appears in the bottom right hand corner and off Outlook goes bringing down all my stuff from our Exchange Server. No annoying status screens that keep appearing for hours on end and not actually doing anything. Everything syncs including Tasks and Notes. Nice.
The interface is very Outlook like and very pleasing on the eye. When you send or receive an email you get a very calming sound. You also get a very Apple Mail like status bar that shows you the send progress. When you copy multiple emails you get the Apple ‘star’ telling you how many messages you are moving. Attachments can be viewed using Apple quick look.
Everything is here. Out of Office options. Public Folders, opening other peoples calendars. It all works seamlessly and beautifully. It now also supports Time Machine backup, as messages are stored as single entities. Also check out the conversations, which shows you the message thread in one view.
Ladies and Gentleman. I believe that we finally have the very best email and calendaring client on the Mac bar none.
What is this Document Connection thingy?
I asked myself the very same question. Click on it and I can add a SharePoint location. We use SharePoint extensively on our SBS2008 server. I wonder? Putting in our server address (remember to add port :987!) I am presented with a Document Management system that enables me to view, edit, checkout and upload documents to our Share Point directory. Now that is pretty cool!
So let me come back to my original question. It’s cheap but is it any good?
Office has finally come of age on the Mac. Outlook is absolutely fabulous and the rest of the suite superb. This is an essential package for the Mac and anybody who uses a Mac for work should buy it.
And if you buy it from us at www.coverpoint.eu we will be your best friends!
The Coverpoint Team
