Office for Mac Home & Student 2011 - 1 Pack

It may have had some bugs before (which is probably why it has some low reviews) but the current version works smoothly with OS X Lion. I had no problems installing it or putting in the product code. Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint all work just like they do on windows and docs/presentations/spreadsheets can be transfered to windows computers. So far I've had no problems with any of the 3 and am very pleased with my purchase. A must have for all Mac users.

Do note that it comes with Word, Powerpoint and Excel. If you want Outlook you need another version that includes it or you can but this version and buy Outlook later. This version will give you the Outlook icon when you install the other 3 and if you click on it you have the option to buy Outlook.

Running Word 2011 on a Macbook Air, I watched a 400+ page document turn completely into asterisks. Every single character. *********** I tried to undo typing with no luck (sometimes a word would show up, sometimes a sentence, but always the asterisks and never my entire document). I tried to copy and paste into a new document so I could reformat. I tried to autorecover--the entire Word 2011 autorecovery file was empty, though I've been using the update since it came out. I tried to use the auto back-up file from my desktop (for some reason, it only had data saved from two months ago). I called customer support (1-800 Microsoft), was disconnected twice, and finally emailed the pasted file to a woman who told me that the file was corrupted, that she had never heard of this happening before, and then she proceeded to lecture me about saving. When I told her that I hit save every five or ten minutes, back up to ME (cloud) twice a day, and that the data lost went back about an hour, she said maybe I should burn a disk as often as I can. And then I killed her. (Okay, I didn't kill her, but when I told her to have a good day, I didn't mean it BECAUSE I KNEW IT WAS NIGHT TIME IN INDIA WHEN I CALLED)

I am not normally the type to write product reviews, but I really felt compelled to warn others about this problem. I am back to my old Word program now. I don't trust 2011 not to crap out on me. This is absolutely the most frustrating and annoying thing that Microsoft has ever done to me. And that is saying a lot.

Having worked with Office 2003 for PC since beta, Word, Excel and PP 2011 feels more refined and a bit more cohesive...barely.

Word, Excel and PP are usable, and in some ways a touch more refined than Office 2003 for PC...perhaps that is just the Mac itself. Overall 2011 is, with only small variations, the same product as 2003. If you require Microsoft specific, detailed functionality then you are likely used to Microsoft and will get something that is all too familiar. If you are not a power user then you might want to try Pages and Numbers from Apple which will cause you much less pain for your effort and feel more like Mac products.

As of the latest updates at the time of this review there appears to be a memory leak in Word that causes it to freeze and requires a Force Quit. When restarted, the "recovered" document is 2 or 3 manual saves behind the actual saved document. So if this happens to you, check your saved version against the "recovered" version to see which is more accurate before assuming that the recovered file is doing you any favors. Having worked with Microsoft products for too many years I instinctively "save" my work with every 2 or 3 changes...like taking a breath between thoughts.

They have incorporated some of the Mac programming standards and ignored others. This doesn't make the software bad but it does provide a user experience that unintuitive at times for those used to a Mac workflow.

Formatting in Word appears to work more consistently, though Microsoft's anticipation of user intent is still very annoying and generally wrong....as seen with copy/paste, especially when bullets or numbering is involved. I generally turn off as much of this as possible and just update the formatting manually.

As I said before, Office 2011 is only a slight variation on 2003. All the apps in 2003 required some coding to mitigate the clunkiness of some routines....2011 has only improved mildly on this. Running a Microsoft application on a Mac highlights Microsoft's inability to design a user experience that is based on the "user"...especially different users. Microsoft's UI is typical of a developer/Microsoft centric view of functionality. The Ribbon menu system exemplifies this best of all. It is well organized, like a big walk-in closet that rigidly holds ALL of your belongings. But one shouldn't have to dig through a walk-in closet to get the TV remote control every time they wish to change channels. Microsoft, through the Ribbon, has forced their single use perception of organization on a product that has much more functionality than they seem to understand. Most users have routines specific to their jobs and therefore use only a subset of the menu items. The Ribbon design is unintelligent (not context sensitive) and would be better suited as a tool for aiding in the creation of user/task oriented menus than for actual day to day work. The Ribbon is overkill for the casual user and a tiresome pain in the arse for power users. I had read online that the Ribbon design was result of a legal effort to thwart knockoffs. That makes sense as those that copy usually copy only the good parts...I don't think Microsoft should ever fear others copying their Ribbon mistake.

VBA code that i have used for years with 2003 has transferred over nicely, though there are issues running the code on docs created with 2003. Docs created with 2011 haven't displayed any major issues.

Having only used the entire 2011 suite for a few weeks, I have not been able to put Excel and PP through any in-depth testing. I have used XLS files created in 2003 that contain tons of complex formulas and so far have seen no issues...though I have not tested any files yet that contain more rows than one should reasonably use in a spread sheet. Also, I have not tested the pivot table functionality. I read where someone was complaining about Pivot tables in 2011, don't remember details, but if you are using large amounts of data with a Pivot table you should seriously look into dumping the data to SQL Server or at least Access and not expect the Microsoft Pivot table to function like a full blown BI app.

If you are a long time Microsoft product user then you know that they have not refined as much as they have repackaged over the past 15 years or so. I was very excited about the release of Office 2007 because I had identified numerous things in Office 2003 that could easily be improved upon, then I actually used it...reality can suck at times. Word and Excel are probably the 2 most powerful office products on the market. Instead of refining, improving and innovating on a solid functionality that was released over 10 years ago Microsoft has chosen to just tart up the old product hoping that no one notices the lazy effort. They seemed to have created better products back when their competition was Wordperfect and Lotus 123. Unfortunately they have had very little serious competition for the Office suite since the late 90's. Most newer, web based products are watered down in functionality and fine for casual users. But if your job and tasks are more complex Microsoft Office is still the only game in town....for now. Hopefully Apple's swelling presence will force them to actually work on their Office products, innovate and improve them, not just repackage.

Overall, I can use Word, Excel and PP. I am used to being frustrated with Microsoft products and the 2011 release hasn't yet exceeded my exercized patience. As with all Microsoft products, save and back up your work frequently....Office 2011 doesn't take advantage of Lion's versioning capabilities. I typically work with Word documents that are 100 - 200 pages long, include tables, indexes, cross-references, bullets, numbering, header/footer content, etc. I work with Excel files that at times would be better suited for a database and/or some BI software. There are not a lot of choices on the market when it comes to meeting these types of demands. If this were Microsoft's 2nd or 3rd release I would give them 5 stars and highly anticipate their next efforts. Instead, this is a product that Microsoft started almost 30 years ago, and it leaves me feeling like Chief Dan George's character in The Outlaw Josie Wales when told to "Endeavor to persevere". If only I could attack.

NOTE: I tested Outlook 2011 for several weeks and found it to be completely incompetent. This was a major disappointment to me as I had high hopes for Outlook to have become more solid and refined vs the 8 year old version I was running on my PC. They finally ditched the PST files system (at least on OSX), and searches...when they worked...were very fast. But the folder structure is a bit disjointed and the UI didn't always acurately reflect the folder contents or actions that you selected from the menu. It is very disconcerting when you mail just disappears without the help of David Blaine. It became unresponsive numerous times. I tried Microsoft's steps for rebuilding the file DB but that only lost data....and the tone of the help file seemed to lean toward a fatalist outcome to begin with so there was no comfort there. Outlook 2003 had a useless search functionality if you retained email, notes and tasks to support your work. If your PST file was ever corrupted you would likely lose some something, though finding out what was lost was informed by chance. That said, if you need Outlook, user any other version than 2011....it couldn't handle the basics without crapping out and losing data. I'm not sure if the product manager for Outlook just didn't give a crap or Microsoft just needed some turd, any turd to put in a box and sell, but Outlook was a waste of my time and a disgraceful code release. Again, for casual users, there are tons of free options and what comes with Lion is more than capable.

UPDATE 10/20/11: Word still crashes often. Manual Saves are a must. I have found macros related to cross-references do not work with files created in Office 2003 compatible format....reformatting doesn't solve the the problem either. My other macros work...so far. And my cross-reference macros are highly specialized, but still there is some incompatibility that screws with the code. The issues with the macros seem to be related to memory management.....I suspect the crashes are related to memory issues as well.

UPDATE 12/02/11: Still no movement by Microsoft to stop the bleeding. CONSTANT memory problems. CONSTANT stream of reports sent to Apple and Microsoft.....though this is obviously not an issue caused by Apple. Word Locks up daily requiring a Force Quit, or it just crashes on its own. The "recovered" file is NEVER as up to date as the last physical save...again, seems to be memory issues. This is THE ONLY application on my Mac that crashes. I have down graded this to 1 star. It is usable as long as you manually save your document after every edit....and you don't mind the forced intermissions...and you can live with some of the other slights it provides. I design software for a living and have worked in IT for many years....this product should be an enormous embarrassment to all those that took it to market. This is obviously still a BETA product at best. With so many great applications being written for Mac you have to wonder if MS does this on purpose. I will continue to use Office because it is the only option at this time. But if you are not REQUIRED to use MS then I suggest you use any other product out there in order to save yourself some headaches.

UPDATE 12/15/11: MS just issued an update. Still having same memory/force quit issues with Word. The "Recovered" document seems to lag behind the last physical save....which at times doesn't work. This continues to be a BETA product. If you have a choice, purchase ANY other product. Read more ›