Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 Business Edition

Other products by Microsoft

Product Features

• Develop professional documents with Word building blocks and commonly-used business templates
• Build informative, accurate spreadsheets with easy-to-use, preformatted Excel formulas
• Manage e-mail, daily appointments and tasks with Entourage
• Apply SmartArt graphics to create polished presentations and reports
• Connect with others through Microsoft Office Exchange Server support

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B002KO0NGU
• Item model number: GYD-00001
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 6, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #379 in Software (See Bestsellers in Software)

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Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Your business is everything to you--an extension of your life, an expression of your passion. Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition is packed with all the tools and features you need to make your vision a success. Get core Office applications to help you manage your business, organize your data and present a professional image; plus new Exchange Server support and reliable Office for Windows compatibility that take productivity and collaboration to the next level.

Manage business today while you plan for tomorrow with Excel. Click to enlarge.

Give more polished, creative presentations with PowerPoint. Click to enlarge.

Create high-quality marketing materials like brochures, newsletters, flyers and more with Word. Click to enlarge.

My Day in Entourage 2008 provides a real-time snapshot of your schedule and to-do lists so you stay on track and on time. Click to enlarge.

With Publishing Layout View, you can proof and edit your documents precisely so they print without surprises. Click to enlarge.

Our best Office for your best business.

Only Office gives you this much compatibility.
Confidently share files with colleagues and clients no matter what version of Office they're running, even if they use Office for Windows.

Choose software that grows with your business.
Get a powerful suite designed to keep up with your company's growth. Find what basic users need and advanced users demand in one comprehensive package.

Save time and money with the world's most familiar software.
Choosing familiar software can be a great way to reduce time and money on training. Get up and running faster, and allocate the resources you save to other important areas of your business.

Upgrade and save.
You may be eligible to upgrade to Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition at a special discounted price. Licensed users of any Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition suite or application, or any Office for Mac 2001-2004 suite or application, are eligible for the discount. Plus, get Business Edition extras like Exchange Server support and Office Live Workspace to help you manage, create and collaborate more effectively and easily.

What's New About Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition?

Microsoft Office Live Workspace Support
Share files and collaborate on projects from virtually anywhere.

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services
Store and share documents, contacts, calendars and tasks in a single secure location.

Entourage 2008 Web Services Edition
Stay in sync on all your devices with Entourage 2008 Web Services Edition. Unlock the power of Microsoft Exchange Server (2007 or later versions) so you can sync your email, calendar and notes, between your desktop, laptop and Windows-based mobile phone.

Business templates, themes, and clip art
Look your most professional with customizable business templates that can make brochures, newsletters, and flyers stand out from the crowd. Apply your personal brand to any document with themes, then add the finishing touch with business-right illustrations and clip art.

Remote Desktop for Mac 2
Connect from your Mac to your Windows-based PC quickly and access files, applications, devices and networks with advanced security technology.

Free product training
Build your skills with beginner to advanced video based training from Lynda.com.

Highlights and Features

Collaborate and Connect
Your ability to share and communicate with others--regardless of Mac or PC platform--is critical to your success. Reach customers, prospects and partners more effectively with Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition.

• Stay in touch while on the go
  Sync your email, calendar and contacts via your in-house Exchange Server with ActiveSync.
• Count on cross-platform compatibility
  Use the same file format as Office for Windows and rely on a sophisticated graphics engine to help ensure accurate, consistent file sharing and printing.
• Access and share your files online
  Microsoft Office Live Workspace is a security-enhanced "virtual headquarters" where you can share work and collaborate online. For more complex projects, Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services support enables you store and share documents, contacts, calendars and tasks in a single secure location.
• Drive your Windows-based PC from the comfort of your Mac
  With Remote Desktop for Mac 2, you can quickly connect to your Windows-based PC to access files, applications, devices and networks.
• Take your show on the road
  Export presentations to your iPod or iPhone with PowerPoint 2008. Share your ideas or hold impromptu rehearsals wherever life takes you.

Create Effectively
Bring your ideas to life, put more of your personality into your projects and represent your brand exactly the way you intend. Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition gives you the design, marketing and communication tools to help you create professional-looking business materials you'll be proud of.

• Print-ready documents are a snap
  Save money, time and paper. Simple desktop publishing features in Word 2008 let you create high-quality newsletters, brochures and flyers. With Publishing Layout View, you can proof and edit your documents precisely so they print without surprises.
• Discover the flexibility of Word 2008
  Use the Outline view to organize all your information into a convenient, flexible format, or choose Notebook Layout View to capture text and audio notes on multiple topics.
• Work faster with your favorite tools
  Whether you're working in Word 2008, Excel 2008 or PowerPoint 2008, the Elements Gallery puts your most commonly used tools and functions at your fingertips so you can create documents more quickly.
• Quickly create and customize common business documents
  Start with updated templates in Word and Excel 2008, then get creative with easy-to-use Document Elements, Word Art and SmartArt tools. Add your personal brand to any document with Themes, using fonts, colors and graphics you choose and apply with a single click.
• Personalize mass mailings easily and efficiently
  The Mail Merge feature in Word 2008 lets you efficiently create materials for all your clients, so you can send a personal touch every time.

Manage Your Business
Growing a small business can be more than a full-time job. That's why Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition has updated programs and features that are ready to go to work immediately to help you save time and operate more professionally.

• Keep every day on track
  My Day in Entourage 2008 provides a real-time snapshot of your schedule and to-do lists so you stay on track and on time.
• Stay in sync, anywhere, anytime
  With Entourage 2008, your team can access and manage their email and calendars from any web connection--via Mac, PC or a Windows-based mobile device. With Office Live Workspace, they can quickly launch online folders tailored to the unique needs of each project. Now it's easy to co-author documents and share feedback anytime, online.
• Take control of your business finances
  Excel 2008 can help you manage your business finances like a pro. Clear, accessible templates, plus enhanced calculation and analysis functions, make it easier to monitor sales and billings.

Included Applications

• Word 2008 enables you to expand your creativity with confidence. Create high-quality marketing materials like brochures, newsletters, flyers and more with professionally designed, customizable templates. Even add cover pages and bibliographies. Add polish with business-right illustrations using SmartArt and hundreds of specially designed, business-oriented graphics.
• PowerPoint 2008 makes it easy to present like a pro. Give more polished, creative presentations. Save time and manage presentations better with Presenter Tools. Move about easily with Apple Remote and engage your audience while keeping your presentation running smoothly. Enhanced features like animation paths and animated GIFs are sure to make an impression.
• Excel 2008 helps you manage business today while you plan for tomorrow. Business growth requires financial planning, and Excel 2008 can help you reach your goals. Updated sorting, formatting and charting tools, together with improved formula-builder and error-finding functions, help you track your progress.
• Entourage 2008 empowers you to take control of project details. Project Center lets you quickly create, customize and track project-related emails, files, contacts and other important details, in one convenient location. Save your project on your server, and share the information through Entourage 2008.

Product Description

Whether you have a Mac or an Intel PC, you can swiftly manage your entire business with Office 2008 for Mac. This product includes user-friendly business software

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Upgrading Office on an old machine, September 15, 2009

By	korova (Varosha) - See all my reviews

I installed Office 2008 on my 1.25GHz G4 iMac, running System 10.5.8 . Since many reviewers of the earlier Office 2008 editions (Standard, Home & Student, and Media) have discussed the features of each Office application thoroughly, I am focusing this review on my experience of upgrading from Office v.X to Office 2008 on a PowerPC iMac.


Background:
*I have experience with several versions of Mac Office, beginning with version 4.2 . I also have used Office 98, Office 2001, and as mentioned above, Office v.X before upgrading to Office 2008.
*The way I use Office has changed over time. I made extensive use of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in graduate school and in various professional settings through Office 2001. Now I mostly use Excel to do basic financial analysis and Word to write personal documents.


Installation:
*Installation is straightforward, using Apple's familiar Installer mechanism. I prefer this method to the old drag-and-drop installation method because OS X is so sensitive to where things are installed.
*The installer program automatically finds older versions of Office and allows users to delete them easily.
*Many customized settings can be transferred from previous Office installations, including dictionaries, autocorrect lists, and proofing tool settings.
*Once Office 2008 is installed, several updates must be downloaded and installed. Microsoft should have made this process more user-friendly. Users must manually shut down other applications, including the Office 2008 Installer, before running the update installer.


Pros:
*Office is now a Universal Binary so the same program will run on both PowerPC and Intel Macs.
*An Uninstaller is placed in the Office folder automatically.
*Office will check for updates automatically on a schedule chosen by the user. No more messing around on the Microsoft website, hoping you didn't miss a Service Pack or Critical Update.
*Users can now turn the feedback sounds on and off. If hearing a chime, a popping bubble, or some other "cute" noise every time you did something drove you crazy, you will greatly appreciate this long overdue feature.
*Speaking of unnecessary cuteness, Clippy the Paperclip is gone! Yesssssss!


Cons:
*All the applications startup and quit slowly on a G4 machine. Office v.X applications started and quit virtually instantaneously (yes, I realize v.X was written specifically for PowerPC processors). Saving files is slow as well.
*Office 2008 uses a new file format that is not compatible with other versions of Office. If you send documents to people who are not fully up to date, you have to save a second version or limit yourself to working with the older file format.
*It's good that Microsoft no longer just ports Windows Office to the Mac. Nonetheless, there are user interface inconsistencies both within and across the applications which keep Office from feeling 100% Macintosh.
*Silverlight, Microsoft's attempt to compete with Macromedia Flash, is installed by default.
*WARNING FOR POWER USERS: No macros in Excel! Bad, bad, bad move. And no support for Visual Basic.


Bottom line: Office 2008 doesn't hold any surprises for experienced Office users. For the most part, everything still operates in the way to which you are accustomed. If you own a PowerPC Mac and use an older version of Office, you should carefully consider whether you want to upgrade or not. The benefits of the new features may be outweighed by the inconvenience of the slower performance and/or the need to adjust your workflow.

3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 due to the removal of macros and Visual Basic from Excel.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Last (Best?) Gasp of An Old School Mac App, November 28, 2009

By	Glenn R. Howes (Nashua, NH) - See all my reviews

First, I am going to attempt something different here. I'm a Mac programmer, I write commercial desktop apps for a living; I am not a regular user of Office like apps. Any document creation I might make is usually done in iWork '09 which is more than sufficient for my or most people's needs at a fraction of the price. So, I'm going to critique Microsoft Office from the point of view of someone in the industry, who has some understanding of the issues involved in creating an app like this.

The first thing about Mac Office is that it built on the older, obsolete, Carbon framework instead of Apple's modern framework Cocoa. In the short term, that does not affect the user much. It means that Office is not a 64-bit application and thus is marginally slower on Snow Leopard than it otherwise would be, and it is missing niceties that would be gotten for free.

For examples, if you open up the comments section of the document inspector in Apple's Pages application, contextual clicking will allow you to spell check your comment. There is no such contextual menu in the comments section of Microsoft Word, not because the iWork team is so much more detailed oriented than the Office team but because Cocoa programs get that menu for free. Similarly, there is no Special Characters palette option under the Word Edit menu (again free with the Cocoa framework.) If these were big deals, Microsoft could have added them with a man-month or so of development time. Multiply this 50x and you get an idea of the extra effort needed to do the little touches in Carbon.

In the long term, the lack of 64-bit Cocoa probably means this app will have a comparatively short usable life. At some point, Carbon apps will stop being supported under future versions of Mac OS X, perhaps in 5 or so years (just a guess), and they will almost certainly become buggier and buggier as Apple devotes less time to Carbon maintenance; something that is already showing up. Microsoft will have to move to Cocoa or another 64-bit capable framework in the meantime, forcing an upgrade on the user's part.

Part and parcel with being a Carbon application is that Microsoft has to roll their own UI elements in order to present a rich, modern interface. Of course, they would probably do so regardless under the theory that a distinct look adds value. And for the most part, I think they do a good job. It is not easy making the huge number of features present in Office and make them both accessible and discoverable, while still keeping the clutter down. The engineers at the Microsoft Mac Business Unit are given an impossible task, and they have muddled through pretty well.

Apple has been trying (pretty feebly) to move developers towards resolution independent interfaces, the idea being that in a future world of 300 dpi monitors, icons should not be tiny but the same size, just more beautifully rendered. Office is not ready for this transition and will have to be updated if Apple ever flips the switch. For example, the inspector palette gets badly laid out if resize while in a high interface resolution, and the whole interface is fuzzy. Again, this is just a matter of future proofing. When the day comes, I'm sure Microsoft will be happy to sell you an upgrade.

My big pet peave about the interface is the overuse of the two toned glass button motif. This is where a glass button is simulated by separating a button into a light upper half and a darker lower half. This is what makes iPhone buttons look like glass. The problem is its overuse and choosing top and bottom colors which have too much contrast, and also when the button is too short, it will just add to the visual clutter. I think something with less pop would have been better.

I do not like the main toolbar icons, they are at least 10 pixels on a side too small, and the resulting cramming of pixels are on the ugly side. This is a consequence of having so many features to expose, requiring more buttons per inch. I'm sure it was a hard call balancing between exposure and esthetics. There was no right answer here, but I will point out that iWork went the other way with an admirable restraint in the default number of main toolbar icons.

On an inside baseball note, I was surprised to see that buttons are pre-rendered with their background as .png files in the app package, as opposed to as a separate icon with a standard background. It would have been more flexible that way.

Microsoft Office has also broken a key covenent between Mac applications. In every previous release of Office before 2008, if another application put a PICT resource on the clipboard, the user pasted that into Word, and subsequently copied the same image from Word and pasted it into the originating application, the originating application would get its original PICT back. The application could then recreate the original selection and the user could edit the clipping. With 2008, Microsoft has stopped supporting PICT in favor of the vastly superior in every other way PDF format. This was the right thing to do, and Apple is to blame for not giving PDF the same capacity for vendor specific data PICT had. However, a lot of old school users will suddenly find their work flows of 20 years broken. So be warned.

I like the Font menu. This is a hard piece of GUI to get right due to the large number of fonts, possible performance issues with rendering so many fonts at once, and the need to guide users into choosing the right one for their needs.

I do not know this, but I would guess that in many ways the developers of Office are prisoners of their file formats. The one indisputable advantage they can claim over competing products is accuracy of reading the billions of Office documents floating around the universe. This competitive advantage allows them to charge what they do, but it also limits what they can do to add data types and other features if they have to figure out how to translate some new idea into something which can be serialized into an older format, and if not how can it be approximated. You will notice the emphasis on compatibility checking throughout any kind of document handling. I, myself, share responsibility for a fairly well known scientific document format, and it is no fun working around its limitations. So I have sympathy for the Office developers.

If I had to summarize this release, it is very much an interim product; something that had to get out the door to keep up with competing products but not the awesome product they could make if they threw away legacy and moved to a modern framework. I certainly wouldn't try to keep using Office 2004 on Snow Leopard, but expect to see a much nicer modern application in a few years.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Office done right on OS X but still too expensive, November 24, 2009

By	N. Hawkins "whereishawkins" (Chicago) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I've used Office for Windows for years, and for the last several months, have used Office 2008 for OS X at work. The Business Edition differs from the Home/Student Edition by offering Exchange Server support (necessary if you have a corporate email account running Exchange) and support for Sharepoint (we use this religiously at work for collaboration). If you don't need either of those, the Home/Student Edition will do fine.

Installation itself is rather simple. On a Macbook Pro, this takes a matter of minutes. If you have an older version of Office (2004, for instance), the install will find it and delete it and migrate settings over if you need it. It also runs AutoUpdate after installation, which will pull service packs for Office (which is now on SP2.)

Office 2008 is a universal binary program, so it will run on the older PowerPC Macs and the latest (since 2006 or so) Intel-based Macs. On older Macs, it seems more responsive than Office 2004 for basic functions like documents and PIM (Entourage). Entourage 2008 has replaced Outlook for me at work for months now, and I'm able to function just fine with the occasional quirk here and there.

Buying Office products suck. Fundamentally, not much has changed in the last 10+ years. I don't blame Microsoft, I blame the fact that word processing and office software has sort of hit the ceiling of what it can accomplish. There's nothing compelling to make a user upgrade but at the same time you can't save money by buying an older copy.

Apple reviewers tend to malign Microsoft products, but Microsoft's doing something right with this much market share. They make for a good punching bag too, but I think that they make decent products, all rhetoric aside. The price is still too much for some considering there's free alternatives out there (even iWork '09 is a good competitor and cheaper), and I suggest you try them out to find what works for you. Office 2008 is great and I'm glad to use it, but I definitely wouldn't buy the Business Edition unless there was a need for Exchange support.

Would I recommend Office 2008 if it were inexpensive (Home/Student Edition level pricing)? Yes.
Would I recommend Office 2008 for home users at $300 a copy? No. However, the $300 is worth it for enterprise users if you've got a corporate Exchange environment.