Office: Mac Question

[J English Smith]

What's the best version of Word for Mac to run in Mac OS 10.4.11? I was going to poke around and see if I could find a used copy of Office 2003, but I want to make sure that's the best match.

[Osgeld]

I dont know from a os-mac-ect perspective, but 2000, and 2003 are good office packages, 2007 is good too, if you get used to that (whatever they call it) interface and set all the defaults to use the non xml file formats, and get used to all the wonkyness they slapped in excel

[NeverGoBack88]

Hi, I use a 20" G4 iMac and 12" G4 PowerBook both running Tiger's last update that you mention, 10.4.11, and running Office 2004 for Mac's Word, as well as Excel and PowerPoint. I don't think there is a specific Mac-version of "Office 2003" as you mention, I don't ever remember seeing one, that's sounds like a PC version year update, often not in sync with a Mac release. I highly recommend Office 2004 with Tiger 10.4.11.

• Office has always been an 800-lb gorilla, bloated with feature gak many users never need, although it does serve power-users pretty well.
• I used Office 98 back in the OS 9 days and really loved it.
• Then Microsoft really screwed the pooch with Office v.X, back around 2001 or so when OS X came out, a real mess, and remapped many keyboard command combinations (without including a user-(re)mapping feature, but solved it with 2004) in order to "unify" similar functions between programs, which drove me crazy in Excel because my fingers had been doing many many specific combinations since v1.5 in 1988 and I still can't adjust. The customizable toolbar has helped with a lot of deep menu commands to eliminate keyboard commands.
• I have not upgraded to the current Office 2008, simply because I don't need more bloatware, nor can I justify spending the $$$, nor do I need the new features. Also remember that Office 2008 came out in the Intel + Leopard era and in many ways addresses issues there which don't exist under Tiger.
• If you really only need Word primarily, consider looking for a Student/Teacher Edition of Office 2004 on eBay or something. Perhaps even just Word from that version, if they sold it alone, I can't recall.

Good luck!

[J English Smith]

Thanks, Never, that is exactly the advice I was looking for. I do have Word 98 and it runs in classic mode on this Pismo, but I'm having odd trouble with key delay and repeating letters. If that doesn't resolve, I will have to get 2004 version that will run native in OS X. The problem with 98 is odd as this Pismo has 512k RAM...would think that would be enough not to have problems with the classic mode, but oh well. I'm with you, less is more when it comes to word processors, I just want file compatibility with the rest of the world beyond a pure text file...

[thinkdifferent]

What's the best version of Word for Mac to run in Mac OS 10.4.11? I was going to poke around and see if I could find a used copy of Office 2003, but I want to make sure that's the best match.

The Mac versions of Office are Office 98, Office 2001, Office 2004, and Office 2008. Office 98 works just fine for me. I also have Office 2004, on my MacBook. I wouldn't recommend Office 2008, simply because of its size and slow load time. You should also see if you can find a copy of Word 5.1, released in 1992. You can run it in Tiger's classic mode.

[Mycatisbigfoot]

What's the best version of Word for Mac to run in Mac OS 10.4.11? I was going to poke around and see if I could find a used copy of Office 2003, but I want to make sure that's the best match.

There is no office 2003 for mac it was a windows porgram, (win200,XP,Vista,7)

I would look at getting open office if you need to be cheap, if you need something that publisher\Word , as well as lots of keynoted get I-work, it Mixes with all of the I-life apps,

but I hope find what you want,

Openoffice.ca
Apple.com/Iwork
www.microsoft.com/mac/products/Office2008/default.mspx

But if you just need something very very basic, you should look at the built in Text edit, and it does have spell check. Windows never had that or will

[J English Smith]

Open Office looks very very promising - may be just what the Doctor ordered! I got x11 installed yesterday from my Tiger disk and then got OO to open ok - interface seems very similar to Word...most importantly, the save options seem very robust.

I was bidding on a Office 2001 disk on eBay, but let a higher bid take it for the time being. The OO looked that good.

Thanks for all of the advice and the clarifications re versions. As I hadn't purchased Office in some time, my confusion between Mac updated versions and Windows versions was profound. I'm still using my Office 2000 disk at home for my PCs - it installed in Win 7 with no muss, no fuss, interestingly enough.

(If it wasn't for the key delay/repeat problem running in Classic on the Pismo, I'd be fine with Word 98 functionality. Except I hate the little help guy with a passion, and that hurts, because it's a little Classic with legs and all.)

[MultiFinder]

Office X is still decent, and less resource-intensive than later versions.

[J English Smith]

Thanks. I may be able to snag an upgrade disk for that. Should update from a Word 98 product, I would think...?!?

[beachycove]

I would look for Office 2004, and not any earlier version, mainly as MS has a free utility that allows you to read docx etc. files in it. That alone, apart from numerous interface enhancements, makes it worth the trouble to find and the small extra expense to purchase. Office X (2001 in an earlier post) is not what you should go for if what you want is maximum compatibility, though it is a much more Mac-like version of Office in its "Classic" (as opposed to OSX) form.

Office 2008 will even read Word 5.1 files very nicely, as will Office 2004 (rather more easily than Office 2008, in fact); either of the two, or indeed Office 2001/ Office X, will read your Office 98 files seamlessly.

Say what you like about MicroSoft; in their Office products, they have done us a huge service by maintaining excellent levels of compatibility between old and new versions of the software, as well as between the versions running on Windows and the different versions of the MacOS. For that reason alone the MS Office product (for anyone who works in an office or in education etc.) is indispensable.

I do not especially admire the way Word, for example, works, but I could not function on the Mac without it.

And Bill Gates is a saint by comparison with His Holiness, even though the latter at times assumes the aura of the ascetic.

[Mycatisbigfoot]

hey glad you went with open office, I do not use it much but I did know it saves as MS word files as well as is new, well and free! so thats why i suggested it