Microsoft Office 2008 Mac debuts with some serious issues
28/01/08 09:04 Filed in: News
The long-awaited PowerPC and Intel native revision of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac is starting to reach users in the US, and early reports are coming in of a number of significant functionality and compatibility issues. These include:
• Office 2008 is incompatible with Spaces in Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5). Files formatted with .docx (the new standard format for Word documents) cannot be dragged into new spaces, instead snapping back to the original space.
• Word 2008 crashing. There have been a number of causes identified for this, including the Normal template file (located at ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/Normal.dotm) appearing to be corrupt in many cases, corrupt Microsoft preferences and corrupted Microsoft fonts resulting from upgrade installations.
• Word 2008 crashing when attempting document window resize and after prolonged activity in Headers and Footers.
• Entourage 2008 does not offer full support for Exchange services, including the ability to synchronize notes or tasks with Exchange servers, view multiple calendars side-by-side, and the ability to see receipts when a recipient opens an email.
• Office 2008 package (installer) sets certain file ownership permissions incorrectly, so that the Administrator user (the initial set-up user ID 501) is not the owner, but the next sequential account user (ID 502) is, regardless of whether they exist or not.
• Some Office 2008 applications may exhibit some significant font display issues, in which some letters are rendered incorrectly (eg: C rendered as A). There are also reports of a knock-on effect with other non-Microsoft applications that use the same Microsoft-installed fonts.
• Entourage 2008 is reported to be ignoring Entourage 2004 Rules by some users.
• Office 2008 no longer supports VBA Macros at this time. Files containing macros can be opened, but the macros can't be run.
• Entourage 2008 does not support Exchange's native MAPI protocol.
There are a number of workarounds and fixes emerging to counter some of the installation-specific issues - and I would hope to see Microsoft issue an update to address them in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, you need to be aware that upgrading to Office 2008 from previous versions of Office may cause you significant problems.
UPDATE: Microsoft has posted 'official lists' of known issues for Office 2008 components: Word - Excel - Entourage - PowerPoint
UPDATE: Office 2008 is scheduled to ship in Australia on 31st January. There is a free ( + $27.00 postage & handling) upgrade available for purchasers of Office 2004 between 26th September 2007 and 29th February 2008. Full details and redemption form are to be found here.
• Office 2008 is incompatible with Spaces in Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5). Files formatted with .docx (the new standard format for Word documents) cannot be dragged into new spaces, instead snapping back to the original space.
• Word 2008 crashing. There have been a number of causes identified for this, including the Normal template file (located at ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/Normal.dotm) appearing to be corrupt in many cases, corrupt Microsoft preferences and corrupted Microsoft fonts resulting from upgrade installations.
• Word 2008 crashing when attempting document window resize and after prolonged activity in Headers and Footers.
• Entourage 2008 does not offer full support for Exchange services, including the ability to synchronize notes or tasks with Exchange servers, view multiple calendars side-by-side, and the ability to see receipts when a recipient opens an email.
• Office 2008 package (installer) sets certain file ownership permissions incorrectly, so that the Administrator user (the initial set-up user ID 501) is not the owner, but the next sequential account user (ID 502) is, regardless of whether they exist or not.
• Some Office 2008 applications may exhibit some significant font display issues, in which some letters are rendered incorrectly (eg: C rendered as A). There are also reports of a knock-on effect with other non-Microsoft applications that use the same Microsoft-installed fonts.
• Entourage 2008 is reported to be ignoring Entourage 2004 Rules by some users.
• Office 2008 no longer supports VBA Macros at this time. Files containing macros can be opened, but the macros can't be run.
• Entourage 2008 does not support Exchange's native MAPI protocol.
There are a number of workarounds and fixes emerging to counter some of the installation-specific issues - and I would hope to see Microsoft issue an update to address them in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, you need to be aware that upgrading to Office 2008 from previous versions of Office may cause you significant problems.
UPDATE: Microsoft has posted 'official lists' of known issues for Office 2008 components: Word - Excel - Entourage - PowerPoint
UPDATE: Office 2008 is scheduled to ship in Australia on 31st January. There is a free ( + $27.00 postage & handling) upgrade available for purchasers of Office 2004 between 26th September 2007 and 29th February 2008. Full details and redemption form are to be found here.