Microsoft Office Standard Student and Teacher Edition 2004 Macintosh

Manufacturer:	Microsoft
Release date:	10 May, 2004

Microsoft Office Standard Student and Teacher Edition 2004 Macintosh

Average rating: Stars

Better than Windows Word

Now I don't usually say this, but Microsoft did a great job. Able to work seamlessly with Office for Windows, Office 2004 for Macintosh is even better than it's Windows equivilent. I've never been a fan of Appleworks, and honestly, it's not as good as Office, the standard for word processing.

The problem with Office (and with many Microsoft applications) is that it is such a huge peice of software, most, if not all, users don't use it to it's full extent. There are many capabilities and tricks that we just aren't aware of. Enter Apple and the beautiful simplicity and strength of OS X. Office becomes simpler, more user friendly, and extremely reliable. I don't think that it would be too bold to say that this is the best word processing avialable.

This is a must have for students, educators, any one who is in need of word processing for a Mac. If you really need to be convinced, download the free 30-day trial from Mactopia, Microsoft's all Mac website. Use the following address:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/default.aspx?pid=office2004td

You won't be disappointed.

Microsoft Office Standard Student and Teacher Edition 2004 Macintosh - Microsoft

Best MS-Office so far... but hardly the best office suite.

Coming from 15 years of working with Windows, it is sheer joy to work on Mac OS X (yes, I am one of the highly vaunted switchers! - No, i did not just recently grow a brain... I work as an IT professional, and until OS X, the Mac did not allow me to do my job as an NT admin. I got laid off due to the glut of Windows IT pros and am changing careers to web design, where the Mac easily outshines windows in every single imaginable way!). I have since decided to get a BS BS in Interactive Media Design at Art Institute of Pittsburgh to step my career up further, and the school requires I use MS Office for some projects. I have OpenOffice, but hate... ABSOLUTELY HATE, the Java interface, so I decided to buy the student version of MS Office for Mac despite my years of utter distaste for MS Office as a whole.

Once installed, I was really quite pleasantly surprised to see that MS Office 2004 for Mac is ten times better than MS Office 2003 for Windows. Much cleaner, more logical interface, less cluttered, though stil la long ways off from clean and uncluttered. Some things are a little odd, but nothing I could scream about.

Overall, MS-Office 2004 for Mac is easily the very best MS-Office suite ever, and is made that much better by the total lack of that incredible pile-o-crap, Outlook. I can't say anything about Entourage, as I have no need for it, so I have never launched it, and most likely never will.

But, is MS-Office the best office suite ever? Hardly! If Apple's iWork included a spreadsheet program with the slick, simple and surprisingly powerful Pages and KeyNote 2, that would be my choice for best office suite, hands down. In fact, after getting a free trial of iWork when I upgraded to Tiger, I went out and bought a copy (it's a measly $79), and use it far more. I would not need office except for Excel, and to ensure file compatibility with my page layouts.

Microsoft - Microsoft Office Standard Student and Teacher Edition 2004 Macintosh

Good, but free substitutes are available

Microsoft did a pretty good job with its office products. They are easy to use, powerful and versatile. Between Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, you can get al;; your office needs met, whether you are a beginner, student, or a professional
The best feature of the Microsoft Office suite is Outlook. It combines an easy to use calendar, email program that can handle multiple email accounts, task lists, and many other features that are just right if you need an all-in-one organizer.

HOWEVER ---

One of the other reviewers mentions that "the bottom line is value... why pay retail?" My question is - why pay at all? There is a FREE office suite called Open Office that you can download (again, for free, and legally). All you have to do is Google Open Office, and you will find the website. Granted, Open Office is not as good as Microsoft Office, but it is quite close. If you are looking for basic word processing, presentation software, and spreadsheet package, and if you do not require advanced features and your budget is tight, Open Office would be perfect for you.

Open Office is available for the Macintosh platform, a well as for Windows, Solaris, and Linux.