Microsoft Office 2008 for Providers

Important note: this document is designed for Local Support Providers (LSPs). This page was last modified on Wednesday, 16-Jan-2008 09:22:26 EST.

On January 15th, 2008 Microsoft released Office 2008 for Mac OS, the latest version of this software suite which includes applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage. Microsoft has rewritten and modernized the codebase of Office, providing an updated interface, increased cross-platform compatibility, and the addition of some new features.

Office 2008 uses the same new default file formats that Office 2007 for Windows introduced (examples include .docx instead of .doc for Word and .xlsx instead of .xls for Excel) and that older versions of Office for Windows and Office for Macintosh cannot understand. Early adopters of Office 2008 therefore are advised to use the Save As feature to save files in the formats that older Mac OS and Windows versions understand, especially if they need to share files with other people or applications. A beta converter for Word for Mac is available, but Mac OS users with older versions of Office can't open Excel 2007 or PowerPoint 2007 files at this time. Users of Office 2000, XP, and 2003 for Windows can install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack to read Office 2008 files in their default format.

Provider note: please consult this Provider Notes Wiki article for detailed information on Office file formats and compatibility.

Office 2008 is compatible with Mac OS 10.5 Leopard and Mac OS 10.4 Tiger (10.4.9 and above). Note that Office 2008 will not install or function on systems running Mac OS 10.3 Panther.

Information Systems & Computing (ISC) will support the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage components of Office 2008 for its clients, including off-campus students. ISC recommends that most users adopt a "wait and see" approach, continuing to use previous versions of Office until after the initial bugs in Office 2008 are identified and fixed, which is often coincides with the first product update.

Provider note: ISC expects to place the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage components of Microsoft Office 2008 on the supported products list for FY 2009.

ISC suggests the following minimum system requirements for Microsoft Office 2008:

• 1.0 GB of RAM
• 1.1 GHz processor
• between 1.0 GB and 1.5 GB of free hard drive space

Provider note: a full installation of Office 2008 on a fully patched Mac OS 10.4 system took 1.1 GB.

Three Different Editions

Office 2008 is available in three different editions from the Computer Connection.

• Office 2008 Home and Student, which includes full versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but not the full, Microsoft Exchange-compatible version of Entourage - this lack of capability to usefully connect to Exchange servers will probably matter to many potential users. The Home and Student version is only available to qualified educational users and only as a full version (not as an upgrade). It is available for $145 (educational pricing).
• Office 2008, which includes full versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage, and is available as both a full and and upgrade version. The full version is available for $395 (there is no educational pricing).
• Office 2008 Special Media Edition, which includes full versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Entourage, and Expression Media (formally iView's Media Pro), and is available as both a full and and upgrade version. The full version is available for $495 (there is no educational pricing).

Microsoft software is available to University of Pennsylvania departments through the Microsoft Select Program, a volume license agreement. A detailed description of the Microsoft Program including product information and a FAQ has been prepared by the Office of Software Licensing. All purchases of Microsoft Select software are made through the Computer Connection.

Analysis

Office 2008 is an evolutionary revision of Microsoft's application suite, but it is still a significant one. The complete code rewrite (the first since Office 98) puts Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit (MBU) in a good position going forward to add features and maintain reliability. It also add significant speed for users of modern Macs with Intel processors.

Some things have been lost in the update, however. In particular, there is no longer any Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) support, so users who are dependent on complex macros should investigate before upgrading.

Of the changes in Office 2008 that will prove most valuable to the University's Mac OS users, the updates to the full version of Entourage stand out. Entourage 2008 adds Out of Office support equivalent to that of Outlook 2007, enhances scheduling support, and increases general reliability with Exchange.

Users of Office 2008 will also enjoy full file compatibility with users of Office 2007 for Windows, along a more generally Mac OS X-centric look, more flexible charting in Excel, better graphics in PowerPoint, and improved font controls in Word.

--John Mulhern III, Senior Project Leader, ISC Technology Support Services (January 15, 2008)