By Matthew Fordahl
Associated Press
Apple’s new operating system, Mac OS X, is a work of art.
It’s fast, and a Unix base provides stability. But the lack of compatible software long prevented Apple from winning converts from the Windows-based PC world and even thwarted Mac users who wanted to upgrade from Mac OS 9.
Now, a new office productivity suite makes the strongest case yet for a switch. And it’s from Microsoft Corp.
Making good on a promise that came with a $150 million investment in Apple five years ago, Microsoft has released Office X, the latest version of its ubiquitous office suite.
It contains the familiar names from earlier versions: Word for word processing, Excel for spreadsheets and PowerPoint for presentations. It also has an e-mail and organizer program dubbed Entourage.
Fundamentally, the features differ little from Office XP for Windows or earlier Mac operating systems. But this suite is not backward compatible. It only runs on Apple’s new operating system.
That alone will score points for the Mac faithful who ran the last version of Office in Mac OS X’s slow compatibility mode.
In the Microsoft tradition, the suite carries a high price: $499 for a complete copy or $299 for an upgrade. Apple offers an alternative for starving students, the $79 AppleWorks suite.
The biggest change in Office X is the look.
Microsoft developers captured the feel of Apple’s new operating system and its "Aqua" interface, from ever-so-slightly transparent menus to 700 crisp new icons. Dialogue box buttons look like jelly beans.
Unlike older Office versions for Macs or PCs, the charts and graphics also can be made semitransparent. Documents appear professionally produced.
Office X’s programs have inherited OS X’s stability. During my tests, there were no unexpected freezes or crashes.
Most dialogue boxes no longer prevent the rest of the program from being used until a choice is made. Other files can be opened while the dialogue box patiently awaits input.
A context-sensitive palette also makes finding features easier — mirroring functions in Adobe and Macromedia programs. The palette eliminates the need to browse through menus or interpret arcane toolbar icons.
Better yet, the Microsoft Mac team did not include the underhanded activation scheme found in Office XP and Windows XP, where users must send information back to Microsoft or face deactivation of their software.
Office X also does not include Smart Tags, an Office XP feature that links text in one document to information in others or on the Internet.
Documents produced in Office X can be shared with Windows PCs and older Macs. And Apple wisely improved the Mac’s ability to communicate on a Windows network.
I merged data from an Excel worksheet into a form letter in Word. It worked flawlessly — even after I transferred everything back to my Windows computer.
Entourage, Office’s e-mail and personal organizer, underwent the greatest number of changes since Mac Office 2001. Its various features — whether a list of tasks, e-mails, calendar settings, notes or address books — are easily accessible from the main page.
A number of Wordlike editing features are available, including identifying misspelled words and multiple undo.
There are some limitations, including the lack of support for synching with a Palm hand-held computer. It also lacks some of Outlook 2001’s groupware features popular with businesses.
A couple of applications from the PC version are missing from the Mac suite, including the relational database program Access and the Web site editor FrontPage. Office X’s Excel can import data from the popular non-Microsoft database program Filemaker Pro.
Another minor annoyance is the ugly "office assistant" that popped on the screen when I sought online help. It doesn’t fit into the stylish environment, though it’s not as annoying as the animated paper clip in some Windows versions.
Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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