THE MAC GETS A NEW OFFICE

While the irony that Microsoft actually makes Office for Mac does not escape most of us, the fact of the matter is that most first time Mac users flock to the Apple version of the productivity suite purely to stay “compatible”, maybe even hold on to the last vestiges of their Windows existence! And while Microsoft had launched multiple versions for the Mac in the past, the features and the look-and-feel trailed behind the Windows versions. With Office for Mac 2011, Microsoft has taken some massive strides in updating both the usability elements of the suite and bringing in much needed applications and features.

GETTING STARTED

Office for Mac 2011 is available in two versions: a Home and Student version and a Home and Business version. But you’d want the latter if you’re looking for the Outlook e-mail client (Word, Excel PowerPoint are common to both). While the install is textbook-style, keep in mind that the installer does not overwrite previous versions like Office for Mac 2008 (if it is installed), and you’re left to deal with two icons for each application in the dock. Also, you’ll need Mac OS 10.5 Leopard(or later). That said, you’ll immediately notice performance improvements across the board—all of the apps open much faster than in previous versions, and remain responsive at all times.

THE RIBBON

The world is divided into two camps—those who love the ribbon and those who despise it. But both seem to agree that it does let you access your most common features in a much quicker manner. With Office for Mac 2011, Microsoft has beautifully integrated the ribbon in all the applications, so if you’re a fan of the cleaner Apple interfaces, it can be visually overwhelming. Fortunately, you can hide the tab or customise it to contain only the elements you need.

EXCEL 2011

Visual overhaul aside, Excel 2011 gets all of the nifty features we loved in Excel 2010 for Windows— “sparklines”, which let you add single-cell charts for graphic visualisation of data in a row or column without the need for charts, as well as Excel’s eye-catching conditional formatting features and a ton of excellent stock templates for data representation. Most previous features are heavily improved, including Pivot Tables, which are now significantly easy to use. Microsoft has slowed down scrolling speeds in Excel based on user feedback, but this may not be to your liking, especially if you use and love Excel on Windows.

WORD 2011

Word for the Mac finally matches Word for Windows, and pulls a few extra features out of the bag as well. There’s a radi- cally redesigned full-screen view, apart from the significantly improved collaboration tools that are commonplace on the Windows version. New to Word, Excel and PowerPoint is the Templates Gallery, which gives you immense range in terms of calendars to invoices to resume formats, as also access to an online portal where user-submitted templates can be found. However, the biggest inclusion is one most won’t even see—the return of Visual Basic for Applications automation language that had disappeared from Office in previous iterations. It’s back, and mostly all macros you’d have written (if at all) for the Windows version work fine.

POWERPOINT 2011

PowerPoint 2011 brings in the excellent built-in picture-editing tools that made it big in the Windows version, as well as the ability to embed movies into slides and the option to use a Microsoft-provided Web server to broadcast your presentations over the Web. Keep in mind that unlike the Windows version, you cannot edit videos inside PowerPoint—you’ll still have to drop out of PowerPoint to make the edits. Folks looking to meet Keynote’s high standards in transition effects will still be disappointed though it has to be said that PowerPoint for the Mac is now good enough for Mac Office users not to suffer from presentation envy.

OUTLOOK 2011

The Outlook 2011 for the Mac replaces the Entourage mail client and comes with some features over and above the Windows version that uniquely suit the Mac environment. For instance, it works better with Apple’s built-in Time Machine backup software, and also lets OS X’s Spotlight search tool search Outlook messages in a faster and more efficient way. In that sense, it shares almost no DNA with Entourage, so migration from a Windows environment gets many magnitudes easier with this version. The unified inbox, threaded conversations and the ‘clean up’marquee features all make an entrance in this version. Downsides include support only for Exchange Server 2007 or later, so previous version Exchange users may well hold on to Entourage for that.

WEB APPLICATIONS

Office Web Apps made its entry on the PC side in Office 2010, and with Office for Mac 2011, web apps make an entry for the Mac version as well. Much like Google Docs, the web-based versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel let users edit, coedit and create documents in real time with others, working off documents stored on Microsofy Skydrive or a SharePoint server. The web apps retain the look and feel of the desktop apps.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, Office for Mac 2011 is undeniably an exciting upgrade—you get a ton of new features, new look-and-feel and faster performance. Purists may argue that it doesn’t follow Apple’s minimalistic design philosophy and is too ‘busy’, but the integration with Mac OS X is much closer than before, and I’d clearly recommend this as a must-buy to folks who are moving to a Mac.