Microsoft Releases Free Office 2008 Trial and Updates for Office 2008 and 2004

This is nice. I prefer to try it before I buy it. I think that it is a little late in the game though. Office 2008 has been out for a long time now.

Switch to iWorks o9

Too bad it didn't fix the Spaces issue--better luck next time MSFT.

Too bad it didn't fix the Spaces issue--better luck next time MSFT.

The Spaces issue isn't ours to solve. It's Apple's. We've shown them our code and they can't suggest a complete fix for it. For the deep gory technical details of the problem, check out this blog post from one of our senior developers: risks and rewards.

Regards,
Nadyne.

I wonder if this will be the one to fix the Sync Services major problem with iCal??? :)

The Spaces issue isn't ours to solve. It's Apple's. We've shown them our code and they can't suggest a complete fix for it. For the deep gory technical details of the problem, check out this blog post from one of our senior developers: risks and rewards.

Regards,
Nadyne.

Thanks for the details. It's just a bit strange that every other program on my Mac works perfectly fine (including Office 2004).

"However, changing our windowing system to not use Carbon Window Groups entails a complete rewrite, and is not something we can feasibly do in a bug-fix release."

I think MSFT should have looked into rewriting that code before upping it to 2008 as many people I know are switching to iWork on their Macs (including myself sadly, though it's happening very gradually right now)

The 30 day free trial is a REALLY good idea. I have & use Office 2004 which works fine for my needs, but I will certainly give the 2008 version a free look and see if it sells me and if it doesn't, no loss. I like the approach here.

The Spaces issue isn't ours to solve. It's Apple's. We've shown them our code and they can't suggest a complete fix for it. For the deep gory technical details of the problem, check out this blog post from one of our senior developers: risks and rewards.

Regards,
Nadyne.

Nadyne, I wish I had a nickel for every time I have seen you have to post this explanation regarding the Spaces issues because some folks still don't get it.... I cannot even imagine how frustrating it is on your end.

Thanks for the details. It's just a bit strange that every other program on my Mac works perfectly fine (including Office 2004).

"However, changing our windowing system to not use Carbon Window Groups entails a complete rewrite, and is not something we can feasibly do in a bug-fix release."

I think MSFT should have looked into rewriting that code before upping it to 2008 as many people I know are switching to iWork on their Macs (including myself sadly, though it's happening very gradually right now)

Agree with duky. All this does is push a Mac base accustomed to a certain UI towards solutions that conform to those expectations. And hey, maybe a code rewrite isn't a bad thing...then maybe it wouldn't take 10 bounces for Word to open and I wouldn't have to wonder why it's faster to emulate 2007 in Win7 beta via VMWare. Or is that the point? :eek:

The Spaces issue isn't ours to solve. It's Apple's. We've shown them our code and they can't suggest a complete fix for it. For the deep gory technical details of the problem, check out this blog post from one of our senior developers: risks and rewards.

Regards,
Nadyne.

WOW you sound Crabby :eek: , Maybe you should go work for apple. :apple:

Thanks for the details. It's just a bit strange that every other program on my Mac works perfectly fine (including Office 2004).

We're not the only app that has the problem. Any Carbon app that uses Window Groups has the same issue. Our use of Window Groups is more extensive than many other applications, and our apps are used by lots of people, so the problem is the most obvious for us. :(

I think MSFT should have looked into rewriting that code before upping it to 2008 as many people I know are switching to iWork on their Macs (including myself sadly, though it's happening very gradually right now)

Leopard was released at the end of October 2007, and Office 2008 was released two months later. Apple was aware of the problem, and we were aware of the problem. We were working closely with Apple to try to figure out exactly what each of us could do to try to fix it.

There have been some improvements, both in subsequent updates to Office 2008 and Leopard. We've got a great relationship with Apple, and they know how important this is to those users who use Spaces, so we continue to try to make this better. I'm a Spaces user myself, and getting this fixed would make a huge difference to me too.

Regards,
Nadyne.