Software Review: Office 2008 for Mac

Mac-using mental health practitioners now have more choice than ever before when it comes to office software. Our review covers the high points of Microsoft’s latest suite, the changing competitive landscape, and a few gotchas with the 2008 update.

As a Universal binary, the Microsoft Office suite now runs natively on Intel Macs, offering a big step up in performance for those on Intel-based machines. Visually elegant interface changes appear throughout the suite, and new or intermediate users will now find it easier than ever to discover and apply the software’s capabilities.

Overall, Office 2008 is a solid update which manages to achieve a great deal through interface changes. Microsoft has succeeded in exposing more of the underlying power of the applications, and some of the new features — e.g., Smart Art Graphics when used within PowerPoint — can make a real difference to the final result of a given amount of work.

For some environments, however, the elimination of Visual Basic for Applications will be a deal-breaker (or, at least, a good reason for keeping Office 2004 around too). And while some users may never encounter some new problems with copy and paste, for others these may prove to be a real headache.

Behind all this is a competitive landscape which has shifted significantly since Office 2004, however, and some users in small mental health practices may find Microsoft Office less indispensable than it once was.

Check out our full review of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac to help decide if this latest update is for you.

All clinical material on this site is peer reviewed by one or more clinical psychologists or other qualified mental health professionals. This specific article was originally published by on and was last reviewed or updated by Dr Greg Mulhauser, Managing Editor on .

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