Office does not play nice with Spaces

[Jensen]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

I find that when I am trying to use Leopard's spaces feature with any of the Office 2008 applications that office windows will often arbitrarily jump from one space to another or disappear entirely.

Every other application I have works great with spaces, so I think this must be an office-specific issue. What gives? Using OS 10.5.3 Office 2008 12.1.1

 

[pepelton]

I have the same problem and it seems to be related to the Formatting Palette: if it is on, switching spaces makes Word very jumpy and it doesn't seem to know on which Space it should be located (actual Word window and Formatting Palette usually end up in different Spaces). Very annoying!

I'm running OSX 10.5.4 with Office 2008 12.1.1.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

That's a helpful clue! In general, no, Office and Spaces don't play
well together. Known issue. MS is working on it, I'm presuming that
involves pressuring Apple to make some tweaks also, but right now the
general advice is turn Spaces off.

It may be worth testing if just turning off the Formatting Palette is
enough to make it usable.

 

[Diane Ross]

I have similar problems with Adobe applications and Spaces. I have Spaces
turned off and use this method to hide applications.

Click on the Dock icon while holding the Option and Command keys. All
applications except that application will hide.

 

[Kevin_Murphy]

Thanks for the formatting palette hint - I shall try it. I find it pretty remarkable, however, that a number of months after both Leopard and Office 2008 hit the streets - and both have been through a number of fixes since - this remains an issue. Spaces was one of the key productivity improvements in Mac OS, and it's bizarre that the incompatibility with Office hasn't been addressed. It's driving me insane!

 

[Craig Roberts]

Thanks for the formatting palette hint - I shall try it. I find it pretty
remarkable, however, that a number of months after both Leopard and Office
2008 hit the streets - and both have been through a number of fixes since -
this remains an issue. Spaces was one of the key productivity improvements in
Mac OS, and it's bizarre that the incompatibility with Office hasn't been
addressed. It's driving me insane!

It would seem that Spaces does play dice as it is rather random ;-)

I missed the earlier comment about the "formatting palette", could someone
repost. Ta.

Craig.

 

[Kevin_Murphy]

Craig

Dalya suggested turning the Formatting Palette/Toolbox off, and this has worked for me.

On another matter, has anyone experienced Word windows suddenly halving in width for no apparent reason? I think this is yet another Spaces/Office 'issue'.

Kevin

 

[jones]

My office jumps around even with the toolbox/pallet turned off. The jumping around gets worse the more I attempt to switch between spaces. I spent close to three hours (over two days) on the phone with Mac reps and they told me it was an MSN problem and that they needed to fix it. I spent maybe twenty minutes on the phone with MSN reps and was told that it was an Apple problem and that they had to fix it. From the sounds of this it does not seem like either side is close to solving the problem with Spaces. I got the same advice about turing Spaces off but that hardly seems like a compromise to me. That's like being told to turn the radio up when you tell the mechanic your car is making a grinding noise. I honestly hope someone does better than this in the very near future as both products are on the expensive side and both should be able to be used to their fullest.

 

[Marnix]

Hi,
Having owned a Mac Book Pro for 1,5 weeks now and working with Office 2008 for Mac I experience the same annoying thing. It's in Word, Excel and Powerpoint. As long as I stay in one Space: no problem. When I change spaces the palet remains in the other space, but the border of the palet stays in the same space as the main office window. Clicking the border moves it to the Second space, from which you can drag the whole thing back to the original space.

Conlusion is: don't switch spaces while using Office or turn it off entirely. I have reported this as feedback to MS-mac and hopefully they can fix it! Coming from Vista with office 2007 I have become very charmed of office for mac!

 

[droppinoffice]

I have been waiting for this issue to get fixed by M$ for ages as it is
incredibly frustrating, so much so that wherever possible I now use iWork
apps. Apart from a few instances where lots of collaboration is req'd by
Win/Office people, iWork is perfectly capable for most instances.

M$ take note I can live without Office but cannot live with out Spaces, but
please pull your finger out before I kick office into touch.

 

[Diane Ross]

Conlusion is: don't switch spaces while using Office or turn it off entirely.
I have reported this as feedback to MS-mac and hopefully they can fix it!
Coming from Vista with office 2007 I have become very charmed of office for
mac!

Here's a Mac trick you might not know about. Hold Command-Option keys when
clicking on an application icon in the Dock and all other applications hide.

Now you have that application in it's own space.

 

[Marnix]

Here's a Mac trick you might not know about. Hold Command-Option keys
when clicking on an application icon in the Dock and all other applications
hide.





Now you have that application in it's own space.





-- Diane




Thank's for your reply. Unfortunately on my MacBook Pro (Dutch) and Office 2008 H&S Dutch this makes spaces switch between the space with the main Word window and the space with the palet instead of bringing the two together. Repeating this just keeps spaces switching between the two.

Marnix

 

[Diane Ross]

Thank's for your reply. Unfortunately on my MacBook Pro (Dutch) and Office
2008 H&S Dutch this makes spaces switch between the space with the main Word
window and the space with the palet instead of bringing the two together.
Repeating this just keeps spaces switching between the two.

Turn off Spaces and try the shortcut.