Shortcomings of Macintosh Office 2004

[Tim Murray]

I've been playing with the Preview version in Panther and while it has some
nifty new features (I'm assuming, but I can't think of any other than long
file names), there are (still) some annoying shortcomings. Just thought I'd
rant a bit!

IN WORD ============================

You still can't delete Heading N styles.

When you do a Insert > Picture > From File, you get that usual dialog to
locate your file. Problem is that in a multicolumn view, you can't change
column widths. You can widen the entire dialog ... merely giving you a number
of useless blank columns on the right.

An Insert > Picture > From file always selects Save With Document. I'd prefer
it to remember the previous choice, or provide a preference.

The Insert > Picture > From File dialog box doesn't conform to the keyboard
usage standards (tab, space, etc.).

Word still places that death grip on linked files. For example, say you
import a graphic into a doc and then open the graphic in a graphics program.
If you try to save the graphic you can't because it's locked by Word ... even
if you close the document. You must exit Word.

Word's issues with screwing up graphics it relinks is still there.

Doing a Font Substitution still doesn't always "take". In other words, if you
replace A with B, when you come back to the dialog, A is still there.

IN POWERPOINT ======================

Doing a Replace Font still doesn't always "take". In other words, if you
replace A with B, when you come back to the dialog, A is still there.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Tim,

As you know, anyone who has the preview is not allowed to make public
comments about features until certain date deadlines have passed.

Also, the preview version is a beta version that may differ from the
released version, so it might be worthwhile to hold off until you've had
a chance to try these things on the actually released version. There's
no sense talking about problems that might not exist in the final product.

Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

 

[Tim Murray]

As you know, anyone who has the preview is not allowed to make public

comments about features until certain date deadlines have passed.

Yeah, you're right. I was at a friend's house who had it. I don't know where
she got it, but she didn't say it was a beta, only that is was some kind of
marketing preview. I brought over some files of projects I'm working on in
v.X and spent a few hours trying some things out. I was over there yesterday
and discovered some new "issues" but I'll keep mum.

In the back of my mind ... no, the front, really ... I was hoping that some
of my observations would find their way back to Microsoft.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Yeah, you're right. I was at a friend's house who had it. I don't know where
she got it, but she didn't say it was a beta, only that is was some kind of
marketing preview. I brought over some files of projects I'm working on in
v.X and spent a few hours trying some things out. I was over there yesterday
and discovered some new "issues" but I'll keep mum.

I can tell you for certain that the marketing preview is *not* the
version that will ship in May. I can't tell you much else, since I don't
have a copy of the shipping version.

In the back of my mind ... no, the front, really ... I was hoping that some
of my observations would find their way back to Microsoft.

MacBU certainly welcomes feedback - the best way to give it is to use
Help/Feedback on <application> in the main menu of any Office v.X (or
2004) application.

That's likely to be far more effective than posting in a peer-to-peer
newsgroup, which the Softies haven't had much time to read lately -
either due to scrambling to finalize 2004, or taking a short breather
after the big push.