When will Word 2007 be out for the Macintosh?

[David W. Barnes]

Anyone know?

 

[Michel Bintener]

Microsoft has announced that it is going to be released during the second
half of 2007. That's pretty vague, but it's the only information we've got
right now. Also, the product is going to be called Word 2008.

Anyone know?

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***

 

[Phillip Jones]

Mac products are always a year behind times.

Microsoft has announced that it is going to be released during the second
half of 2007. That's pretty vague, but it's the only information we've got
right now. Also, the product is going to be called Word 2008.

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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[Clive Huggan]

Do you think there is a conspiracy there, Phillip?

Clive Huggan
============

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Do you think the fact that Microsft fixes so few of the glaring errors in
its software is a result of its sloppiness?

Peter Jamieson

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

He might, but I don't

<rant>
The majority of the glaring errors in Microsoft products were put there by
the Marketing Department. Most of them are DESIGNED in.

They're not accidents, and they won't take them out because they're not
allowed to.

For example: Templates are unworkable in Word. Someone who knows Macs well
but does not use Word much mandated that they produce the current behaviour.
Now, they're not allowed to change it, and because the one person who likes
it that way doesn't use Word, they will never understand the problem

The departure of VBA is not *our* problem, it's the guys on the PC side
doing the wrong thing! They got bullied by the Fortune 500 customers into
retaining VBA. VBA was always intended to go away because you cannot secure
it against mal-ware. It was planned to remove VBA from both Mac and PC
Word, but the PC guys caved

The lack of automatic save in Word goes back YEARS to the time when someone
decided that Word would be too slow if they did a proper save every ten
minutes. On today's hardware, that's a ridiculous idea, but because the
design decision is now cast in stone, we cannot get them to change it.

There are actually very few "errors", "mistakes", or omissions in the code
produced by Microsoft. But there are several hundred in the design
documents. It's not "sloppiness", it's "intentional".

Phillip is correct: it's a conspiracy. But not against Mac users -- it's
against ALL users. The products are designed that way because the people
who sell computers and the people who run companies and the people who
provide support services LIKE them that way.

It's what I call the "End-User Last" design philosophy. When Microsoft
talks about "Customers" they are NOT talking about *US*. You will find the
same philosophy in nearly every large company: "We'll give you a computer
that works the way WE want it to, not the way YOU want it to!"

Apple is by no means perfect, but their design philosophy of "It just works"
is several times more likely to produce software without what you and I
would recognise as "bugs". Not because they're better coders. Because
they're better designers

</rant>

Do you think the fact that Microsft fixes so few of the glaring errors in
its software is a result of its sloppiness?

Peter Jamieson

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Peter Jamieson]

There isn't anything quite like a good rant, is there?

Funnily enough I came to similar conclusions some time ago. It has been
frustrating, but predictable, to see the level of "end-user programmability"
dropping over the years.

Peter Jamieson

 

[Phillip Jones]

No conspiracy. Just the typical life of the Mac User. Mac Users have
always been marginalized from day one. Sure would be nice though if the
roll out of the Mac version came at the same time. Instead of having to
wait an additional year or so.

Do you think there is a conspiracy there, Phillip?

Clive Huggan
============

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |LIFE MEMBER: VPEA ETA-I, NESDA, ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
------------------------------------------------------------------------

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<http://www.vpea.org>

 

[Phillip Jones]

I honestly believe they don't know how to fix them. Or it costs too much
to bother.

Do you think the fact that Microsft fixes so few of the glaring errors in
its software is a result of its sloppiness?

Peter Jamieson

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |LIFE MEMBER: VPEA ETA-I, NESDA, ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
------------------------------------------------------------------------

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<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/90th_Birthday/index.htm>
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<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Harris/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Jones/default.htm>

<http://www.vpea.org>

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Sorry, John, but that's a gross overstatement! I agree that it's a PITA to
have to use the Project Gallery to create a document from a template, but
that's all it is ­ a PITA! It doesn't make templates unworkable in the
least.

Beth

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Beth:

I think someone needs to use templates in a business or document production
workgroup for a week or two before they will realise what a disaster this
is. This thing is utterly broken for anyone who knows and uses templates


The Project Gallery points only at the User Templates location, which must
be writeable. Corporate templates are NEVER in that location, and must
never be writeable.

The way to use templates is: Find the template you want on the corporate
file system (it's probably not even on the same server as you) and
double-click it.

That's what users do. If they do that on the Mac, they live in pain city:
they cannot save the result where they want it, they cannot save it as a
document, and they cannot find a way out of the problem. They ring the help
desk and it doesn't know either. After that, the user won't try to use
templates ever again.

The more one knows about template use in a corporate or workgroup
environment, the more one laughs at the stunning, amazing IGNORANCE of the
person who designed it this way.

Templates in themselves are a corporate or professional documenter's
mechanism. Most home users don't even know about them. They almost never
use them: it's too hard! You have to know all this stuff, start a program
you never use, look in a special place, change a dialog box. Just to get a
blank file on your screen.

On the PC, you find your template and double-click it. That's all you have
to do. Even home users can be in full control of it

This is a real howler of a design catastrophe! On this one, I think Phillip
is right: the person who designed this must have been a spy who came over
from the PC side to screw up Mac users as much as possible!! Maybe they
were secretly working for Adobe I reckon there's a fairly low change
that they still work there now

Cheers

Sorry, John, but that's a gross overstatement! I agree that it's a PITA to
have to use the Project Gallery to create a document from a template, but
that's all it is ­ a PITA! It doesn't make templates unworkable in the
least.

Beth

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Barry Wainwright [MVP]]

The Project Gallery points only at the User Templates location, which must
be writeable. Corporate templates are NEVER in that location, and must
never be writeable.

Yes John, but you know the fix is easy - just drop an alias in the User
Templates folder to your corporate server folder. Now it works.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

When I specify a Workgroup templates folder in Preferences|File Locations ,
the .dot files in there do appear in Project Gallery|New|Blank Documents,
which is what Word Help says should happen. So if I had the specific problem
under discussion, that would apparently fix it for me. But I gather that
this cannot have been universal experience on Word 2004, so
a. is it/was it universal experience that workgroup templates did /not/
appear in the Project gallery?
b. if not, in what circumstances would they/will they not appear?
c. has the software actually been fixed (I'm on Word 2004 11.3 (061213)
here ?

Then...

Yes John, but you know the fix is easy - just drop an alias in the User
Templates folder to your corporate server folder. Now it works.

"Just" ? Don't the PBUs love that expression, along with "You just". They've
been struggling for hours with some problem that they shouldn't even have
encountered in the first place, and someone comes along and says, "You just
do this..." Then that doesn't work either. As in this case Not that I
need it to.


Peter Jamieson

 

[Barry Wainwright [MVP]]

"Just" ? Don't the PBUs love that expression, along with "You just". They've
been struggling for hours with some problem that they shouldn't even have
encountered in the first place, and someone comes along and says, "You just
do this..." Then that doesn't work either. As in this case Not that I
need it to.

PBU? - sorry, I don't get that reference.

And what didn't work?

I have several aliases to other folders (both local and server based) in my
templates folder. They all work.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

PBU? - sorry, I don't get that reference.

Poor B***** User

And what didn't work?

Err...what I said. The aliases do not work.

I have several aliases to other folders (both local and server based) in
my
templates folder. They all work.

Well, it doesn't here. So that's my point - or one of them. I made an alias
to what I believed was the correct folder, and put the alias in what I
believe is my local templates folder. So either I have bungled, in which
case what you are suggesting is arguably not "easy", or it isn't a case of
doing "just" what you said.

I'm not really interested in trying to "fix" this for myself, but the thing
is that if you are an end user you face an endless stream of these petty
problems where software does not behave in the way you expect.

Another example, to do with templates but on the PC rather than the Mac, is
when you try to make a template for a MailMerge and attach the merge data
source to the template. Then the user "just" selects the template, a new
document is created with the data source attached and off they go! Well,
that's the theory, but unfortunately since Word 2002 it no longer works if
the data source is a "single user" type data source such as a Word document,
because Word opens the template, opens the data source attached to it, then
opens the new document, and opens the data source attached to it, and fails.
So the user
a. just has to work that out
b. just decides to use a document instead of a template (in which case
their { CREATEDATE } fields won't work properly any more, for example
c. just disconnects the data source from the template, then writes a VBA
AutoNew macro to connect it. I think that'll probably work, but they may
just have to learn about the SQLSecurityCheck entry in the registry.
d. and so on...

Peter Jamieson

 

[Peter Jamieson]

And what didn't work?

Err...what I said. The aliases do not work.

i.e. no new folders or files appear in my "Project Gallery".

Peter Jamieson

 

[Phillip Jones]

Hi Beth:

I think someone needs to use templates in a business or document production
workgroup for a week or two before they will realise what a disaster this
is. This thing is utterly broken for anyone who knows and uses templates


The Project Gallery points only at the User Templates location, which must
be writeable. Corporate templates are NEVER in that location, and must
never be writeable.

The way to use templates is: Find the template you want on the corporate
file system (it's probably not even on the same server as you) and
double-click it.

That's what users do. If they do that on the Mac, they live in pain city:
they cannot save the result where they want it, they cannot save it as a
document, and they cannot find a way out of the problem. They ring the help
desk and it doesn't know either. After that, the user won't try to use
templates ever again.

The more one knows about template use in a corporate or workgroup
environment, the more one laughs at the stunning, amazing IGNORANCE of the
person who designed it this way.

Templates in themselves are a corporate or professional documenter's
mechanism. Most home users don't even know about them. They almost never
use them: it's too hard! You have to know all this stuff, start a program
you never use, look in a special place, change a dialog box. Just to get a
blank file on your screen.

On the PC, you find your template and double-click it. That's all you have
to do. Even home users can be in full control of it

This is a real howler of a design catastrophe! On this one, I think Phillip
is right: the person who designed this must have been a spy who came over
from the PC side to screw up Mac users as much as possible!! Maybe they
were secretly working for Adobe I reckon there's a fairly low change
that they still work there now

Cheers

Grin from Ear to Ear!!! Even though I technically did say but 100% agree
with :-D .
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |LIFE MEMBER: VPEA ETA-I, NESDA, ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

mailto[email protected]

<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/90th_Birthday/index.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Fulcher/default.html>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Harris/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Jones/default.htm>

<http://www.vpea.org>

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Barry:

No, I didn't know the fix was that easy. You mean "alias" or "Symbolic
Link" by the way?

I thought that if you used an Alias, the folder would be accessible but the
"Trusted" relationship would not be established, disabling the macros?

Not that it matters much now anyway: since we've lost our macros, there is
now no real "point" in creating templates at all

Cheers

Yes John, but you know the fix is easy - just drop an alias in the User
Templates folder to your corporate server folder. Now it works.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410