The main reason why I use Keynote over PowerPoint and Pages over Word in my Mac is because the Office suite for the Mac (2008) is just too sluggish and buggy. Trying to compose a presentation on PowerPoint on a Mac is a very frustrating experience because the program is so slow that it’s almost absurd. It’s the same experience for Microsoft Word. That’s why I was very skeptical about other Microsoft products for the Mac platform — until I saw the preview for Microsoft Office 2011.
Before anything else, please watch this video which talks about Microsoft Office 2011 for the Mac.
Here are some of my initial comments based on the video:
- Horraaay for Outlook – I never got around to enjoying the default Mail app of Apple or even Entourage. Looking forward to finally being able to get back to good old’ Outlook without having to go back to Windows.
- Speed, speed speed – More than the flashy layer editing feature, the speed upgrade really got my attention. If 2011 will bring the solid features of 2010 for Windows, add to that, and have no speed issues then I’m seriously considering buying Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac.
- Evangelist – they have a position like that over at Microsoft? Cool! I wonder what’s the job description.
- Charting – I was also very intrigued by the claim of the Evangelist dude that charting is now a much easier experience and that something which used to take more than 25 seconds can now be done in less than 1 second. I wish the gave more details on this one.
This is supposed to be available in the US on October 26 (this month) but I’m not sure if that’s the same release date for the Philippines.
I have the Office 2010 for Mac and Im very happy with it. Might consider an upgrade soon. Thanks for the post Carlo.