苹果电脑迎来Office2008

New Office For Macs Speeds Up Programs

转载自华尔街日报

http://chinese.wsj.com/gb/20080111/ptk181834.asp?source=channel

管 微软公司(Microsoft)与苹果电脑公司(Apple)之间的竞争一向激烈，但有一样产品却是两家公司紧密合作的成果：那就是适用于 Macintosh操作系统的微软Office软件。微软此番则将包括了Word，Excel和Powerpoint功能的现有Mac版Office软件 进行了大规模修改。而苹果电脑也需要微软提供办公软件，这样Mac电脑才能与占据主导地位的Window系统电脑和平共处。

在沉寂了将近四年之后，微软将于本月15日推出名为Office 2008的新Mac版办公软件，和目前使用的Office 2004相比，新版软件有了两大变化。

首先，它是首个专门为苹果电脑两年前推出的、基于英特尔芯片的新款Mac机设计的办公软件。虽然Office 2004在新款机型上也可以运行，但启动和某些操作的运行速度都比较慢。

其次，Mac版Office 2008能够读写微软公司一年前在其最新的windows版Office 2007中推出的新型文件格式。此前，使用Mac机的用户不得不单独采用笨拙的文件转换软件来处理这种格式。

如 今，Mac版Office 2008能处理各种新旧格式的Word，Excel和PowerPoint文件，无论创建它的操作系统是Windows还是Macintosh，都不会影 响它的工作表现。用户不再需要任何翻译或转换，这些文件的打开与保存和它们在Windows电脑中运行时一模一样。

我在基于英特尔芯片的两种Mac机上测试了新版办公软件：一种是早些时候推出的MacBook Pro笔记本电脑，另一种是新型iMac台式电脑。在这两台机器上，Office 2008的启动和运行都比Office 2004快了很多，而且运行也平稳得多。

我还用一系列在Windows电脑里创建的Office 2007文件来测试Mac版Office 2008。这些以新格式创建的文件扩展名均为四个字母，且最后一个字母是X。Office 2008能很快地打开这些文件，而且没有一点问题。

与Windows 版本一样，Office 2008也让用户选择是否自动把你的文件用熟悉的旧有格式进行保存，这时Word文件、Excel文件和PowerPoint文件的扩展名还是DOC、 XLS和PPT。如果你想转换至新格式，或是使用以新格式创建的文件，那么实现起来也都很轻松。

像Office 2004一样，Office 2008与Window版本存在一个重大差别：前者没有Outlook这个非常有名的用来处理电子邮件、日历和联系人的软件。不过，Office 2008拥有新版Entourage，它与Outlook旗鼓相当，但并不采用后者的文件格式。Entourage也能像Outlook那样，既能与企业 使用的Microsoft Exchange服务器兼容，也能与个人用户的电子邮件系统相连。

Office 2008还拥有一些新功能，但改动没有像最新推出的Windows版软件那样显著和彻底。虽然后者几乎把Word，Excel和PowerPoint里那 些菜单和传统的工具栏都搁置一旁，而Office 2008却保留了这些大家熟悉的东西。它并没有采用所谓的Ribbon，即Windows Office 2007独有的特色图标。

不过，即将推出的Mac版办公软件也包含了一个新的用户界面，名为Elements Gallery。它是一条狭窄的置于文件顶部的长条，能让用户很方便地使用和插入预设的文件排版功能。例如在Word中，你可以迅速插入一个漂亮的封面。 在Excel中，你也可以很快添加预设的某种特定的图表或是电子表格，例如发票。在PowerPoint中，你可以便捷地添加定制的幻灯片主题和版面。

在Word中还有一个Publishing Layout View功能，能快速建立诸如新闻稿之类的文件；Excel中也包含Ledger Sheet功能，可创建家庭和小企业的预算。

在测试中，我也碰到了几个小故障。在Entourage中，我必须自己建立邮件分类规则，它才能顺利工作。还有，一开始我不能在Word中给自定义字典添加新的拼写，不过这个问题很快得到了解决。总的说来，Office 2008运行良好。

新款软件标准版的售价是400美元，从Office 2004升级则需要240美元。此外还有一种加强版，它包含了一种专业媒体管理软件，售价是500美元，从旧版升级的价格是300美元。

对于大多数普通用户而言，我建议使用售价仅为150美元的家庭和学生版，它的合法安装数量是三台Mac机。这个价格较为便宜的版本覆盖了Word，Excel，PowerPoint以及Entourage的全部功能，但不能与Exchange服务器兼容。

目前，微软公司正在进行一场促销，到本月14日为止。其内容是任何购买Office 2004的顾客都将获赠一张优惠券，只要支付6.99美元的运费和手续费，就能获得高端版本的Office 2008软件。

Office 2008的推出虽然谈不上具有革命意义，但它工作起来表现不错，因此我想将它推荐给使用新型Mac机的用户们。

Walter S. Mossberg

（编者按：本文作者Walter S. Mossberg是《华尔街日报》科技栏目Personal Technology，Mossberg's Mailbox等栏目的专栏作家。这些栏目主要介绍一些最新的消费类科技产品和解决方案，并解答读者提出的问题。）

英文原文:

New Office For Macs Speeds Up Programs

Despite the fierce rivalry between Microsoft and Apple, there is one product on which the two companies work closely together: the Macintosh version of Microsoft Office. Microsoft makes a nice chunk of change from this software suite, which includes Mac versions of the famous Word, Excel and PowerPoint programs. Apple needs the Microsoft office suite so its Macintosh computers can live in harmony with the dominant Windows world.

On Jan. 15, Microsoft will be releasing its first new version of Office for the Mac in nearly four years. It is called Office 2008, and it has two big changes from the current version, Office 2004.

For one, it is the first edition of Mac Office designed specifically for the new Intel-based Macs that Apple began rolling out two years ago. While the old Office ran adequately on the new Macs, it was slow to launch and slow to perform certain operations.

Second, the new Mac Office now reads and writes a new set of file formats Microsoft introduced a year ago in the latest Windows version of Office, called Office 2007. Mac owners receiving files in these new formats had been forced to employ separate and clumsy file converter programs.

Now, once again, the Mac version of Office can handle all the same Word, Excel and PowerPoint files -- in both old and new formats -- created in Windows and vice versa. No translation or conversion is necessary. The files just open and save as they do in the Windows version.

I've been testing the new Mac Office on two different Intel-based Macs: an early MacBook Pro laptop and a new iMac desktop. On both machines, Office 2008 launched and ran far more rapidly and smoothly than Office 2004 did.

I also tested Office 2008 with a variety of documents created in the Windows version using the new file formats, which can be identified by four-letter file name extensions that end in the letter 'x.' All opened rapidly and perfectly in the new Mac version.

As in the latest Windows version, the new Mac Office 2008 allows you to opt to continue to save automatically all your files in the old, familiar formats-DOC for Word, XLS for Excel and PPT for PowerPoint. But, if you want to switch to the new formats, or need to use a file you receive that was created in them, you can now do so with ease.

Like its predecessors, the new Mac Office differs in one major respect from its Windows cousin: It lacks Outlook, the famed, if bloated, program for handling email, calendar and contacts. Instead, Office 2008 has a new version of Microsoft's Mac counterpart to Outlook, called Entourage, which performs the same tasks but doesn't use Outlook's file format. Like Outlook, Entourage can work with the Microsoft Exchange servers used by corporations, as well as with consumer email systems.

Office 2008 for the Mac has some new features, but it isn't nearly as radical an overhaul as the latest Windows version was. While the latter junked all the menus and traditional toolbars in Word, Excel and PowerPoint, the new Mac version retains the familiar menus and toolbars. It doesn't use the so-called Ribbon, a band of icons that is the signature feature of Windows Office 2007.

The new Mac Office, however, does include a new user-interface feature called the Elements Gallery, a narrow strip across the top of the document that lets you easily summon and insert canned features for laying out documents. For example, in Word, you can quickly insert a handsome cover page. In Excel, you can rapidly add a specific type of chart or a spreadsheet preconfigured, for instance, as an invoice. In PowerPoint, you can quickly add customized slide themes and layouts.

There is also a Publishing Layout View in Word that speeds the creation of things like newsletters, and a Ledger Sheet feature in Excel for creating home and small-business budgets.

In my tests, I ran into a few minor glitches. I had to edit my rules for sorting email in Entourage to get them to work and, at first, I was unable to add new spellings to my custom dictionary in Word, though that problem went away. But, generally, the program worked well.

The standard edition of the new Office costs $400, or $240 to upgrade your current version. There is a deluxe edition, which includes a professional media-management program, for $500, or an upgrade price of $300.

For most average users, however, I recommend the Home and Student edition for just $150 that can be legally installed on up to three different Macs. This inexpensive edition has full versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage, but doesn't work with Exchange servers.

Microsoft is also running a sale, through Jan. 14, under which anyone buying Office 2004 gets a coupon that allows them to receive the high-end version of Office 2008 for just a shipping and handling fee of $6.99.

Microsoft Office 2008 for the Mac is a solid program that I can recommend for anyone with a new Mac. It's not revolutionary, but it does the job.

Walter S. Mossberg

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