Using Office 2011 for Mac
Maybe because there were too many holidays this summer (summer break, Mid-Autumn), this National Day holiday is rather boring. While browsing forums, I found that MS Office 2011 RTM had leaked. Thanks to some organization, I quickly searched for torrents, downloaded, installed. No serial number needed. Amazing.
Thanks to the school’s genuine software licensing and MVP’s MSDN subscription, my Windows machines have basically gotten rid of pirated software. I can unashamedly claim, “I’m proud, I use genuine copies.” But since switching to Mac, it’s back to the pre-liberation era. Even worse than the Windows days. The school’s license only covers Windows. Microsoft’s MSDN doesn’t include Mac software. I’m back to forum browsing, torrent hunting, serial number searching, and keygen finding. “I’m proud, I use pirated copies” — Chinese characteristics, no other choice.
Office for Mac originated from the $150 million lifeline Bill Gates gave Jobs back in 1997 (those unfamiliar check out the movie “Pirates of Silicon Valley,” which dramatically depicts this history). I got into Mac relatively late. The oldest version I used was Office 2008 for Mac.
After an hour of use, let me talk about changes. Office 2011 adds Outlook and Communicator compared to the previous version. But without server support, these two components are useless. I’ve never understood why Tongji doesn’t set up an Exchange server — Microsoft gives away licenses for free. Even if just the Software College set one up, giving everyone an @sse.tongji.edu.cn email for unified calendar, contacts, and mail management. Probably nobody knows how, or nobody wants to maintain it. Another tragedy: Document Connection, which syncs local documents to the cloud. Supports SkyDrive. Technically works, but with domestic internet speeds, it might as well not work. Cloud storage is great. I spent huge effort syncing several GB of files to Dropbox, then Dropbox got blocked. A domestic山寨 product, Kingsoft FastDisk, appeared. But like all domestic software, no Mac client. Another tragedy.
Enough tragedies. Let’s talk about comedies. The components I use are Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Microsoft Messenger. Messenger has improved greatly — finally supports voice and video chat between Windows and Mac, including HD full-screen. Looks like I can finally ditch Skype, especially the Chinese version.
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint’s most obvious change is the UI. They’ve faithfully ported the Ribbon introduced in Office 2007 to the Mac. Microsoft really put in work. For someone accustomed to Office 2010, this is great news. No more hunting endlessly for features like in previous Mac Office. Compatibility: tested some student papers, ~100 pages. Excellent with docx and other new Office formats. But doc format is a lost cause — similar to the previous version. Probably because I’d installed fonts before, font issues are mostly gone. Even clerical script displays properly (I don’t know how Mac manages fonts. If a font isn’t installed, it just shows squares instead of falling back to a similar font like Windows). Startup feels faster than the previous version, definitely faster than Office on Windows.
Despite the improvements, I still can’t avoid running Windows in a VM with Office installed (thanks again to the state — the school’s license actually includes Mac版的 VMWare Fusion). Because I live in a world of interacting with others. When someone sends me a .doc, I have to view it properly in Windows. Student papers often contain Visio diagrams, only visible in Windows. Before sending someone an email, I must convert to .doc first — 8 out of 10 complain that docx is “corrupted or can’t be opened.” Sending .odt or .pages to a leader is just asking for trouble.
Apple’s own Pages suite has been installed for almost a year, but I use it maybe once a month. Probably a habit thing — can’t find many features, low efficiency. And I don’t have time to learn office software使用方法.
The highlight is always at the end, so let me spill: one day last summer I was wandering around a Microsoft department in China, catching up with old friends. The meeting rooms were packed, and we got kicked out by a multi-media group. Had to find another spot. Went to another floor, passed through security, and was blown away. I thought I’d time-traveled to Apple. Hundreds of Mac Desktops and Macbooks were blinking before my eyes. I looked up: sure enough, the big Microsoft logo was there. Looked closer: oh, they were developing the very software I just used…
I immediately struck a deal with them. So, if you think you love Apple technology and are skilled at Mac software development, and simultaneously want to intern or work at Microsoft (do such people actually exist?), I can recommend you. Only Software College of Tongji University students accepted.