Apple office software seems likely

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Not exactly, but close.

MS Office AS A SUITE existed first on Windows. But, the two main programs of what would become Office, namely, Word and Excel, both existed first (in GUI forms -- I don't think many people count the plain text-only MS-DOS versions, including Microsoft themselves) on the Mac.

Indeed, MS Word for Windows languished at Version 2.0 for years while Microsoft kept upgrading the Mac version to Versions 3, 4, and 5. It was only when the Mac version went to Version 6 that the Windows version finally received another upgrade, which is why Word for Windows went straight from Version 2 to Version 6 (they skipped the missing version numbers to indicate the feature parity with Word for Macintosh Version 6). (Ever wonder why the "Save As..." command in Word doesn't offer a "Word for Windows Version 3" [or 4 or 5]? Now you know -- the REST -- of the story!)

They did hold off on producing an Office for Mac for several years. First there was Office through 4.0 for Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups, then Office 95, then Office 97. But after that, every year the Mactopia people at Microsoft have produced a better Mac Office than the immediately preceeding Windows Office. Office 98 for Mac was better than Office 97 for Windows. Office 2001 for Mac was better than Office 2000 for Windows. Office v.X for Mac OS X was basically an OS X port of Office 2001, that took advantage of Mac OS X Quartz graphics to add transparency to 3D Charts in Excel and PowerPoint (not just eye candy, since transparency means that you can have multiple series in a 3D area chart that are behind the front series and have lower data values at many points, and still be able to see those lower values -- impossible without transparency!). And finally, Office 2004 for Mac OS X is the answer to Office 2003 for Windows.

Of course, Office for Mac doesn't include either Access nor Outlook. There IS a Mac Outlook, but it's an Exchange Server client only (it cannot run in stand-alone mode, unlike the Windows Outlook). It's also free. But, Microsoft now recommends Exchange users on Macs to use an Exchange client add-on for Entourage (the Mac Office mail / calendar / contacts program that, while not quite as good as Outlook, is still pretty darn good, and has some cool features that Outlook lacks such as a type-in filter box that makes searching for a particular E-Mail very fast and easy compared to Windows Outlook or Outlook Express).

Posted by: Joel R   Posted on: 01/04/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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