office suites

This new version of MS Office for Mac OS X is definitely a big improvement over the original version.
As a student I had the option of getting the full version for a reasonable price, so I did, mostly because several other students I know had problems with the upgrade version. I can't really comment on their experiences other than hearing their complaints and frustrations persuaded me to go with the full version.
I had no problems with the installation or the use of the Office 2004 full version.
Yes there are some (relatively) minor annoyances, but most of the major problems (text formatting, printing alignment issues-- the old version was definitely NOT WYSIWYG) are gone. Admittedly I have fairly low expectations after the disappointing original version. The new one has not crashed or lost data yet.
Although I find the Project Center (or whatever it is called) awkward to use, it is definitely a good idea. Hopefully it will become easier and more intuitive to use in future versions.

It is a big disappointment that it does not work with my Palm. I still have to use Mail.app and iCal because I rely on my Palm. It would be nice to have everything integrated into one environment.

Visually Office 2004 seems less clunky and more sleek than OpenOffice, which is surprising because it runs noticeably slower than OpenOffice.

My friend worked with the MS team on this product. So reading some of the reviews, I've noticed quite a few inaccuracies. I personally have no direct connection with Microsoft and not interested in defending its interests much, but I'm against spreading bogus information.
First of all, there is no "3 strikes you are out" rule with the new Office 2004.
Some people seem to claim that Office 2004 can only be installed 3 times, after which user would have to do a clean re-install of the system. This is completely not true. Student and Teacher, Standard and Professional versions of Office 2004 do not have any special write protection and do not count how many times you install the program on your computer. However, license agreement for Standard and Pro versions states that you can only use one copy of software on one (1) desktop and one (1) laptop computer connected to the same network. Program does indeed check computers connected to the same network for opened Office 2004. If any Office 2004 program is opened on a desktop computer that is connected to the local network, it will refuse to launch until program on other computer is closed.
This is a security measure that doesn't affect regular consumers at all most of the time. The only reason for this is to make sure that small and even big businesses do not use one copy of a program on many computers. There is nothing new here either. Many companies have been utilizing similar security features for quite some time.
Student and Teacher edition which retails for a low price has ALL the features of Standard edition and can even be installed on three (3) computers at the same time.
The down side to it is that Student & Teacher edition cannot be upgraded in the future. But again, is not a big deal since upgrade for Standard version still costs more than full S&T edition. And of course, one must be a student or a teacher to purchase it.

I would recommend upgrading to the Office 2004 for many reasons. Not only you get a more stable programs now but also many new features like advanced Power Point timers, advanced printing themes and previews, audio note taking, a better option grouping and support for long file names, and many more. Most operations now also work faster and smoother.

Just like any new program, of course, Office 2004 will have a fair share of bugs, but they will be taken care of in a timely manner.

My Recommendation: Professional edition is a great buy for those who want to get Virtual PC 7.0 (included), as a VPC7 will retail for over half the price of the Office 2004.

If you are not sure about Office 2004 and would like to take it for a test drive, go to microsoft.com and download a "test drive" version. Try it out for yourself.

Hope this helps.

If you use a Palm Tungsten T or E, and other PDA's, the Entourage conduit is not compatible and will not allow you to sych your handheld with Entourage. This is a serious flaw if you use Entourage as your primary address, emal, calendar and to do list application. Microsoft is completely aware of this and offers no excuse. They simply state that the Entourage conduit will not work and they have no solution for it.

In Office X the Entourage conduit worked flawlessly.