News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

January 24, 2008

troubleshooting

Office 2008 might have agoraphobia

Posted Jan. 24, ’08, 6:23 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | Troubleshooting

Office 2008 Reader Steve writes in to find out if he’s the only having trouble with Office 2008 and Spaces:

Word 2008 is incompatible with Spaces.The worst problem is that the file just disappears sometimes, and when it doesn’t disappear, the cursor blink will disappear, giving the user no indication of where he/she is in the document. To continue to work with the file, one has to exit Word, re-boot the application, and open the file again. As a work around, I tried re-assigning Word to space one (which it seemed to move files to sometimes, whether I wanted it to or not; it was assigned to space two of four), and reboot the computer. It didn’t help. If you or your readers have any information on what is to me a major bug, please let me know.

I’ve gotten confirmation from a few others that something weird is going on with the combination. Considering how long we’ve all been waiting for an Intel native version of Office 2008, its incompatibility with a banner feature of the latest version of OS X would be rather disappointing.

I’m glad I decided to switch to iWork right now. I use Spaces extensively and this kind of issue would drive me insane (more insane). Gentle readers, have any of you noticed this problem, and if so, found a solution?


10 Comments

krye said:

Yes, this will be fixed in SP1 in 2009. Thanks again Microsoft.

January 24, 2008 6:47 AM
Kelmon said:

I really like the idea of Spaces and some of the implementation but, while my issues with it are not as severe as the Office one cited, Spaces just tend to drive me nuts because of they way it can behave. Given this I present my proposed solutions to the problem and wonder if anyone else has seen the same issues:

  1. Never EVER switch me to another Space when I change to an application that has one or more windows in my current Space; just change me to the last window that I used for that application in the current Space.

  2. Never EVER switch me to another Space unless I either explicitly change Space using its interface (Spaces application or keyboard shortcut) or change an application where there no open windows for it in my current Space.

  3. When changing to an application open in a different Space, select the last window that I used for that application in that Space. If the application is a document-based application then always select a document window rather than, for example, a tools palette.

  4. When I change back to a Space using the Spaces interface or keyboard shortcut, select the application that I was last using in that Space. Do not, for example, decide to select the Finder unless I was using it last.

Spaces are damned useful but it drives me nuts when they do dumb things while I switch between them. I don't know if this is the way that Spaces is implemented in the OS or whether the applications themselves need to be Spaces-aware but I'm really hoping that these annoyances are sorted out soon. Honestly, I don't think that this is rocket-science.

January 24, 2008 7:10 AM
John Blanchard said:

I haven't used Office 2008 in Leopard, but my 2004 version does act weird when I switch between spaces. I haven't lost anything yet, but I've seen windows change spaces randomly when I move between them.

I hope they fix it in a quick update once 2008 is released.

January 24, 2008 7:39 AM
Chris Orcutt said:

I'm sorry that you're having this problem with Office 2008, but it has made me even more confident about my decision not to work with MS Office anymore.

Since Nov. 2007, when I purchased a new iMac, I've been using iWork, and I haven't missed Office at all. At first I was concerned about compatibility, but Pages' export capability is excellent so it it hasn't been a problem.

I make a living from my writing—mainly speeches, scripts and technical documentation (for now, until my fiction takes off)—and for this reason I was apprehensive about not using Office. I had Office 2004 for the Mac and used that for years; however, when I discovered just how HUGE the programs are, and how they allow the installation of so many creepy "helper" files, I decided not to install Office on the new iMac.

It may simply be coincidence, but I've noticed far fewer glitches and mysterious crashes since I stopped using Office.

Honestly, I think Office has seen its day. iWork is truly a comprehensive suite, and if you want an excellent bare-bones program for just writing, may I suggest WriteRoom. It's lean, mean and inexpensive.

If you're still not convinced about the merits of switching to iWork and other, simpler, programs, ask yourself this: Do I want to be spending my time trying to make this [Office 2008] work, or do I want to spend my time actually getting stuff done?

(Although this may sound like it was written by an Apple employee, it wasn't; just a loyal user.)

January 24, 2008 7:52 AM
Anthony Author Profile Page said:

Am I the only one who hasn't received my copy yet? I got the "free" upgrade coupon with mine and sent it in December. Just got a notice today that says it's going to be MARCH before it ships! This is after 3 set ship dates and subsequent delays and new set ship dates.

January 24, 2008 7:52 AM
Fábio Garcia da Silva said:

I'm having this same problem.

I moved Word to space 2 and it constantly disapeared, or sinked in the bottom of the screen, or else returning to space 1.

I tought i'd made something wrong... but them I remembered that I was using a Microsoft software...

January 24, 2008 9:17 AM
Abubaker Shamlan said:

iWork Pages does something similar to this when your typing in a non-English (Arabic) language, you don't see the blinking cursor at all, it really is annoying because i want to use Pages but i'm forced to use MS Office on a windows since the Mac version doesn't support Arabic. I only use Pages for english documents.

Peace

January 24, 2008 9:18 AM
Eduardo said:

@Anthony:

Yup; I'm in the exact same position.

But I still have Office '04 so I'm not angry. Bugged and irritated; but not angry.

January 24, 2008 9:20 AM
Michael said:

I have found that the Office 2008 docs will follow me when I change screens in Spaces. Then I have the document on one page and the tool bar on another. Just another M$ feature, I suppose.

January 24, 2008 9:30 AM
Dave-O said:

I don't generally let Microsoft software touch my Mac (except RDC, which they really fouled up in the last beta). I suppose someone has tried assigning it to all spaces? Seems much more likely to address the problem than assigning it to one.

January 24, 2008 12:00 PM

Leave a comment

 



IDG IDG NETWORK:   CIO   Computerworld   CSO   GamePro   GamerHelp   IDG Connect   Infoworld  
   JavaWorld   LinuxWorld   Macworld   Network World   PC World   PC World Canada   Playlist   Techworld