Filed under: Software
Microsoft releases Office 2008 Service Pack 2
Today, Microsoft released the Office 2008 Service Pack 2 update. This update brings many improvements and fixes to Office 2008, including improved speed and stability to Word and Excel, new features in PowerPoint, as well as improvements to connecting to SharePoint servers. A brief list of fixes follows below: - Two new features in PowerPoint 2008: Custom Path Animation, which adds the ability to author motion-path animations and Default Theme, which lets users define their default theme, including fonts, color scheme and slide layouts.
- Increased speed in Word 2008 (launch and scroll times) as well as Excel 2008 with features such as calculation performance.
- Expanded Mac browser support in Microsoft Office Live Workspace to include Safari 4.
- Microsoft Document Connection. Document Connection is a new application that improves the SharePoint experience for Mac users, allowing for easier collaboration within a SharePoint environment by simplifying how users can browse, access and manage files online and offline.
For a complete lists of changes and fixes, visit this description page.
To download this update, run the Microsoft AutoUpdate application on your Mac or go to the Microsoft Mac Downloads page. This update weighs in at 182.6 MB and is available right now.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Brian said 2:42PM on 7-20-2009
I see it at 297mb, but whatever..
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Ket said 3:04PM on 7-20-2009
The Word 2008/Expose issue is still present after this update. I don't really care why it's still broken (since release), it just needs to be fixed.
I use and switch between multiple Word windows with other applications all day long. It's madness that i need to select a Word window twice in order to have it brought to the foreground if it wasn't the Word window previously in the forgeround.
Example:
Word Window A - current foreground word window
Word Window B - other/background word window
Other Application
If i'm using Word Window A, switch to the Other Application, and then try to switch to Word Window B, Word will always re-foreground the last Word window that was in the foreground regardless of which Word window was selected via Expose.
In order to go from Other Application to Word Window B, I then have to reselect Word Window B again using to bring it to the foreground (since the first selection brings Word Window A to the foreground)..
Office 2004 worked perfectly with Word/Expose. Also, Excel 2008 works properly too.
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tukan said 3:20PM on 7-20-2009
Ii's nice to know, they haven't completely forgotten about Mac Office, while working on Office 2010, however, I am still waiting for an upgrade which will bring full support for Office 2007 equations into the Mac suite. The issues with Expose and Spaces are annoying, sure - but the inability to even _view_ equations created by a supposedly equivalent program on Windows is actually disruptive to any kind of collaboration between Mac and PC users in scientific environment.
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Scott said 3:40PM on 7-20-2009
Does anyone else's installer get stuck on "Examining additional volumes..."? It just hangs and hangs......
Why am I not surprised?
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Stephen Balderson said 4:57AM on 7-21-2009
I have the same issue as you Scott
Dahk said 3:41PM on 7-20-2009
I second the equation thing. Still gotta vmware into Office 2007 to work on projects and crap =/.
And damnit, can't they just use the same styles as Office 2007? Why they gotta switch the heading/body fonts to the OPPOSITE of 2007?
Damnit. They better come up with a better iteration in 2011. Still hate its guts.
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marian said 5:30PM on 7-20-2009
I like Microsoft Office. I prefer LaTeX for writing, but I still like Office. And in terms of usability and UI it's still lightyears ahead of Office 2007. It's a nice product. Stop complaining.
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Ian said 6:56PM on 7-20-2009
Office took far to long to make it to universal binary and even then was slow and bloated. Bugs are plentiful and fixed infrequently. I'm simply amazed it took them 1.5 years after UB to polish it enough that it didn't spinning-wheel-of-death on the user on every start. Word 2008 slowed down significantly with larger documents, stuttering on scrolling, you know - basics! Pages has a better UI (but non-existent cross-referencing), and for writing Scrivener is *thousands* of light years ahead of both...
Ian said 4:09PM on 7-20-2009
Wow, word really does start up and feel quicker. This ain't saying much though -- word has been horribly slow since its release and it has taken them this long to fix it, over which time I've slowly moved over to pages...
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Josh said 5:36PM on 7-20-2009
And yet funny enough word is now opening faster than pages (09) on my Mac, and that is a problem as i'd rather use pages. Is anyone else finding pages opening slower than word?
Ian said 6:41PM on 7-20-2009
Josh: they load about the same on a late-2006 macbook (pages a bit faster) and a Mac Pro (the same) for me. The only slowdown is the annoying pages requestor, but if I tested by saving a document in both and opening it to test...
MfS said 4:14PM on 7-20-2009
Still no improvements to Entourage, which SUCKS when trying to be fully interoperable with Exchange. Office: Mac 2008 + Entourage + Exchange server = FAIL
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JD said 6:24PM on 7-20-2009
Did they at least get the (frankly) idiotic bug with Activesync sent items resolved? I'm glad to have an applescripted workaround but how many releases and it's not been fixed?
adisor19 said 4:51PM on 7-20-2009
Man, i must have gotten used to the suck that MS Office 2008 is cause i seriously don't get bothered that much anymore.. and that says a lot.
Adi
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Don said 5:27PM on 7-20-2009
Has anyone had problems it asking for your cd key after the install? My daughter has had problems inputting the numbers after upgrading it. Looks like it is time to call Microsoft (dreading the on hold time).
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THJ said 6:00PM on 7-20-2009
Office is still kinda sluggish and wonky, but Safari seems snappier!
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JS said 8:19PM on 7-20-2009
word for the wise - if you have a not-so-legal version of office 08, the update will invalidate your copy, making it unusable unless you restore to before the update.
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Christopher Scott said 9:22PM on 7-20-2009
what do you mean 'restore to'? I can't use my 'copy' now. Does anyone have a fix?
David Patterson said 12:16AM on 7-21-2009
God. I read this comment about two hours too late. Goddamn it.
HUSTLERS.SPIRIT said 2:57PM on 7-29-2009
IF YOU HAVE A TIME MACHINE BACK-UP DELETE THE ONE ON YOUR MAC NOW THEN JUST RESTORE FROM TIME MACHINE
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