Windows XP forum: Office XP vs. Office 2003

I generally am ambivalent to hostile towards MS products, but Office 2004 (for the Mac) is quite impressive. The formatting pallet alone can save all manner of time. Image a context sensitive floating set of toolbars that can expand and collapse at the press of a button, and you've got an idea. While there was such a beast in Office v.X (also for the Mac), they revamped it in 2004.

Then there's the Notes view they put into Word 2004, which is fantastic. It's got to be the first actual useful feature added to any word processor in many years. And I'd almost go as far as some of the reviewers for Office 2004, who say that feature alone is worth the price of the upgrade. I wouldn't say it's THAT useful, but it goes a long ways.

Also, Longhorn is going to be a mere shell of what it was SUPPOSED to be, just so MS can get it out sometime next year. They've already chucked overboard almost every major feature that was supposed to be a part of it. WinFS is gone, building it around .NET 2.0 is gone, a new command shell for system administrators is gone. So basically Longhorn is turning into more of a warmed over XP as opposed to a major upgrade.

The next version of Microsoft Office will be released in the second half of 2006, and will feature a "new" default format for saving...Open XML. For more information, check out this article.

Hope this helps,
John