[WinMac] Re: MS Office differences between platforms

Leonard Rosenthol(leonardr[at]lazerware.com)
Mon, 26 Jul 1999 09:56:04 -0400

At 10:43 PM -0400 7/25/99, Tim Scoff wrote:
> This is one of my biggest problems with Microsoft's products,
>especially MS Office. The features are different between the two
>platforms, and in some cases the file formats are different also preventing
>cross platform offices who standardize on MS Office/Back Office from being
>able to seamlessly share everything with everyone in their office.

        As of Office '97 (Win) and Office '98 (Mac), the file formats
are EXACTLY the same x-platform, so I don't understand your comment.
(and even historically, I think the only issue was the original
PowerPoint for Mac).

> If you buy MS Office for the Mac you can not get MS Outlook or MS
>Access. MS Outlook is a much more full featured client than MS Outlook
>Express is, and it just isn't available unless you have an Exchange server.

        But it sounds like they are working to correct this - about time!

>MS Access just does not exist for the Mac and probably never will.

        As I understand it, it's a "never will". It's a combination
of market (ie. the Mac folks don't need it like Windows people do)
and also that they guts of Access are the JET DBEngine which is
optimized for Intel architecture.

> MSIE 4.5 for the Mac has a wonderful self repair feature and a
>great auto fill feature for filling in web forms. MSIE 5.0 for the PC has
>a half baked auto fill feature and it doesn't have the self repair feature
>that the Mac version has.

        That's because the MSIE (and Outlook Express) Mac team are
some of the best Mac engineers out there and building the best Mac
products they can - regardless of what their PC counterparts are
doing.

> I would really love to see MS's products on both platforms match
>each other a little bit more in functionality and usability.

        I agree, but MS has decided that they can better serve the
Mac community by keeping development of the Mac products segregated
from the Wintel versions, so as not to get into the problems they
used to have when they DID use common code (and such).

Leonard

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