Spring cleaning

re: Spring cleaning

Nitai — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 12:32:06 GMT

As a Beta Tester for many years now I have ONE feature request for MANY years now. Please, make a shortcut to switch languages!

I am writing emails in english, german and sometimes french and it is a very cubersome (to say the least) to always go to "Tools/Spelling Language/" and chose the language. A nice drop down menu in the new message window or a keystroke would be SO helpful :-)

Thank you for the consideration.

re: Right to Left issue unanswered

Yonatan — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:14:48 GMT

Hi there,

I enjoyed reading your last post on the mac mojo and was satisfied to find that you addressed the languege issue.

Still, it is extremely important for those of us pros who work on their macs with right to left langueges to know whether the next release of office will support such langueges, since the last version doesnt. (not very well, more like).

Thank you.

re: Spring cleaning

Jimmy Grewal — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 14:41:16 GMT

Bi-directional text in documents (arabic support). Take it from a former MacBU-er who gets this complaint several times a month. :)

re: Spring cleaning

Corentin — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 16:24:55 GMT

There are other advantages to havong a packaged version of the apps with all localizations inside. Since youhave one and only version for all languages, you need only one updater for everybody.

A packaged app with editable ressources also means that volunteers can provide the localization themselves in laguages that wouldn't otherwise be supported (a it has hapenned for many other apps in many languages).

Beside the problem of the user interface, the last point you raise is also extremely important IMVHO. The spelling and grammar support is critical for many. A lot of people can deal with not having the user interface in their own language, but they will need the spelling dictionaries (for their own language - or for a foreign language they have to write in).

(By the way, there is an error in "Voila!": you need an unbreakable space before the exclamation mark in French :-> )

Shortcut for switching between languages

Corentin — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 18:35:27 GMT

I wholeheartedly agree with the comment made by Nitai. We NEED a shortcut to switch between languages.

To workaround that issue, I created a macro to switch languages for Word, but a built-in shortcut would be so much better (and easier - and accessible to anyone - even if they don;t know how to write a macro).

re: Spring cleaning

AS — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 05:44:45 GMT

Arabic support, Arabic support, Arabic support. I am not saying you have to localize the whole program. But please allow for right to left languages like Arabic (or Hebrew). In the case of Arabic, MS Word right now break the ligatures in the letters. You've already fixed the problem in Excel (which, for some odd reason, displays Arabic letters just fine). So, please do this. Open Office and NeoOffice do it. Again, we're not asking for the whole program to be re-written into Arabic. Just allow bi-lingual Arab speakers to use Word by adding support for right-to-left languages and fixing the ligatures problem. Please...

Catalan proofreading tools please

Brice — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 17:10:09 GMT

Catalan language proofreading tools have been available in Microsoft Office for Windows since forever. Plese do include catalan in Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac too!

Spring cleaning

vgolf — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 18:24:46 GMT

One vote for Corentin.

re: Spring cleaning

LawClerk — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 18:44:44 GMT

Don't know how easy this is, but something that has collaborative elements to it. I would love to be working on a document (excel or otherwise), and have another office 08' user watch and help do what i'm doing.

There could also be something beyond iChat for the iSight camera-enabled mac's that would do video conferencing in more of a business environment within Office rather than have to use a separate program.

re: Spring cleaning

Steingrimur Arnason — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 20:24:44 GMT

Why not just support all spell checking that the user installs in OS X and use the spelling services provided by the system.

re: Spring cleaning

CW Linn — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 07:34:36 GMT

How about Chinese language(traditional/simplified) locolization?

Everytime I open a new document in Word,

I see this anonying message "Chinese(Taiwan) profiling Tools are not installed" in compability box.

And why we have to register Word in Japanese language to get extra text functional? Can't you do it just in one and solid package?

It's lame that we have to bear this forever...

re: Spring cleaning

alex — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 11:11:09 GMT

yes, proof spelling is the most important feature, I don't mind having the UI ing english.

btw. which programs are included with Office 2008 ?

powerpoint ? (reader at least?) :P

word and excel I guess

some mail program (entourage or is it outlook?)

updated msn?

re: Spring cleaning

A. O. Schmidt — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 19:56:39 GMT

PLEASE include an option in Office 2008 to either use traditional or reformed German orthography.

Everyone who knows a little more about the orthography situation (which most certainly looks very odd from the outside - and it is odd!) in German speaking countries knows that the old orthography will be around for at least some decades.

And maybe the new one (which is the, I think, fourth "updated" new orthography in just a few years!) will be reverted again.

There are a lot of fights about this going on and the best thing for word processing programs is to offer both and let the user choose for whatever reason he wants or has to choose.

Thank you.

re: Spring cleaning

Walafrid — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 21:27:32 GMT

Could I put a word in for British English too? It often gets neglected, and I would be really pleased if it was there (I didn't notice it in the list at the bottom of the blog post).

Thank you!

German and British English

eric.paquin — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 11:41:20 GMT

On German reform:

We do offer the possibility of using pre- and post- reform. In Word - once you have selected your language as German (should be set as the default if your OS is German) - go to Word/Preferences/Grammar and you will see the preference under spelling. (Note: 2004 does not support the latest German reform as it was introduced after we released).

On British English:

It is actually there - I did not go into each language variations but we do offer Australian, British and US English - just make sure that it is selected in Tools/Language.

localize in portuguese and others- this is COCOA

Manuel Silva — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 20:51:04 GMT

Hello Team of MACBU

You look at to decide if going to add a language ? Like Portuguese ?

Well, I think that is simple. Portuguese is a major world language, being ranked fifth among the world's languages in number of native speakers. <sic>

Ok, serious, Office Mac 2008 is write in COCOA ? How many hours you need for add languages in content office ? The COCOA is multi language. You d`ont need write the application entirely. Need to add .pkg of english, french or portuguese and the GUI is modified for this language.

You relate:

"So what languages can you correct? All our versions of Office 2004 come with the following tools: . . . Portuguese, ..."

For Portuguese language this tool is very, very good.

Is the best, because is created for a portuguese, the best, company: <">http://www.priberam.pt>

You write:

"Microsoft investments and strategies and information coming from our various subsidiaries."

In Portugal Microsoft gives gratuitously 107 000, yes 107 000 windows vista and MS office for windows !!!!

And Office for Mac ? Is more expensive. This is strategies.

Team, you have a chance to show to your great capacity making a great product. The Office 2008 for Mac, in portuguese and other languages and an aggressive campaign of marketing.

Best regards

Manuel Silva

re: Spring cleaning

Cameron Bales — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 01:22:37 GMT

Canadian English - All I want is the spelling dictionary, it seems so little to ask. So frustrating that it is so small, and Windows Office has it.

Thanks!

re: Spring cleaning

Mia — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 22:01:38 GMT

PLEASE PLEASE add Canadian English. I bought my mac in Canada and it doesn't even support my "language".. how crap is that?

re: Spring cleaning

walafrid — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:38:10 GMT

Thank you for your reply about the British English dictionary, but would it also be possible to have the interface with British spellings? That would be amazing.

Sorry for the confusion earlier, it's just whenever 'English' is mentioned, it invariably means 'US English', other forms of English simply being neglected.

Thanks again,

re: Spring cleaning

Yves — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 08:51:59 GMT

I look forward to seeing Office 2008.

The one feature, for which I have been waiting for years is the automatic recognition of languages. I find it very cumbersome to always select text and change the Language under "Tools". My default is set to English, and when I work on a French or German text, everytime I insert a footnote, it will show up in the default (i.e. English), rather than the language I selected previously.

What I would like to see is the following: you type a few words, and Word automatically recognizes that what you're typing is Spanish or French or - you name it.

I think this feature has been in Word for Windows for many years now. Can you make sure Mac users get it also?

Another vote for catalan

Catalan citizen — Wed, 02 May 2007 15:19:30 GMT

I love Mac, I love MSWord, but I can't correct my works because I am one of the 9 million Catalan speakers. Include it in the comming release (2k8), you will bring language tools to people who need it.

Thankx

re: Spring cleaning

Gatis Abele — Sat, 12 May 2007 22:28:59 GMT

Latvian proofing tools is what I am waiting desperately in forthcoming Office for Mac.

re: Spring cleaning

Thai citizen — Sun, 13 May 2007 07:45:00 GMT

I have been using Office 2004 for long time and the only thing that annoys me is that there's a problem with word breaking in Thai.

I know Thailand is a very very very small market for both Apple and Microsoft. I'm not asking for a localized version of Office 2008 but I am just asking for a Thai word-break feature.

Like Office 2007 on Windows, the unlocalized version of it does support Thai. In this case, it means it can count the words, users can type Thai in the document without any problem.

Office 2004 for Mac, it can type Thai but the only problem is that if I do not insert a space between sentences, it will count all I have typed as one word. In Thai, there will be no space between words but only between sentences. That means when I type a document in Thai, it will not automatically cut the sentence and move my curser to the next line if my line is full. Instead, it just keeps going through the margin until I press "space" to indicate that the sentence is ended (i.e. one word, as Word says).

I hope that at least this "Word Break" feature is added in Office 2008. I am not hoping for a localized version but just a version that fully support Thai input. Honestly, all other 60 million citizens of my country don't care about interfaces and menu in Thai but we just hope that it works. More than 70% of computer users in our country is still using unlocalized version of Windows/Mac OS X/Microsoft Office for Windows. We are more familiar with English-based interface.

Thank you.

re: Spring cleaning

Thai citizen — Sun, 13 May 2007 07:47:48 GMT

Oh, there's one comment above about writing an application in Cocoa. I just want to give you one information: I don't know anything about writing an application but one thing is Mac OS X supports the word breaking in Thai. That means when I type any document in Thai using Pages, Safari, or any application from Apple, the Thai language works perfectly.

Again, Word is the best word processing application for me. Therefore I want to type Thai using Word... not Pages!

re: Spring cleaning

CDN Kev — Wed, 23 May 2007 01:37:39 GMT

The lack of a Canadian English Dictionary is greatly annoying. Please look into the number of Canadian Mac users and make a judgment if this is a worth while addition to 2008. I will buy Word 2008 based on this alone.