Datasheet

Here’s the scoop:

 Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition retails for $149.95. As

the least expensive edition, it includes the big four applications (and

Messenger), but nothing more. Of course, many (if not most) users don’t

need anything more, so unless you can find a compelling reason to spend

two or three times more money for the same four applications, this is

the edition you should probably choose.

 Office 2008 for Mac retails for $399.95. What do you get for the additional

$250? You get Microsoft Server Exchange Support and Automator

Actions for Workflows in Microsoft Office.

What’s that, you say? You don’t know what those things mean? Well

then, I suggest you save yourself $250 and get the Home and Student

Edition.

Okay, I’d be remiss if I didn’t explain that just a little. What it means is

that in this edition, Entourage can integrate with corporate Exchange

e-mail servers, and the entire suite supports Mac OS X’s built-in automa-

tion software, better known as Automator.

 Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition retails for $499.95. It includes

everything that the Office 2008 for Mac edition offers, plus Microsoft

Expression Media, which is “a professional digital asset management

tool to visually catalog and organize all of the elements associated with

your creative workflow,” according to Microsoft.

The Special Media Edition is based on the product formerly known as

iView MediaPro, which was acquired by Microsoft back in 2006.

So, there you have it: three editions for three budgets.

By the way, you don’t have to prove you’re a student (or live in a home) to

purchase the Home and Student Edition for under $150. So, for most users,

that edition provides the most cost-effective way to acquire the big four

Office applications.

Installing Office 2008

When you insert the Office 2008 DVD, you launch the Office Installer by

double-clicking it.

The first screen you see is Welcome to the Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac

Installer, which informs you that in order to install Microsoft Office, you need

Part I: Introduction to the Microsoft Office 2008 Suite

05_270325 ch01.qxp 4/7/08 2:31 PM Page 10