Not exactly sure when this was posted but Lotus has released a beta version of their Symphony office suite for the Mac. For me, this couldn’t come at a better time as I’ve been struggling with some odd Microsoft Office issues for about a week now. The issues have prompted me to downgrade (Office ‘04), then upgrade (Office ‘08) and side-grade (move to iWork ‘08) to try to find software that would open, and more importantly, save documents properly. I continue to be frustrated with Microsoft Office on the Mac (any version) for a number of issues (at the top of the list is how easy it is to loose your document and menus if you take advantage of “spaces” on a Mac). iWork is a promsing product, but their spreadsheet utility, Numbers, takes some getting used to.
Enter Symphony for the Mac. The Symphony download was much smaller than the bloated Microsoft Office install (or for that matter, the total of the many updates I needed to download right after the install). I found the use of a single icon a bit unusual, but I’ve gotten used to it pretty quickly. The software starts somewhat quickly and the fact that everything is contained within its own window resolves my issues with spaces. I have to say, I’m pretty impressed and am actually excited about using the product to learn more!
Meanwhile, Kevin Kavanagh blogged some key updates from the DNUG keynote speach. One drew my attention:
“Sync version of iPhone being actively worked on. Demo will be available soon (I’m reading Lotusphere but don’t hold me to that)”
Wow! Consider me holding my breath for good news!
What people here are saying…