The arrival of Scrivener 2 this week rather rattled my plans for the next book. It will no longer be written in the very excellent <a href="http://davidhewson.com/2010/05/05/word-2010-for-windows-wonds-well-hidden/" target="_blank">Word 2010 for Windows</a> as intended. Instead I'm diverting back to the Mac and planning the whole project in Scrivener 2 (with a final revise in Word, the Windows one). This does <em>not</em> mean I think every project is destined for Scrivener. But this one is big and complicated and needs the extra features it brings.

So please -- don't rule out Word 2010 (Windows) especially if you have a simple, linear project. It's great for that -- and I try to explain why in the link above.

But Microsoft just released the companion Office package for the Mac. And boy is that a very different animal.<!--more-->
<blockquote><em><strong>Quick update. You can turn off the dumb SmartArt box but only if you turn off the ribbon too. And the long-standing word count limitation -- the live count stops at 99,999 words is still there! Aiiieee!!! </strong></em></blockquote>
I'm not going to spend a lot of time in detail here. My simple advice is: if you have Office 2008, the earlier version, stick with it. There's nothing much worth moving for here and bizarrely Microsoft's Mac team seem to have ignored all the great work their Windows colleagues have done in creating a fine word processing package for writers.

Some examples...

Word for Windows has a wonderful navigation feature that puts headings into a sidebar, lets you drag them to new parts of the narrative, and gives you a word count for individual scenes and sections. What you get in Word for Mac 2011 is this...

<a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/navigation.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-6175" title="navigation" src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/navigation.png" alt="" width="200" height="337" /></a>

Can't drag things around. Can't word count on a scene. Can't do anything except look at it really. Rubbish.

Mac Word now boasts Windows Word's ribbon bar.

<a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/ribbon.png"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-6176" title="ribbon" src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/ribbon.png?w=640" alt="" width="640" height="98" /></a>

I hated this at first but now it seems fine. That's because you can hide it. Completely. But not on the Mac. You still get this stupid stub. God I hate the word 'SmartArt'.

<a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/stub.png"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-6181" title="stub" src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/stub.png?w=640" alt="" width="640" height="34" /></a>

More idiocy. On Windows Word if you view in print page format you see the page with headers and footers. I don't need to see headers and footers when you're writing. The Windows engineers clearly understand that’s a common condition. Just click in the space between pages and they close up and give you a continuous read, without headers and footers. Pretty much perfect.

Here's the same thing with Mac Word.

<a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/footer1.png"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-6182" title="footer1" src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/footer1.png?w=640" alt="" width="640" height="213" /></a>

Double click on the gap and you get this.

<a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/footer2.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-6183" title="footer2" src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/footer2.png" alt="" width="490" height="175" /></a>

Yes, the chance to edit the header or footer. Note: I did <em>not</em> click on the header or footer (which does the same thing). I clicked on the space between the pages. Work that one out. Oh and while you're at it... work this out. There is a new full screen view (copied from things like Scrivener you imagine). You know the idea. You get to focus on nothing but your writing.

Well actually you don't because full screen view <em>includes headers and footers and all that wasted white space too. </em>Apple's Pages does the same thing it must be said. You wonder: do these people ever <em>talk</em> to those of us who write?

Nor is Word the only disaster in the Office release. Microsoft have made a big noise about junking the bug pile that was Entourage and replacing it with a version of its excellent Windows email and organiser package Outlook.

Here's the truth. It's Outlook with all the bad and none of the good.

<a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/outlook-inbox.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-6185" title="outlook inbox" src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/outlook-inbox.png" alt="" width="490" height="240" /></a>

Simple example. In the <em>real</em> Outlook you can make the mail folders you use a lot favourites so they come and sit at the top of the sidebar where they're easy to see. You can drag folders in Mac Outlook too. They just bounce back to where they were in the first place. Oh, and every email I have is now marked unread by Outlook, though they're definitely read and read well. Great.

Here though is the really astonishing thing about Mac Outlook. The calendar. Which looks very nice I must say and has a little agenda gadget called My Day which can float around for reminders. You will see my calendar here is empty as is My Day. That's because I've no useful way of taking advantage of this thing.

<a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/calendar.png"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-6186" title="calendar" src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/calendar.png?w=640" alt="" width="640" height="475" /></a>

I use Google Apps for mail, calendar and contacts for davidhewson.com. Works very well. Thanks to a bit of Google software you can sync all of this into Windows Outlook. Google haven't done that for the Mac (boo). But even so... what can you sync this calendar with? If you work for a company with Microsoft Exchange then your network calendar (and contacts).

But most of us little people don't have that option. We use Google or Mobile me. Or even Microsoft's Windows Live. And the calendar doesn't sync with them, even Microsoft's own services as far as I can see (and if I'm wrong please correct me).

Go to sync services and all this dumb piece of junk offers to do is sync with the Mac Address Book. So it's actually <em>less</em> powerful than Entourage 2008 which it replaces.

Amazing.

If anyone in the Mac Business Unit happens this way here's a piece of advice: walk down the corridor and ask those people in the Windows Office department how things are done. They clearly know. Why don't you?

PS. If you want the Google stuff Mac Outlook should deliver but, unlike its Windows brother, doesn't I suggest you take a look at <a href="http://mailplaneapp.com/" target="_blank">Mailplane.</a>