New Tools Bolster Mac's World

Apple has been on a hot streak.

Software like MacSpeech Dictate, a speech-recognition program, and Office 2008 could help draw buyers to the Mac.

Microsoft Microsoft's Office 2008 for Mac.

After years of muddling along with a 2 percent share of the personal computer market and a small cult of rabid fans, the company is moving the hardware. Fourth-quarter sales and profit hit a company record as 2.3 million Macs were sold. The company’s market share was 6.1 percent as the year ended.

The fickle folks on Wall Street have been dumping the stock this week, but almost everybody knows somebody who recently switched to a Mac.

There are all kinds of theories to explain the sudden resurgence: the lack of viruses, the iPod halo effect, the critical mass of Apple stores, the disappointing debut of Windows Vista, all those Apple TV ads, the switch to Intel chips (meaning that Windows programs run on a Mac) — or maybe all of it together.

Whatever the reason, a virtuous cycle may soon kick in: More Mac sales lead to more software titles, which lead to more Mac sales, which lead to — well, you get it.

Indeed, this month two important software programs make their debut. One is a minor upgrade from a big company: Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh. The other is a big deal from a tiny company: MacSpeech Dictate, a new speech-recognition program.

Office first. The basic version of this software package ($150) comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage, an e-mail/calendar/address book program.

Office for the Mac still isn’t as powerful (or as confusing) as the Windows version, but it has its charms. For example, the Mac programs have been rewritten to exploit the modern Mac’s Intel processor (instead of running in a slower simulation mode, as Office 2004 did).

This, frankly, is the best part. When you type in Word or delete a message from Entourage, the response is smart and snappy. There’s no more fraction-of-a-second delay when you type in Word, and no more mysterious 90-second lockups in Entourage.

Furthermore, the whole thing has been successfully redesigned to match the look of Mac OS X. The fonts, color schemes and tool panels look like they’ve come straight from the designers at Apple — especially the palette that lets you drop your iPhoto pictures into Word or the other programs.

Considering the four-year gap since the last version came along, Microsoft hasn’t added much. For example, you get a global search in Entourage, formula auto-complete in Excel, control over PowerPoint slide shows with the Apple remote, and a terrific page-layout view in Word, complete with linked boxes with auto-flowing text. Office 2008 also lets you save your documents, if you like, in the new, more compact file formats of Office 2007 for Windows (ending in .docx, .xlsx and so on).

Blockbuster new features, however, are nonexistent. Worse, one old blockbuster feature is now nonexistent: macros, the recording and playback of routine steps.

This is a devastating loss to power users. In Office 2004, you could create a button that, for example, triggered several search-and-replace steps in a row, shuffled things around on a spreadsheet, or magnified what’s on your screen to 150 percent. In 2008, it’s all gone.

If you’re geekily inclined, you can recreate some of these software robots using the Mac’s own AppleScript language; Microsoft is readying a guide for doing just that. Otherwise, for Microsoft to remove any power-user features at this stage seems like a risky move; there are plenty of simpler, less expensive Office-compatible programs, including Apple’s own $80 iWork suite and the free Google Apps.

The other Mac software news this month is more exciting.

For years, the industry’s most amazing speech-recognition program has been Dragon NaturallySpeaking for Windows. In its latest version, I got 98.9 percent accuracy right out of the box, without even reading the training scripts.

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