Microsoft Office for Mac 2004 or 2008

Office for Mac 2004 VS. 2008

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac is the most complete productivity solution for users on the Macintosh platform.

Office 2008 for Mac features: a redesigned user interface, a powerful new graphics and charting engine for creating high-impact and compelling documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, plus a new themes capability that simplifies the process of applying a consistent look and feel across documents.
Office 2004 for Mac is the suite of office software products offered to Mac users. Features of Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac include Entourage, Excel, Word, Powerpoint and Messenger. Office 2004 comes in standard, professional and student editions.

Office 2004 for Mac VS. Office 2008 for Mac

Office 2008 is almost two times faster to do the same task as 2004 (tested by logging CPU time for the app doing the same task) for Intel machines. It uses about 1/4 more real memory but 1/4 less virtual memory. It is clearly faster and doesn't beachball like 2004 did. The UI is much better than 2004, much more integrated and consistent.