Creating complex, graphics-rich documents requires tools historically found in powerful page layout programs such as Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress. Like Apple, Microsoft has apparently concluded that people use word processing programs for far more than just creating text-based documents. In this new view, arranging text and graphics on the page is far simpler than it was in previous versions of Word. But the biggest improvement is the addition of a new view option called Publishing Layout.
Those changes include a new document format, a simplified toolbar, and a new toolbox that combines palettes for managing formatting, clip art, iPhoto images, research, and bibliographies. How much more can Microsoft do to tweak its venerable word processor? Surprisingly, Word gets several major enhancements in Office 2008, the first version of Microsoft’s productivity suite to run natively on both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs. It has been 24 years since Microsoft first released Word, and four years since the program’s last major upgrade.
