If you've used a Mac for any time, then once a program does everything anybody could ever ask of it, adding more features like these is just icing on the icing. From the first time you use them, these tools translate into better pacing, better delivery and greater confidence. No longer do you risk being just as surprised by the next slide as the audience. Third, you see miniatures of the previous slide, your current slide and what's coming up next.

Second, you see a timer, which keeps you from sabotaging your own pitch by running overtime. Beneath a half-size version of each slide, you see your own notes for the first time in PowerPoint, you can cheat from a script without letting the audience catch wise. But on your laptop, you see a very different, private display. In this mode, the audience sees only your projected slides. It's a new view called Presenter Tools, designed especially for laptops hooked up to projectors. The other killer new feature is in PowerPoint, the slide-show software that's loved or loathed by corporate presenters the world over.

Later you can play back a certain audio segment just by clicking the corresponding spot in your notes. Best of all, if you click a Record button, your microphone records the proceedings. In situations where fast note-taking is essential - lectures and interviews come to mind - this view presents a tabbed on-screen notebook and keystrokes that make it easy to type an outline. The new Notebook view in Word, the word processor, is a delightful rip-off of OneNote for Windows, a note-taking and organizing program. Much like its Windows 2003 counterpart, this is a very stable version.

Office 2004 also lacks the SharePoint collaboration tools built into recent Windows versions, which is used in some large organizations. Hate Microsoft if you will, but until someone/anyone beats MS Office, it will continue to rule. Office Professional 2004 has not yet been released, as Microsoft works on making Virtual PC compatible with Apples new G5 Power Macs and awaits the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2.

Microsoft office 2004 for macs