I have a few users  that have MAC and we are using Microsoft word 2004
for Mac Version 11.3.5.

It is more of a browser dependency issue than an OS. Safari and Firefox
don't support the native sharepoint  rich text editor.

Telerik Rad Editor is easy to install and works  great.

I guess I misunderstood the question  was about office
integration.

I¹m a Mac user and am a small percentage as our firm is predominately PC.
Because Sharepoint is a Microsoft Product, it will work best in Internet
Explorer. Internet Explorer is no longer developed for the Macintosh. We
use Safari or Firefox.

I can view Sharepoint Portals and the such, but I don¹t have the full
functionality that PC users  do. I can¹t open office  documents within my
browser for instance, but I can PDF documents.

The latest version  of Microsoft Office for the Macintosh is 2004. If your
PC users are using the latest Office 2007 with the .docx extension for their
documents, Mac users will not be able to open those documents unless they
are back-saved with the .doc extension.

From a Mac user standpoint, the more open
source/cross-platform/cross-browser you can make things, the better we like
it and the less problems are encountered. That is why we get so frustrated
with Microsoft products because they are most always dependent on other
Microsoft technologies. It becomes a stumbling block for our workflows and
processes and sometimes even a road-block.

Our firm is currently in the process of beginning to roll-out office 2007. I
will have two choices: ask those I need info from to back-save to the .doc
extension, or I will have to go into a program I have installed called
³Parallels² (a windows simulator where I have Office 2007 installed) and
work from there. Neither of which is the most ideal for me. My personal
feelings are that Sharepoint Technologies are taking business in the
opposite direction from where it was headed. Instead of making things more
streamlined and easier to use with as least steps/clicks possible, we now
have to click, click, click, click......to drill down and search/find the
info that we need in Sharepoint. For the IT person, Sharepoint must look
like a great thing. For the end user, I see it as slowing down productivity
leading to a slow in profit for business. Some of the simpler things we
used to do like making a car reservation on a calendar used to take 2-5
minutes. Now that it¹s been migrated to Sharepoint, it takes about 1/2 and
hour to do the same. That¹s not productive!

> extension, or I will have to go into a program I have installed called
> ³Parallels² (a windows simulator where I have Office 2007 installed)
> and

Just a quick clarification for those that are interested. Parallels is
virtualization software. You actually install a full version  of Windows which
runs via Parallels. So it's no different than running a PC with windows on it.

> My personal
> feelings are that Sharepoint Technologies are taking business in the
> opposite direction from where it was headed.

I'm pretty sure MS's 'direction' that it feels business should head towards is
increasingly dependent on MS products. ;o)

We're rolling out MOSS so that one can access their sites from home as well and
I know we're going to get some grief from those that use Macs at home (myself
included)

To be fair, '07 is a lot more cross-browser friendly than '03 was and it seems
that MS's .net groups have fully embraced the fact that the internet is NOT
built on IE alone anymore, so things are heading in a better direction.

I've talked to a couple MS devs on the Live side of things and what I hear
from them is that their goal is to be as cross-browser friendly as possible,
as opposed to the old browser/platform lock-in mentality. A lot of that is
that they're coming at it from the new generation of pure web developers as
opposed to desktop app devs moving stuff online. And things like federal 508
accessibility laws have done a lot to push MS in that direction as well.

If your environment is SharePoint 2003, your mac  users will have difficulty.
No browser for the Mac (including the unsupported Internet Explorer for
Macintosh) is adequately compatible for collaboration with SP 2003; even
read-only use has some display shortcomings.

If your environment is SharePoint 2007 and Windows Office 2003, things are
easier for your Mac users. I use Firefox 2.0.x with good success (though
there are a few display problems on administrative pages). Office 2004/Mac
opens Windows Office 2003 (at least, Word, Excel, Powerpoint) files just
fine.

If your environment is SharePoint 2007 and Windows Office 2007, there is an
issue if Windows users  save Office documents in the new "Microsoft Office
Open XML File Format" (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx). Microsoft's Macintosh Business
Unit has promised free Mac-based converters; beta (test) versions are
available here:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx

Office 2008/Mac has been announced for release in the first quarter of 2008.
This version  supports the new file formats.

Thanks, for mentioning the difference between
2003 and 2007 Sharepoint environments. I had forgotten to mention that.
You and Darrel are right, 2007 if far better for the Mac user than 2003 was.
There is more functionality in browsers other than IE in Sharepoint 2007.