Product Description





 
Microsoft Corp.’s Macintosh Business Unit (Mac BU) announced the official availability of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac at the Macworld Conference & Expo 2008.

Office 2008 for Mac is enhanced to provide a simplified user experience that helps beginners and long-time experts deliver professional documents that are compatible for co-workers and friends on Macs and PCs. The suite provides the Office tools Mac users rely on, with a Mac-like approach and style.






In addition to Office 2008, the Mac BU Web site, Mactopia, features a transformation to provide an even more resourceful hub for all things Mac BU.

“We developed Office 2008 for Mac as a comprehensive productivity suite that also helps people simplify their work,” said Craig Eisler, general manager of the Mac BU at Microsoft Corp. “To complement the deep set of new and improved features, we redesigned the interface so that it is truly easier to use. Even Office beginners can create great-looking documents very quickly. And, at the core, we focused on delivering reliable compatibility so that users can confidently share documents across platforms.”

Office 2008 for Mac shares core technologies with the 2007 Office system such as Open XML File Formats and the graphics engine, OfficeArt, to ensure consistency in graphics rendering when they are shared. Office 2008 for Mac is compatible with earlier file formats so that users can continue to use the older DOC, XLS and PPT binary formats. The updated suite is Universal and runs natively on Intel- and Power PC-based Macs.



Office 2008 also features a complete Exchange client on the Mac, Entourage 2008 in Office 2008 for Mac and Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition delivers improved reliability and time management tools with updates for calendar management and Out of Office Assistant to keep users connected and productive. IT managers also will benefit from new tools for customised deployment.

The updated suite keeps the traditional drop-down menus but adds the new Elements Gallery row of tools in Word, Excel and PowerPoint.



Throughout the suite, users will find a revamped Toolbox that helps users finding some of the tools in Office for Mac: the Object Palette, Animation Settings and the new Citations function, which makes it a cinch to create citations and bibliographies. The Toolbox also features the contextual Formatting Palette, which adjusts its content for each application to truly make it more intuitive to create great-looking documents.

In addition, the new stand-alone My Day application enables users to track professional and personal priorities to stay on top of daily activities regardless of which application they are working in. Although My Day is connected to Entourage, users do not have to open the application to get a quick look at the day’s tasks, upcoming meetings and items on their To-Do List.




Office 2008 for Mac will be available in New Zealand from 31 January 2008, with full global availability by the end of the first quarter 2008. Microsoft Volume Licensing will be available for customers in the New Zealand starting on 1 February 2008.

Customers with any previous version of Office for Mac are eligible for upgrade pricing. The suite comes in three versions:
  • Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac is the core suite including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage along with Microsoft Exchange Server support and Automator tools.
  • Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition is a specially priced version that delivers three licenses for home and students with basic productivity needs and consists of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and a non-Exchange Server-enabled version of Entourage.
  • Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition. This special new edition combines Office 2008 applications with the Microsoft Expression Media digital asset management system and is geared toward professional users who need Microsoft Exchange Server support and Automator tools and are looking for one product to meet their productivity and digital asset management needs.