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Office for Mac users worried about a new version and many of the compatibility issues that will arise when Office of Windows is released later this month, can put those fears to rest.
Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 was announced yesterday at Macworld and will include new versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Entourage. The new version will be a universal binary, supporting both new Intel-based Macs and older legacy machines and will feature full support for Microsoft's new Open Office XML file format.
***Quote about Converters***
Mac BU officials at Macworld also announced plans to release file format converters that will allow the current version of Office of Mac 2004 to open, edit and save files created using the Open Office XML format.
Beta versions of the file format converters will arrive in Spring while the final versions are expected to ship six to eight weeks after Office for Mac 2008 makes its debut in the second half of the year.
Like it's Windows sibling, the new Office for Mac 2008 introduces an overhaul to the user interface; the two programs share a new graphics engine called Office Art 2.0. Microsoft says the shared graphics engine will help the new Office for Mac suite provide pixel-for-pixel compatibility with Windows Office documents.
However instead of using the new Window's UI, dubbed Ribbon, Office for Mac will feature what Microsoft calls Elements Gallery, a new taskbar designed to improve usability while retaining a Mac look and feel. So, while the two programs share features and graphics engines the user interface design remains unique to the respective platform.
***Quote about the new UI would be good here***
Office for Mac 2008 promises Mac-first, Mac-only features like a Publishing Layout View for layout-rich documents like newsletters, Ledger Sheets, a tool to make working with Excel spreadsheets easier, and My Day, a stand-alone application that offers schedule and task viewing without launching Entourage.
Elements Gallery automates common, complex tasks such as adding a table of contents or headers and footers. Elements Gallery also provides easy access to a another new feature called Document Parts which are templates that support themes and styles.
Many of the new features, Publishing Layout View and Ledger Sheets especially, add more layout tools to Office for Mac 2008 than previous versions and mirror similar features in Apple's own iWork software. Although Apple has never represented the iWork suite as an alternative to Office for Mac, many see iWork as a potential competitor to Office for Mac.
The Mac BU team denies that the two software packages are competing,
*** A quote about iWork would be nice here, here's one from Microsoft's Sheridan Jones via ZDnet:
"We think that iWork represents an interesting solution for some customers," Jones said. "We have a different customer set and we have a very robust productivity suite. iWork is interesting for people who don't need as robust a set of capabilities."
So far Microsoft has not announced prices for the new Office for Mac 2008. The current version, Microsoft Office for Mac 2004, is $399, and $149 for the Student and Teacher edition.
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