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Apr 12, 2001
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Microsoft announced today Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. While not scheduled to ship until the second half of 2007, the company overviewed some of the major new features.

Office 2008 will share the same graphics engine as Office for Windows, and include Office Art 2.0. Office 2008 will also gain new interface features from Office for Windows 2007 like the Ribbon.

Also mentioned are new Mac-only features such as a Publishing Layout View that will allow Word users to create layout-rich documents (newsletters, fliers, and brochures), Ledger Sheets in Excel, and "My Day" priority tracking in Entourage.

Office 2008 will use Microsoft's new Open XML format, and Microsoft has pledged to provide beta file format converters for users of Office 2004 by Spring 2008. Also, Office 2008 will be the first version of Office to be a Universal Binary.

Microsft has not yet released pricing information, however current versions range from $149 for the Student and Teacher Edition to $399 for the Standard Edition (Professional Edition is likely to be discontinued with the next version of Office since Microsoft's decision to stop developing VirtualPC for Mac).

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It was about time for them to announce the delayed introduction date of software. Thank goodness Office 2008 for Mac is the only thing Redmond is late on.
 
So does this mean that Entourage will finally have *full* Exchange compatibility - or that crappy, uh, crap that half works right unless you turn on LDAP and Web and other things to get it almost feeling like the OS 9 Outlook 2001 client?
 
Very weak. They should have been announcing AND shipping it today. But then again, maybe the MBU hasn't a clue how to code for x86. ;) And we certainly do not want the normal M$ code monkeys doing it.

-mark
 
Darn, right when I was going to write a really witty reply about those file converters, 2004 and some archived news items on the Mac Topia site, I see that at least two people have beaten me to it. Darn you all!

:D
 
This news is an embarrassment to Microsoft. Before they said Office 2007 where everyone saw 2008 on the horizon long before Microsoft announce it today. :mad:
 
umm...you didn't find the iPhone exciting? I soiled my paints after looking at those pictures.

I was excited initially but:

  1. Vapourware until Q4 over here
  2. Only 8 Gig?
  3. Err, that's all

Actually the phone is pretty cool and I do want one but that's way in the future...

but then, so is office 2008...

whatever...
 
Any chance of Access being included in this??

No chance. Forget about it; there is no way they are going to convert that ancient engine for the Mac. They can't even get Word and Excel out the door. Use Parallels or try FileMaker.
 
I was excited initially but:

  1. Vapourware until Q4 over here
  2. Only 8 Gig?
  3. Err, that's all

Actually the phone is pretty cool and I do want one but that's way in the future...

but then, so is office 2008...

whatever...

There's a difference between "Vaporware" and being available in another country (U.S.), with actual shipping dates for the rest of the world. I'm with you on the 8gig, but the iPhone is a momentous new product that will change iPods, PDAs, and cell phones. Office 2008 is just an update.
 
This is a good news

I would say that this is a good news. I don't know if we can trust that Microsoft redesign of office will follow the mac graphic guidelines and efficiency but let's keep our fingers crossed.
 
So does this mean that Entourage will finally have *full* Exchange compatibility - or that crappy, uh, crap that half works right unless you turn on LDAP and Web and other things to get it almost feeling like the OS 9 Outlook 2001 client?

Poor integration with Exchange is one of the two reasons I don't use my Mac as my primary work computer, so I would really like to see this improved.

The other: WordPerfect (which I ABHOR having to use).
 
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