Next MS Office for Mac Coming Mid-Year

By NewsFactor Network | January 11, 2007

It’s been a busy week, indeed, for Apple. While the biggest buzz revolves around Apple’s launch of the iPhone, there’s news on the business front as well.

Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit announced that a new version of Microsoft Office is in the works for the Mac, as expected, although it won’t be released until the second half of this year. The announcement of Office 2008 for Mac, as the software suite is being called, was made at the Macworld Conference and Expo held in San Francisco this week.

To help improve collaboration between Mac users and their Window-based cousins, the latest “universal” version of Office will be designed to run on both Power-PC and Intel-based Macs. Microsoft says its Mac Business Unit has continued to make compatibility with Office for Windows a key priority.

The group conducted an extensive customer survey to determine which features needed improvement and what Mac Office users want to see enhanced in their software. Based on this input, Microsoft says it is implementing “fresh ideas with new tools to help users better manage their online and software productivity.”

Roz Ho, general manager of the Mac Business Unit at Microsoft, says that Office 2008 is, “by far, the most comprehensive, Mac-complimentary productivity suite” Microsoft has ever developed.

New Features

One of the interesting new additions is a “Publishing Layout View” that enables users to create layout-rich documents, such as newsletters and fliers, with desktop publishing tools. Other enhancements include “Ledger Sheets” that give Excel users more flexibility for creating accounting documents and handling common financial management tasks. Additionally, the “My Day” feature will carry tools that allow users to track day-to-day priorities and daily activities as a stand-alone application.

Office 2008 for the Mac will also sport a new user interface that will introduce the…

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