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Share a PowerPoint story, win a custom MacBook Pro
PowerPoint stories are like belly buttons: everybody's got one, but some are more interesting than others. The team at Microsoft's Mac BU wants to hear your exciting, engaging and unique PPT adventures, and they're willing to reward you: the best story might win a major prize. Unlike the "forward this email, Bill Gates will send you money" chain emails that never seem to die, Microsoft's contest is legit. There are a couple of custom-colored MacBook Pros in the pot, delivered to winners selected from those who participate by commenting on the Mac Mojo blog or responding to questions tweeted by the @officeformac account. The computers will be loaded up with Office 2008, and winners will also receive a copy of Office 2011 when it ships. Full details and rules are downloadable (as a PDF, interestingly enough -- remember, Apple's TextEdit can also open Word's .doc format) and the Mac BU will be posting updates on Twitter and on the Mac Mojo blog. Good luck!
Microsoft Mac BU gets a new GM
The Macintosh Business Unit of Microsoft, that company we love to hate, has announced that a new General Manager has taken over the group. Craig Eisler, the former Mac BU big cheese, has moved onwards and upwards into the bowels of the Redmond-based software giant in a position with the Entertainment & Devices division. His new replacement is Eric Wilfrid, a 14-year veteran of the company who has been with the Mac BU since it was organized in 1997. Wilfred started with Microsoft in 1994, working on the Mac version of PowerPoint. He was also involved in all five releases of Office for Mac, the Mac versions of Internet Explorer and MSN, and Virtual PC. Wilfred announced the change in a post to the Mac BU blog today. I don't know about you, but I'm hoping that Wilfred takes the Macintosh development team in a new direction -- preferably away from Steve Ballmer's recent comments about Mac users not getting "the full version" of Office. If you had one thing to tell Mr. Wilfred as he takes over the helm of the Mac BU, what would it be? Leave us a comment!
Microsoft developer talks about Office 2008 update issues
Erik Schwiebert is one of the lead developers on the Mac Business Unit team under the Microsoft banner. I find their position constantly interesting -- even in these enlightened days of Safari for Windows, many dyed-in-the-wool Mac users still consider Microsoft the enemy, and yet the Mac BU has always been like a kind of diplomatic envoy. We have to use things like Office and Entourage, so we cautiously let them across the border, regarding them like strange visitors from the other side of the wall.But maybe that's just all in my mind. Recently, the Mac BU released an update for Office 2008, and lots of users, apparently, have suffered from error problems while trying to install it. So many, in fact, that Schwiebert has responded to the problems on his blog, saying that the problems are most likely because users have deleted or otherwise messed with files inside the installation, causing the installer to abort. And that strange Mac BU/Mac users fragile truce comes into play here as well -- he specifically calls out Xslimmer and Monolingual, two programs that delete often-unnecessary files in OS X, for causing the issues.There's a workaround floating around, but Schwiebert warns it leaves the application suite in a possibly unstable and unsupportable state. Unfortunately, Schwiebert doesn't really offer any solutions (other, we guess, than to reinstall the software so that it's back to the full install, and then apply the update). And the alliance between the Mac BU and their users remains fragile -- we've got to work together, but it seems that many are unhappy about it.
Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2, Beta 3
Remember a few days ago we reported that the Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client beta had expired, making users deal with an annoying, 'Why don't you download the new version' screen when no new version was available? Yeah, that was no fun. Luckily, the Mac BU has recently released Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2 Beta 3. The biggest improvement in this new beta is that it doesn't expire, so users who need to connect to Windows boxes from OS X won't be left in the cold as the actual ship date slips later and later.Also new in the Beta 3 are full help files (which are localized in a few languages) as well as support for non-English keyboards.Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
MacBU promises Office 2008 fix
Software is a cruel mistress, and no one knows that better than the fine folks at Microsoft's Mac BU. They work hard to bring us the best Mac software they can, and yet there are some in the Mac community that won't cut them a break just because they work for Microsoft.That's why I feel for them, given the flaw that has been found in the Office 2008 for Mac installer. It would seem that the Office installer incorrectly sets some permissions on files, allowing a second local user on your Mac, i.e. a user other than the admin user installing the software, to modify the Office apps and some supporting libraries. This, of course, is not a good thing but the Mac BU has posted instructions on their blog to fix this via some Terminal commands. They also promise that an update to Office will be coming along shortly which will fix the problem for those of users who aren't comfortable in the Terminal.A great response to an unfortunate mistake, but something tells me TUAW commenters will not be kind to our friends at the Mac BU.
Microsoft on Messenger for the Mac: it ain't dead!
Our good friends in Redmond dropped us a note concerning Messenger for the Mac's future (based on this post). The Mac BU wants all Mac users to rest assured that Messenger for the Mac 6.0 will be included with Microsoft Office 2008 for the Mac. Not only is Messenger for the Mac 6.0 alive and well, the Mac BU's crack team of coders are hard at work on Messenger for Mac 7.0 which will have long awaited audio/video capabilities (and which is soon to be released into the hands of some lucky enterprise beta participants, mostly to test out the Office Communication Server 2007 integration).This is welcome news to me because I use Messenger for the Mac everyday at my day job. I couldn't do my work without it (and who wants to run a VM for an IM client? Not this guy).
Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 (Beta)
Microsoft promised us some goodies this week, and they just delivered on that promise. The long awaited (at least by me) Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 (Beta) is now available for download. This is a beta, but in my limited testing it is much, much faster (as one might expect). New in this Beta, which expires on March 31, 2008 are: Universal Binary (hurrah!) Works with Vista, and used the new Remote Desktop protocol Multiple session support (this is a big deal, though I can't actually figure out how to connect to more than one machine at a time) Better printer support, better UI Overall, this looks to be a solid update to Microsoft's free Windows Remote Desktop Mac client.
Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.2 Update
After being punked on the Office 2004 11.3.1 update, I'm guessing there won't be a mad dash to grab the Office 2004 11.3.2 update, but just in case you have a change of heart -- the Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.2 Update claims to offer "several improvements for PowerPoint and Entourage" and is recommended for all Office 2004 users. But it doesn't appear to address any of the security issues that 11.3.1 was supposed to address before 11.3.1 was disappeared.Specific Improvements from the Read Me:PowerPoint 2004Stability is improved -- This update fixes an issue that causes PowerPoint to quit unexpectedly when you open a presentation.Entourage 2004Contact names that contain special characters are handled correctly -- This update fixes an issue that causes meeting requests to display incorrectly when sent to contacts with names that contain single quotation marks ('), double quotation marks ("), and parentheses.Public folder messages are not duplicated -- This update fixes an issue that causes duplicate messages to appear in public folders.Compatibility with Mirapoint Message Server is improved -- This update fixes an issue that causes Entourage to quit unexpectedly when accessing mail folders on a Mirapoint Message Server.If you decide to proceed, make sure you're at Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.0 Update already, because 11.3.2 is not a "combo" updater. And since Office Updates change the version number on some Office apps, but not all Office apps, the best way confirm what version you actually have is to check the version number of the Microsoft Component Plugin file in the Microsoft Office 2004 folder, which is always updated even if other apps aren't.
Microsoft says file converter for Office 2007 in the works
According to a post on Mac Mojo, the Mac BU's blog, Microsoft is committed to getting out a free file format converter so that Mac users can open Office 2007 Open XML formatted files with Office 2004 (Laurie posted about the problem earlier today). This converter is expected to be released late March/early April and will be free.The next version of Office for the Mac will support the Open XML Format as its native format, and that is expected to ship 6 to 8 months from now.Until then you can either use a hack, or ask your Windows using friends to save the documents they want to share with you as the older Word/Excel/PowerPoint 97-2003 Document (.doc, .xls, .ppt).
Microsoft Mac BU launches blog
I'm a blog booster (shocking, huh?) and I am all for open communications between gigantic faceless corporations and users. Microsoft has taken the lead with having its employees staff official, Microsoft hosted, blogs. It looks like the Mac Business Unit (the Mac BU) of Microsoft has thrown its hat into the blogging ring.Remember that Microsoft is the second largest Mac developer in the world (who is number one? Apple), so before you bash 'em in the comments remember that lots of people use Office very happily on their Macs.
MacBU programmer talks Universal Binaries
It is a good sign that some developers from Adobe and Microsoft are talking about why there aren't Universal versions of their products. I don't think anyone thought that this would be an easy thing to do for complicated applications like Office or Photoshop, but clearly there is demand and the companies know that.Rick Schaut, of the Mac BU (Microsoft's Mac development team, and the largest Mac developer right after Apple) takes some time to dispel some myths about the transition. Folks, these apps are huge, complicated messes and in order to get them running natively on Intel Mac requires a change in the very way these applications are compiled. Not something anyone should rush into.
