Office for Mac
Latest
New Microsoft Office for Mac coming
Microsoft has confirmed that the company will release a new version of Microsoft Office for the Mac this year, according to a report published today in Macworld. A representative for Microsoft confirmed that development work for the next version of Office for Mac is ongoing. "The team is hard at work on the next version of Office for Mac," she said in an email. "While I don't have details to share on timing, when it's available, Office 365 subscribers will automatically get the next Office for Mac at no additional cost." This should come as welcome news for Mac users still not content or able to leave behind the juggernaut that is Microsoft Office for competing products and services from the likes of Apple and Google. To say that a new version of Office for the Mac is a long time coming would be an understatement. Note that the last major version of Microsoft Office for the Mac, dubbed Microsoft Office 2011, was released all the way back in October 26, 2010. So when can we expect a new Office for Mac offering to become available? At this point, a firm release date remains unclear, though there have been a few rumblings that the software may drop during the latter half of 2014.
Daily Update for April 10, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Microsoft does a stealth price increase of Office for Mac
While no one was looking, Microsoft hiked the price of Microsoft Office for Mac. A note in Computerworld also says Microsoft has stopped selling multi-license packages of the suite of office tools. That makes Office for Mac 2011 the same price as Office 2013 for Windows. It comes about as Microsoft pushes for its cloud-based Office 365, a subscription-based plan. A single license for Office for Mac Home and Student is now US$140, up 17 percent from the old $120 price. Office for Mac Home & Business was hiked 10 percent to $220. We confirmed the new prices at the Microsoft online store and at the Apple online store. Some online retailers, such as Amazon, are still showing the lower prices, so you might want to grab a copy from those retailers before the price hike kicks in. The prices might cause some people to shift to Apple's iWork, but that suite of applications hasn't been updated beyond bug fixes since January 2009.
Microsoft patches Office for Mac licensing bug
Microsoft has released an update to its Office for Mac 2011 software. The Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 14.3.1 Update fixes an issue that could "...cause Office 2011 applications to report a problem with Licensing even though the applications continue to run unaffected," according to the company. In other words, the bug caused several genuinely licensed copies of Office 2011 to think they were unlicensed and stop working. The bug first appeared after Microsoft released the Office for Mac 2011 14.3 Update last week. That update delivered a number of genuine critical bug fixes and apparently spread the licensing bug. To install the latest update, users can launch any Office for Mac 2011 app and select "Check for Updates" under the Help menu. You can download the update directly here.
Microsoft Office for Mac now has Retina support
Microsoft has updated the Office for Mac software to have Retina display support for Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint. The update is available via Microsoft AutoUpdate. The update comes as a welcome surprise, as a month ago, the prognosis of Retina display support for Microsoft Office looked to be something that was in the distant future.
Microsoft brings Retina display support to Office for Mac
Microsoft brought Office for Mac 2011 up to speed with Mountain Lion this summer, and it's now back with another update that finally adds support for the MacBook Pro's Retina display. That comes courtesy of version 14.2.4 of the software suite, and that added sharpness naturally extends across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. You can find the update waiting for you in the Microsoft AutoUpdate tool if you haven't been prompted to download it already.
Microsoft has no plans for Retina display Office apps (updated)
There's someone who's kicking sand out of the Retina display sandbox, and that company appears to be Microsoft. Even though Microsoft boasted that Office for Mac is ready for OS X Mountain Lion, Macworld is reporting that users with Retina display MacBook Pros are describing a less-than-stellar experience when using Office for Mac on one of these machine. This isn't a surprise, as about the only current OS X Mountain Lion feature that Office for Mac supports is Gatekeeper, which I think is largely a move to keep the average user from thinking that Office isn't working with Gatekeeper turned on. Other yet-to-be-delivered features include iCloud support (no surprise), auto-saving, versions (though there is a workaround) -- the last two being Lion features that the Office for Mac team was supposedly working on. In the blog, an Office for Mac team member claimed that Outlook does support Retina display. "Outlook for Mac 2011 already supports Retina Display and the remaining apps will have the same viewing quality as on any non-Retina device. Unfortunately at this time, we cannot comment on any future updates regarding supporting Retina on Word, Excel or PowerPoint," the person said. The same isn't holding true for other software. Adobe's Creative Suite also lacks Retina display support, but told Macworld in an email that it would be coming later this year, and the same goes for AutoCAD. But the support is coming, as Photoshop and AutoCAD were demoed during the MacBook Pro with Retina Display announcement. The installed base of Office for Mac users that own Retina display MacBook Pros might not be big enough to justify adding the support right now. As more Retina display machines are adopted in the business industry, Microsoft might eventually come back to the Retina display issue and other Lion and Mountain Lion features that it's neglected. But, I suspect that given Microsoft's laissez-faire attitude toward the Office for Mac suite, those features might come some time in 2016 ... maybe. Update: As one of our commenters pointed out, Office for Mac is written in Carbon while Retina display supports requires Cocoa API. The current Outlook was written in Cocoa.
Office for Mac 2011 and 2008 ready for OS X Mountain Lion, procrastinators groan
So you updated to OS X Mountain Lion and, gosh darn it, you're not sure that Office for Mac 2011 (or Office 2008 for Mac) will be in perfect harmony. Time to put off finishing that accounts receivable spreadsheet until IT sorts it all out, right? Unfortunately for anyone looking to catch a break, Microsoft just certified that the two most recent Mac versions of Office will purr with Apple's latest big cat. About the only hiccup remaining is the inability to manually download and install future updates as long as Gatekeeper is on full lockdown. If you've been spending all day making paper planes, it's time to knuckle down and get back to work.
Microsoft offering free 30-day trials of Office 11
Office 11 for Mac is an interesting little bit of software put out by a smallish Seattle-based company called Microsoft -- it's a nice suite of business apps, including a word processor, database software, an email client and a few other helpful programs all bundled up together. You may not have heard much about it before (it's kind of like OpenOffice, if we understand it right), but if you want to give it a try, this Microsoft company is offering up a free 30-day trial over on the official website. We're not sure how useful the suite actually is, but free's free, right? OK, all kidding aside, you probably already have some form of Office installed on your Mac. But the Microsoft team is offering up a free trial of Office 11 during Macworld, and if you haven't seen the latest version of this ubiquitous software yet, consider this your chance to check it out. Plus, we've heard some pretty interesting things about this "Microsoft." Apparently they also make their own operating system, but it'll run on any computer, not just the ones you buy at the official store. Crazy!
Office 2011 gets hefty discounts for Black Friday
The official Office for Mac blog just posted a list of places interested buyers can get Office for Mac 2011 at reduced cost throughout the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend. Here are the prices you'll get if you buy during the US Thanksgiving holiday weekend from these retailers (note the special savings from Amazon): Apple Stores (US & Canada): $20 off Home & Student Family Pack for $129 (regularly $149 ERP). Best Buy and MacMall (US): $20 off Home & Student 1-pack for $99 (regularly $119 ERP) and $20 off Home & Student Family Pack for $129 (regularly $149 ERP). Amazon (US): $40 off the Home & Student 1-pack, cost of $79 (regularly $119 ERP) and Home & Student Family Pack for $109 (regularly $149 ERP). OfficeforMac.com (US): $20 off Home & Student Family Pack for $129 (regularly $149 ERP). Office for Mac 2011 was released at the end of last month and has gotten generally favorable reviews, especially for its speed increases. If you're in the market for an Office upgrade, it looks like next weekend is the time to buy.
Office 2011 for Mac is available today.docx
There are plenty of free, paid, web-based, desktop-bound, cross-platform, or uni-platform alternatives, but there can only be one Office. Microsoft's flagship desktop suite of productivity applications just got a major new update. Office 2011 for Mac replaces Microsoft's Mac-specific Entourage email app with the industry standard Outlook, brings in some interface tweaks from Office 2010 over in PC land, and integrates with those Office Web Apps you've been hearing so much about. The entire "Home & Business" bundle goes for $279, and if you're not so into Outlook, you can get the Word / PowerPoint / Excel "Home & Student" version for $149.
Office 2011 to ship October 26
That's right -- Office for Mac 2011 now has an on-sale date; it's October 26th, which is just about a month away. The suite will be the first Mac OS X version that offers Outlook rather than Entourage, and it will come in a few different flavors. Home and Student 2011 will be available for US$119 (or $149 for a three-copy family pack), and it will come with Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Messenger. Home and Business 2011 will have the whole enchilada and will sell for $199 (or $279 for a two-install pack). The announcement came with the cheery video above, which runs through a few new features of the software and shows you a few of the kind folks running the Mac Business Unit. A couple of us have been using Office for Mac 2011, and we'll have some impressions for you later on. Stay tuned -- if you've been waiting for a brand new Office for Mac, the wait is almost over. [via Mashable and Nadyne Richmond]
