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Topic: Microsoft

Microsoft confirms Office for Mac 2011 coming October 26

Summary: Microsoft officials admitted on September 28 that a leak earlier this month was correct and that Office for Mac 2011 will be available for purchase starting October 26. Preorders begin today, September 28.

Mary Jo Foley

By for All About Microsoft |

Microsoft officials admitted on September 28 that a leak earlier this month was correct and that Office for Mac 2011 will be available for purchase starting October 26.

Those interested in buying the coming Office 2011 suite can begin preordering today via Amazon.com.

Microsoft officials also shared information about two previously undisclosed features that will be part of the new Mac Office suite. One, known as Dynamic Reorder, allows users to interactively re-order all the layers in a document or presentation. The other, Fulll Screen View, is part of Word 2011, and will allow users to block out background distractions by filling the screen with one view optimized for writing and the other for reading.

I asked when and if these two features might find their way back into Office for Windows and was told there was no definitive plan or timeframe, but that the two Office teams share many ideas and features between them.

Microsoft released to manufacturing Office 2011 on September 10. As Microsoft execs said previously, there will be three SKUs, or versions: Office for Mac Home & Student 2011, Office for Mac Home & Business 2011 and Office for Mac Academic 2011 — will be available at retail. (The Academic version, for students and faculty, will be available via authorized academic stores.) Pricing ranges from $99 to $279, depending on the SKU and number of installs allowed.

Mac Office 2011 replaces Entourage with Outlook and adds back Visual Basic for Applications support to the product. Mac Office 2011 gets a Ribbonized user interface, similar to the one built into the recent  Windows versions of Office, and will be a 32-bit product only. The suite includes in-client integration with Office Web Apps, the Webified versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Microsoft officials also say the new suite will be faster to launch, scroll and perform calculations than previous versions of Office for Mac.

Topics: Microsoft, Apple, Collaboration, Hardware, Software

About

Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

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23 comments
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  • RE: Microsoft confirms Office for Mac 2011 coming October 26

    Mac versions are always slow coming. MS should have realized by now that Mac users are not only much more likely to switch to competing products than PC users, but have much less to lose if a product doesn't come out right away. So while I'm glad 2011 is on the way with some really great features, Microsoft would have been better off focusing on getting Mac versions out simultaneously with PC versions, not pandering to a PC crowd they have no chance of loosing, and making the products competitive with each other. I'm not just saying this to bash MS and I don't even own a Mac. It just makes sense...much like very soon making a Linux version will also similarly make sense.
    Socratesfoot
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Microsoft confirms Office for Mac 2011 coming October 26

      @Socratesfoot Personally I think it is all about the qunatity of customers they have in either operating system worlds.<br><br>It is pretty obvious that there are tonnes more businesses and individuals who use Windows based OSs out there than Mac based OSs. Hence, why they focus on building one for the Windows side first before the Mac side. So why hide it till both OS sides are complete when you can start selling to one OS side and work on the other? THAST'S BUSINESS THOUGHTS...<br><br>...From an ELectrical Engineer, lol
      MrElectrifyer
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Microsoft confirms Office for Mac 2011 coming October 26

        @MrElectrifyer Does this version have macros? If not, it's probably a waste of time, as iWork is much cheaper, and it can save documents in MS Office format.

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    • RE: Microsoft confirms Office for Mac 2011 coming October 26

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  • RE: Microsoft confirms Office for Mac 2011 coming October 26

    Who needs Office when iWork is by far superior and $79? Mac users only need the compatibility with MS Office and the latest version of Apple iworks does that. http://www.businessissuestoday.blogspot.com
    audreypeters
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Microsoft confirms Office for Mac 2011 coming October 26

      @audreypeters But still, it's worth it to get Office, after all it's guaranteed to be compatible with itself. =)
      cardinal4
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Microsoft confirms Office for Mac 2011 coming October 26

    Does this version have macros? If not, it's probably a waste of time, as iWork is much cheaper, and it can save documents in MS Office format.
    Starman35
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Microsoft confirms Office for Mac 2011 coming October 26

      @Starman35 If it has VB built into it, I assume it would also support Macros.
      Socratesfoot
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      • RE: Microsoft confirms Office for Mac 2011 coming October 26

        @Socratesfoot
        Agree with you!
        onunez
        Reply Vote

      • Interesting

        @Socratesfoot If VB for apps is there I wonder if this is a show that .Net CLR is coming for Apple OS.... Wouldn't be too tough to port .Net for it. Would make for a pretty cool dev env for iPhone/iPad IMO
        TGGR
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Microsoft confirms Office for Mac 2011 coming October 26

    If only they would include Publisher with the suite for Mac! It's not that I want to create Publisher documents, but other people send me Publisher docs I have to post on the web. They've gained some level of expertise with Publisher so they're not really agreeable to trying to recreate the same documents in Word. I'd love not having to start up Windows, Publisher and save to pdf (or other format) first!
    bonjon
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Microsoft confirms Office for Mac 2011 coming October 26

    One question Mary Jo. People have been commenting on how great One-note is on the Windows side. Will this be included in any of the 3 Office for Mac versions?
    MG537-23482538203179240121698430309828
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Microsoft confirms Office for Mac 2011 coming October 26

      @MG537 ... Not that I've heard about, and without the strong link to inking/tablet support that OneNote has, I doubt there ever will be.
      GoodThings2Life
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Microsoft confirms Office for Mac 2011 coming October 26

    I will not get excited about Office 2011 until it is proven to be compatible with Office 2007 at a minimum. Microsoft claimed that Office 2008 was compatible with Office 2007, but they were writing fiction, and continue this fiction today.

    Color based data filters, Top 10 filters, advanced conditional formatting, advanced filtering, macros, VBA, the list goes on for Excel.

    Excel 2008 was a subset of 2007, more like Excel 2004 without the macros and VBA.

    Office 2011 may be able to READ Office 2007 files, but it may not do what you expect with the file. Take care.
    GBO Possum
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Microsoft confirms Office for Mac 2011 coming October 26

    This sound fantastic but would then this be a great thing to everyone? Anyways, its all a lot for changes that would definitely create a new environment that hopefully would be helpful to all of the users.
    xaxi
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