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Microsoft to launch Office 2011 for Mac in October

Summary: Microsoft is launching Office for Mac 2011 in October in three flavors, company officials said on August 2.

Mary Jo Foley

By for All About Microsoft |

Microsoft is launching Office for Mac 2011 in October in three flavors, company officials said on August 2.

"For better alignment across platforms, the Office 2011 pricing and edition options map closer with Windows Office," according to Microsoft's press release.

The 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 starting in late October. (The Academic version, for students and faculty, will be available via authorized academic stores.)

(click on chart to enlarge)

The Home and Student version includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Messenger and will retail starting at $119 (U.S. estimated retail price, single install only). A Family Pack version, with three installs, will be available for $149. The Home and Business 2011 version includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Messenger and Outlook. A single install version will go for $199 and a Multi-Pack with two installs allowed for $279. The Mac Academic 2011 product (single install only) includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Messenger and will retail for $99.

Office 2011 will be available in 13 languages, including Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Swedish. It will be available "in several regions" starting in October, with availability expanded through the rest of the year.

Microsoft also is launching a free upgrade program for users who buy Office 2008 for Mac between August 1, 2010, and November 30, 2010. Those purchasing between those dates from Microsoft or an authorized authorized reseller can register for the program online at http://www.microsoft.com/mac/techg.

Microsoft officials announced in August 2009 that the company was working on a new version of its productivity suite for the Mac. The new suite will include Outlook in place of the current Entourage mail client, support for Microsoft’s information rights management (IRM) content protection, and support for Visual Basic. The suite will be 32-bit only and use a version of the Microsoft Ribbon interface.

Topics: Collaboration, Apple, Hardware, Microsoft, 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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17 comments
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  • Well, who knew?

    When MS said they were going to make Office for the Mac more compatible with the Windows version, they meant in the "screw you" pricing, too.
    frgough
    Reply Vote

    • You're right about aligning prices

      @frgough They're considerably lower than Office 2008 for Mac (Business is $400 for full version, $250 for upgrade; Home and Student is $150). Most people wouldn't call a price reduction "'screw you' pricing."
      CarlS
      Reply Vote

      • If you want outlook you have to get the business version

        so the original point stands.
        frgough
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Microsoft to launch Office 2011 for Mac in October

    Visual Basic? If you don't got the swing, you ain't got a thing!
    Rick_from_BC
    Reply Vote

    • Huh?

      What exactly is the point you are attempting to make??
      deepee912
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Microsoft to launch Office 2011 for Mac in October

        @deepee912 Office v2008 dropped support for VBScript. After a significant wave of criticism, M$'s MBU promised to put it back in the next version (everyone I know is still using v2004 - even on Snow Leopard - b/c of this). Since v2011 is the next version, then...? This critical point should be in the original article/post!
        sjobs84
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Microsoft to launch Office 2011 for Mac in October

    I'm very excited about Office 2011. I rather like the Ribbon interface in Office for Windows, its cheaper for the business version, and FINALLY we get real Outlook.
    Asiafish
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Microsoft to launch Office 2011 for Mac in October

      @Asiafish
      Gee didn't we have a 'real' Outlook, before? Don't tell me us we've been dealing with baked-in fakes for the last 15 years.<br><br> lol... :D
      LTV10
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Microsoft to launch Office 2011 for Mac in October

      @Asiafish I wonder if this is a dust-off of the long-dead beta, or a total rewrite, of the Outlook for Mac client they had out at the turn of the millenium:<br><a href="http://www.macwindows.com/outlook.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.macwindows.com/outlook.html</a>
      sjobs84
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Microsoft to launch Office 2011 for Mac in October

    Frankly with all the other lower cost options available, who gives a monkey what M$ do? Why contaminate a Mac with their poor, overpriced, overblown crapware?
    credmedia
    Reply Vote

    • Two reasons I use it.

      @credmedia One, clients still sometimes contractually insist that all documents be actually prepared in MS Word or Excel, disallowing compatible systems (of which there are several for the Mac). I'm learning to say "no" to that, but in this economy...

      The reason that I'll be buying "Home & Business Edition" is that I made the mistake of switching to Entourage as a mail client after Apple Mail choked on my email volumes. (It's not designed for a 3 GB message store and ~500-700 incoming messages a day; I understand that. TINAR.) If Outlook:Mac 2011 doesn't support exporting of the mail store and, equally importantly, filtering rules, I may wind up writing some tools. (Not being able to sensibly manage/access filtering rules via Automation is my single biggest complaint about Entourage 2008.)

      Somewhat ironic since one of my main business areas is helping SMEs get off the Windows trainwreck...
      Jeff Dickey
      Reply Vote

    • Because it is useful

      Business users find MS Office extremely useful.
      deepee912
      Reply Vote

  • Real Outlook for mac

    it is simply great !! i have been waiting for so long !!!
    Edward Pascual
    Reply Vote

  • Academic DOES include Outlook.

    I have the Academic box in front of me, and it includedes: Word, PowerPt, Excel, AND Outlook.
    andym801
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Microsoft to launch Office 2011 for Mac in October

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