Microsoft delays release of Office for Mac 2008

Mac users must wait until next year for fresh versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint: Microsoft has moved its intended launch of Office for Mac 2008 to January from the second half of this year.

"We had hoped to hit the Christmas selling season, but now we hope to target Macworld" in January, said Craig Eisler, who became general manager of the Mac business unit at Microsoft six weeks ago. "We, as a group, were not satisfied with product quality."

Details about any software development snags, as well as final pricing, were unavailable. Office for Mac 2004 is sold in three versions for $150 to $500.

The company demonstrated early previews of Office for Mac 2008 at the Macworld 2007 convention in January.

Microsoft will not open beta testing to the public as it did for more than six months while building Office 2007 for Windows.

The 2008 release will be the first built for Intel-based Macs. The features and visual style of Office for Mac software differ from their Windows counterparts. Microsoft is introducing XML-based file formats, which require a converter to be opened in older Office software. A time-management, task-launching widget joins Office for Mac 2008 in addition to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the Entourage e-mail application.

Among the controversial anticipated changes is the removal of Visual Basic scripting, which enables macros that automate commonly used software functions.

Microsoft also postponed its initial shipment deadlines for Windows Vista and Office 2007, which arrived in stores on January 30 amid a marketing blitz following the holiday shopping season.

Microsoft aims to unveil its next operating system, internally code named "Windows 7," within three years.

Meanwhile, Apple remains mum about the timing and features of its next iWork office suite, a competitor to Microsoft Office. The MacRumors blog speculates that Apple may skip a 2007 version, instead releasing iWork '08 in October in tandem with the Leopard Mac OS X operating system.

Further competition to Microsoft Office and iWork looms in the form of free, Web-based productivity software, such as Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

[ip_fresh]

Word on Mac

On May 15, Jones announced availability of a single converter?with emphasis on converter?for Microsoft Word. The standalone software will convert OOXML Word .docx or .docm files to?get this?rtf (rich-text format). The converter doesn't even support Word's older .doc format!

Regards,

Mihai
http://www.GigaOnline.ro
(200 GB file hosting)

[jr_tyrrell]

Further competition to Microsoft Office and iWork looms..

Just for completion there is of course OpenOffice/Star office suites, Scribus and many more options out there. Personally, at my level, they're all pretty much the same so I use the free ones.

[Maclover1]

If your a lite

user I would agree. That said NOTHING can touch Office 2007 for advanced features. Powerpoint 2007 is a dream...and you can tell when someone has created a nice presentation using it.

Hopefully its counterpart will be as good in Office 2008.

[Maccess]

Boo Hoo!

Is this going to be a reason for Mac Users to switch to Windows Vista? I think not.

If anything, it will make it harder to convince Windows Office users to upgrade to the latest version of Windows Office. So many are still using Office 1997 and 2000 and Office XP very well thank you very much.

Then there's OpenOffice.org, which aside from being FREE, opens files from any version of MS Office, from really old and archaic versions to the newest formats. It also does much better at opening corrupted and virus-infected Office files.

[Open Outlet]

Microsoft Delayed??

I surprised by this. Microsoft is usually noted for their prompt
product releases and flawless compatibility. Seriously, I think MS
just wanted all of us Mac users not to feel left out when it comes to
endless waiting for their current crop of products.

SB
http://openoutlet.blogspot.com/

[Maclover1]

Fear

Fear of loosing market share to to Apple. Apple is on fire in terms of profits and market share increase.

Aug 7th they will release new iMacs and possibly a new iLife update. October will probably bring Leapord and a new iPod that looks like the iPhone minuse the phone part. If Office 2008 came out in October....wow what a year compared to MS.

MS has had nothing but bad press with Vista....quoting huge sales that are mostly Enterprise customers exercising their right SOMEDAY to deploy Vista...but staying with XP right now. Or people buying new PC's with
Vista on them.

I know lots of people that would make the switch when Office 2008 comes out....and I bet they would love to do it during the holiday season....and MS knows that.

They holding this until after holiday sales so some people will just give up and upgrade to a Vista box with Office 2007.

Fear

[groyal]

Not Sure We need a new version

Other than Microsoft's desire for more money I am not sure we need another version of Mac Office. I have been using Mac Office 2004 just fine and does exactly what is needed.

[tao51nyc]

I'M Sure we need a new version!

I support an Editorial/Production/Pre-Press division for a major publisher - over 120 Macs. They all use Office '04. They all hate Entourage with a passion because of its lame feature set and Exchange Server integration compared to Outlook on a PC. We've all been praying that Entourage 2008 would be a vast improvement. If MSFT fails to deliver, things are going to get a bit grim around here.

[Mystigo]

Address Book Sync Needed

I have almost 10 years worth of contact information in my
Entourage address book. I want a new version of Entourage that
can automatically sync with the Mac address book so that I can get
it all onto my iPhone.

[bdonohue1]

Never Mind, I've Switched

I really was hoping they'd get a universal binary version of the current version out first, but trust MS to screw things up and deliver exactly what the users don't need. Doesn't matter, I've already switched to Open Office 2.2, which works just fine on my MacBook and does everything that MS Office can do and then some. NeoOffice (an Open Office for Mac that doesn't depend on having X11 open) is OK too, but is not as mature a product and runs a little slow.

[cyclelogicpress.com]

MS delays Mac Office

Wow. If Microsoft is delaying a product because they think it's not
up to snuff, it must really need a lot of work! :)