Microsoft testing Office 2008 on Macs

Filed under: Business, Developer, Office, Apple, Microsoft

Microsoft testing Office 2008 on Macs

by Chris Gilmer Apr 3rd 2007

Mac users seem to always get it last, and this upcoming version of Office 2008 is no exception. The team at Microsoft has been testing the next version of Office for Mac which is scheduled to be out in the middle of this year, and luckily adds some features that Apple fans have been missing out on.

Office 2008 has been finally released in a private beta test version for Mac users to test on Intel and Power PC setups. This release has taken longer than Microsoft's normal schedule of 18-24 months for new Mac versions of software releases. The current Mac version of Office is 2004 came out in April 2004. Mac Office will also finally get support for XML file formats, which was added in the Windows Office 2007 version. Office for Mac will also see an application called My Day, which give quick access to calendar items. Other improvements include improved page layout in Word and Excel with ledger sheets.

An Office alternative that more and more users are getting turned onto is the new OpenOffice 2.2 which has recently been released.

Tags: apple, excel, intel, mac, microsoft, office, openoffice, pc, power pc, PowerPc, powerpoint, word, xml

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jamus said 9:32AM on 4-03-2007

Well, not exactly...

Mac users are not getting it last. In some ways they are getting it first. Microsoft has taken the flip-flop approach with Office. One year it is for PC, the next year it is for Mac and they try to incorporate "best" features of each release into the next year/platform release.

Examples:
Office 97 - PC
Office 98 - Mac
Office 2000 - PC
Office 2001 - Mac
Office XP - PC
Office v.X - Mac
Office 2003 - PC
Office 2004 - Mac
Office 2007 - PC
Office 2008 - Mac
and so on...

You could also look at it this way:
Until January, Mac users had the newest version of Office and the PC version was lagging behind! ;)

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

View more Time Wasters