Office for Mac 2011 with Ribbon UI, Outlook, and Office Web Apps
The Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) announced that Office for Mac 2011, which is expected to be released later this year, will come with a few important changes. For example, the next version of the leading productivity suite on the Mac will feature its own Office for Mac Ribbon user interface. The ribbon, as Microsoft explained, is the core of the user experience.
“The new design is an evolution of the Office 2008 Elements Gallery and uses the classic Mac menu and Standard Toolbar giving you the best of both worlds. You can even collapse the ribbon and the Toolbar for more screen space or for the more advanced users who rely on keyboard shortcuts. Together these tools make it easy to find and discover new and frequently used commands,” explained the MacBU.
Another important change is the fact that Outlook will replace Entourage, the current mail and calendar program. For corporate users that did not adopt the Mac OS X because it did not come with Outlook (the standard in most corporate environments) this is particularly good news.
We’ve known that Entourage for Mac would be replaced since August ’09, when Microsoft highlighted the main features of Outlook for Mac:
Built on Cocoa. The application is being constructed from the ground up on Cocoa to make integrating with Mac OS a lot easier.
New Database. A high speed file-based database with support for backing up files with Time Machine and Spotlight searching.
Information Rights Management. Helps prevent sensitive information from being distributed to or read by people who do not have permission.
On top of that, “Outlook for Mac provides an integrated solution for managing your time and information and, when it is used in conjunction with Microsoft Exchange Server, you benefit from increased collaboration capabilities and security enhancements,” explained the MacBU.
Last but not least, Office for Mac 201 will feature a connection with Microsoft Office Web Apps. This feature lets Office for Mac 2011 share documents online, just like PC users do using Microsoft Office 2010. Office for Mac 2011 will also feature new co-authoring tools. These let several users work together on a document from several locations.
“The new design is an evolution of the Office 2008 Elements Gallery and uses the classic Mac menu and Standard Toolbar giving you the best of both worlds. You can even collapse the ribbon and the Toolbar for more screen space or for the more advanced users who rely on keyboard shortcuts. Together these tools make it easy to find and discover new and frequently used commands,” explained the MacBU.
Another important change is the fact that Outlook will replace Entourage, the current mail and calendar program. For corporate users that did not adopt the Mac OS X because it did not come with Outlook (the standard in most corporate environments) this is particularly good news.
We’ve known that Entourage for Mac would be replaced since August ’09, when Microsoft highlighted the main features of Outlook for Mac:
Built on Cocoa. The application is being constructed from the ground up on Cocoa to make integrating with Mac OS a lot easier.
New Database. A high speed file-based database with support for backing up files with Time Machine and Spotlight searching.
Information Rights Management. Helps prevent sensitive information from being distributed to or read by people who do not have permission.
On top of that, “Outlook for Mac provides an integrated solution for managing your time and information and, when it is used in conjunction with Microsoft Exchange Server, you benefit from increased collaboration capabilities and security enhancements,” explained the MacBU.
Last but not least, Office for Mac 201 will feature a connection with Microsoft Office Web Apps. This feature lets Office for Mac 2011 share documents online, just like PC users do using Microsoft Office 2010. Office for Mac 2011 will also feature new co-authoring tools. These let several users work together on a document from several locations.
