Microsoft made the news with its Mac-specific productivity suite earlier this week when it released an update for Office 2008 that would solve a rather annoying problem - the inability to open XML-based files in PowerPoint for Mac and Excel for Mac. The Redmond-based software developer once again made the news when a Texas judge prohibited Microsoft from selling or importing to the US any MS Word products that are capable of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML. Then it made the news a third time when it announced the alliance with Nokia, alliance that will put its Office productivity suite onto Nokia’s smartphones.
For the fourth time this week Microsoft makes the news, this time announcing that it will drop Entourage in Favor of Outlook.
Next year, by the holiday season, Microsoft plans to roll out a new version of the Office for Mac productivity suite and it will come with Outlook for Mac, not Entourage for Mac, the existing email and calendar program. This is particularly good news for corporate customers that did not adopt the Mac OS X because it did not come with Outlook, the standard in most corporate environments.
“Outlook for Mac will bring features our customers have long requested — such as Information Rights Management – that make working across platforms even easier. I think people will see that this move to Outlook for Mac is more than just a name change,” commented General Manager of the Mac Business Unit with Microsoft, Eric Wilfrid.
Microsoft highlighted some of the features that you will get from 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.
Check out Microsoft’s official press release on the topic here.
For the fourth time this week Microsoft makes the news, this time announcing that it will drop Entourage in Favor of Outlook.
Next year, by the holiday season, Microsoft plans to roll out a new version of the Office for Mac productivity suite and it will come with Outlook for Mac, not Entourage for Mac, the existing email and calendar program. This is particularly good news for corporate customers that did not adopt the Mac OS X because it did not come with Outlook, the standard in most corporate environments.
“Outlook for Mac will bring features our customers have long requested — such as Information Rights Management – that make working across platforms even easier. I think people will see that this move to Outlook for Mac is more than just a name change,” commented General Manager of the Mac Business Unit with Microsoft, Eric Wilfrid.
Microsoft highlighted some of the features that you will get from 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.
Check out Microsoft’s official press release on the topic here.