Today, Microsoft launches Office 2011 for Mac. This brings the latest version of their productivity software to Mac users. The Office Mac team has been porting software to the Mac for 13 years.
“As someone who works at Microsoft and deals with Apple often, I acknowledge that our companies compete,” Wilfrid says. “Some people choose Windows, and some people choose Mac. That conflict tends to get a lot of attention, but I deal in the reality that there are customers who love their Macs and also love using Office.” — Eric Wilfrid, general manager of Microsoft’s Office for Mac team
One would think that Mac users would shun Office just as many of them avoid other Microsoft products, but three-quarters of all Mac users have Office on their machines. The theory is that they run Office to remain somewhat compatible with the Windows world. Seems that it’s not necessarily a choice, but a necessity to get things done given the proliferation of PC’s and Microsoft Office software.
Still, this highlights the important relationship between Apple and Microsoft. Today, Microsoft releases Office for Mac 2011. It brings Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook to the Mac platform. This is the first time that Outlook has been available for the Mac. It is available in 13 languages and, by November, will be available in 45 countries around the world.
Outlook being included in this release is very interesting. It was built from the ground up and works with both on-premises Exchange and the new Office 365 cloud service from Microsoft. While Microsoft has always made Office available for Mac, Outlook is a new addition to the suite for Mac users.
Just as the latest version of Office for Windows has improved the suite by leaps and bounds, the same features are coming to the Mac. This includes co-authoring, where teams in different locations can edit the same document, and heavy integration with the cloud for storing documents and making them accessible wherever you are, even editing via the web browser.
Office 2011 has new built-in integration with Windows Live SkyDrive as well as connections to SharePoint so users can manage files and work from any location, Wilfrid says. With Office Web Apps, Mac consumers can edit Office documents straight from their browser.
Are you one of the Mac users who have been waiting on the latest release of Microsoft Office?
via Mac Meets PC With New Office Release