It’s been a while since I have posted on Mac Mojo -- it was actually on the eve of the launch of Office 2008 for Mac. Today’s milestone warrants another appearance – an update to the Office 2008 for Mac product line. In a nutshell, we’ve added “Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition” and we’ve simplified our offerings to make it easier for customers to identify the best product for their needs. As a result, we’ll now have:
1) Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition
2) Office 2008 for Mac Home & Student
So what’s in Business Edition? The new Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition is a lot like it sounds... a suite that’s packed with tools and features needed to grow and manage a business. It has all the familiar Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Entourage, all updated with Service Pack 2) while including new tools to provide a more complete productivity package for the enterprise:
• Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition– Provides faster data synchronization so Entourage users on Exchange 2007 will experience improved email and calendaring support. Additionally, we’ve added the ability to sync Tasks, Notes and Categories – one of the top customer requests – making Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition the best client for Exchange on the Mac.
• Document Connection for Mac – Improves access and browsing to documents on SharePoint Products and Technologies and Microsoft Office Live Workspace for streamlined collaboration
• Extras – More than 200 business-related templates and clip art, along with lynda.com training
Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition enables businesses of all sizes to connect to Microsoft services. Both Document Connection and Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition will connect to the respective services, either self-hosted in your company or hosted. Using hosted Microsoft services (like Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite) your company can take advantage of rich services without the hassle and expense of set-up and maintenance of running them yourself.
Business Edition has an estimated retail price of $399.95 ($239.95 for the upgrade) and is available for purchase by just following this link: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/promotions.
I think it is wonderful that you are getting closer to a robust Exchange client, but it sounds more like an enhancement or improvement of what I have already paid for. Full function Outlook for Mac would be the step folks might pay money to upgrade to. Until then, I must return to my VM to run Outlook 2007 to get things done at work.
Hi EwachiwA -
If you already have Office 2008 installed and want to upgrade your Entourage/Exchange experience, you can get Entourage 2008 Web Service Edition for free.
The bug that prevents different page layouts from being saved in your .xlsx file format?
icefox
Sep 22, 2009
8:25am
Mac Office for Business remains a dream
While I applaud this new edition, there are still features missing in the Mac version of Excel that I would require, e.g. equal support for Pivot Tables and OLAP. Any info on that front by any chance? Thanks
Comments | Who's Blogging This
EwachiwA
Sep 16, 2009
12:54pm
Price?
Sep 16, 2009
1:09pm
If you already have Office 2008 installed and want to upgrade your Entourage/Exchange experience, you can get Entourage 2008 Web Service Edition for free.
Find more details on the release, and a pointer to the download here: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/itpros/entourage-ews.mspx
bonesb
Sep 16, 2009
12:54pm
Have you guys fixed that layout bug in Excel yet?
icefox
Sep 22, 2009
8:25am
Mac Office for Business remains a dream
Paul Naassan
Oct 13, 2009
4:42pm
Re: The MacBU Means Business (Edition)!