It's been a big couple of weeks for the Office for Mac team. We announced Office for Mac 2011 including some great new features to help you be more productive. But perhaps our most productive feature is an old one: your ability to work with people on other platforms to collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Toward that end, the Office for Mac team continues to make ongoing investments in our file formats.
As you expect, Office for Mac 2011 creates and consumes files that your friends, family, and colleagues can share, regardless of whether they’re on a Mac or a PC, and regardless of which version of Microsoft Office they’re using, or if they’re not using Microsoft Office at all!
Is your friend using the upcoming Office 2010 on Windows for their presentations? No problem!
Does your family use Office 2008 for Mac, or Office 2007 on Windows, for their documents? If they stay up to date with the latest updates, it all just works!
Do your colleagues use Office 2004 for Mac, or Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003 on Windows, for their spreadsheets? No worries: They should stay up to date with the latest updates, and may need to install some additional software from Microsoft (for Mac, on Windows), but your colleagues can work with the same DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX files that Office for Mac 2011 writes by default, or you can choose to save to DOC, XLS, and PPT formats instead. It’s your choice!
We think a lot about file formats so that you don't have to. Consider that Office 2004 works with files from Office 2011: files written to a file format that didn't even exist when Office 2004 was released. That's huge! Consider also that every up-to-date copy of Office 2008 will be compatible with Office 2011 for Mac and Office 2010 on Windows the day those versions hit the street. Now stop thinking about it if you want to, because we take care of it.
What else do you need to know?
Well, if you’re a standards wonk (like me), then details matter.
Office for Mac has implemented Open XML natively on the Macintosh platform since Office 2008. Office for Mac 2011 continues this tradition, reading all current Open XML standards, including ECMA-376:2006 and ISO/IEC 29500:2008, and producing, by default, ISO/IEC 29500:2008-compliant files of the transitional conformance class.
You can rest assured that Open XML documents produced by Office for Mac 2011 are in a format that your ISO/IEC 29500:2008-compliant tools understand, whether those tools were written by yourself, by Microsoft, or by someone else.
And if you're not a standards wonk, or if you don't even know what a standards wonk is, then you can rest assured that working with Office for Mac has never been easier than with Office for Mac 2011.
Mr. Neumann thank you very much for these information. I can probably call my self a standards wonk, too and that is why I would be very happy to get some more details. I have been using office 2007 (vm: parallels) and 2008 for quite a while to write long scientific papers (up to 120 pages) with equations, graphics, tables and so on. So far the best format to work on both platforms pc and mac is the old *.doc format. The new xml based docx is quite a pain when it comes to serious formatting (I think that is the same what the "best practice" forums say). I summarized some question that might be very interesting for productive users:
-Will the formulas created with the very nice and new office 2007/2010 equation editor be readable with the new word 2011 (currently word 2008 can't read them)? (I am not talking about the old style equation editor 3.x but the new xml based editor).
-Will the good citations function in word 2008 be compatible across all word versions? And will the citation style be customizable?
-Will excel table formats be totally cross platform compatible (with pivot and vb macros)?
-If the new office software that is coming up is so clever that it can read any format no matter if it is doc or docx and there will be updates for all sooner versions to make them xml ready,- if this is the case why is there any need for asking the user if whats to save his document in xml or the old format? Just make a cut and throw away the old bytes (that would be really mac like .
-Will the new office 2011 also support the open document format *.odt?
I have tons of more questions but it would be already very nice of you to provide the answers to some of these. Thank you very much!
We recently announced Office for Mac 2011 and will be sharing more details on specific features in the coming months. That said, we appreciate your choice of Microsoft Office software for your valuable work, and hope to continue earning your business with Office 2011!
MRLYNX
Mar 04, 2010
11:17pm
Support for PST
WoW! I hope this outlook for mac will support PST files!
I have been an outlook user since its beta days (athena) and while I made the switch to a mac back in 2006, I have maintained XP via Parallels primarily to retain my use of Outlook. I tried Entourage but gave up due to lack of a clean .pst migration and overall functionality. Over the years I have beta test many products including several MS OS systems as well as previous versions of Office. If a beta project is started up for Mac Office 2011, please keep my in mind.
david
B-Man
Mar 24, 2010
3:06pm
Beta - me too!
Like Kairgid, can't wait to see Outlook. You've got to beta this suite in a broader public, there are too many eyes on you...
madtowner
Mar 24, 2010
3:08pm
Product Key for 2011 test
I purchased and downloaded the Home Office and Student version of Office for Mac 2011, but the product keys that were sent to me in my E-mail receipt won't work. Does anyone know how to resolve this? There is no phone support for this version yet, so my only option is to request a refund if I can't get this software installed.
Thanks!
error404ts
Mar 24, 2010
3:08pm
HTML emails and font size
My biggest complaint with MS Office for Mac has been using HTML emails and font sizes blowing up when sending emails to Outlook users on PCs. An email created using 10pt Arial in Entourage ends up being around 18pts when received in Outlook.
Will there be a fix for this?
jonohayes
Mar 24, 2010
3:10pm
CalDAV & CardDAV
does any one know. of can some one tell me from the Office 2011 team...
will Outlook for Mac support CalDAV & CardDAV?
JasonDeluce
Jun 08, 2010
10:09am
Member of Microsoft Connect
I was able to join Microsoft Office for Mac Beta, but do not see any options for obtaining beta. I assume it was by invitation only. Is it too late for an invite?
kairgid
Mar 01, 2010
11:47am
How do you get on the beta?
I am soooo excited to hear the ribbon UI and more importantly Outlook is coming to the Mac! How do I get on the Beta for this bad boy??
@kairgid and dtbw - The product is in limited private beta testing now, however we don't have plans for a broad public beta. Thanks!
jschacter
Mar 24, 2010
3:06pm
Outlook 2011
I hope you will be supporting basic functionailty such as the ability to forward a table, URL or email address. The current lack of support for Complex HTML makes Entourage intollerable
Shekel
Mar 24, 2010
3:08pm
Please make Outlook THE SAME as the PC 2010 office version
I use Outlook at work on a PC and Office for Mac at home and the differences between Entourage and Outlook functionality are massive (in favour of the PC).
I recently had a demo of Outlook for Mac 2011 and I am so pleased that Outlook is coming to Mac but there were some CRITICALLY IMPORTANT features missing:
Formatting in Outlook 2011 for Mac and Entourage is woeful. You can't copy and paste rich media or even tables, insert and format photos in the Mac version but Outlook for the PC has done this well for years.
Please make the addressing in the To, CC and BBC lines easier, can't we type directly into the address bar without having the silly pop-up box?
Can the Mac 2011 Outlook have Outlook Today? This 'All Up' view is really useful
Can you please enable video calls in Messenger for Mac! I am not taking about the corporate Messenger version...this decision my MS to not allow video calls from Messenger for Mac has driven me to Skype.
Thanks! Discuss!
roberts
Mar 24, 2010
3:08pm
Re: Working with Office for Mac 2011
I have been an outlook user since its beta days (athena) and while I made the switch to a mac back in 2006, I have maintained XP via Parallels primarily to retain my use of Outlook. I tried Entourage http://www.elittravestiler.com but gave up due to lack of a clean .pst migration and overall functionality. Over the years I have beta test many products including several MS OS systems as well as previous versions of Office. If a beta project is started up for Mac Office 2011, please keep my in mind.
gprovida
Mar 24, 2010
3:08pm
Security Concerns For Enterprise - AutoUpdate
Autoupdate is a key security feature that Office could provide, unfortunately it is a real problem with firewalls and proxy servers. Solutions that support proxypacs would be great or as my IT focal point suggested,
"We're making the updates to Microsoft Office available thru Self Service. Microsoft Office AutoUpdate is one of the applications that doesn't work well with proxy.pac. With some applications we've been able to have them default to gatekeeper [port 80] as a work around, but that doesn't seem to be an option here. [MS Office for Mac 2008].
... Most of the other applications we've ran into that have issues with proxy.pac have a method to allow you to specify alternate proxy settings. ..."
Apple Updates [including iWorks] or Google [Google Apps] are fine, MS seems to be missing an opportunity.
ankmania
Mar 24, 2010
3:10pm
Beta for Mac 2011
Hi,
I read the posts that there might not be a broad public beta but what are the other options to sign up for the limited beta release. I am a die hard Mac for office user for the last two years and a Microsoft alumni. Thanks!
Comments | Who's Blogging This
Jani
Mar 01, 2010
11:47am
more details please - I am a wonk :)
-Will the formulas created with the very nice and new office 2007/2010 equation editor be readable with the new word 2011 (currently word 2008 can't read them)? (I am not talking about the old style equation editor 3.x but the new xml based editor).
-Will the good citations function in word 2008 be compatible across all word versions? And will the citation style be customizable?
-Will excel table formats be totally cross platform compatible (with pivot and vb macros)?
-If the new office software that is coming up is so clever that it can read any format no matter if it is doc or docx and there will be updates for all sooner versions to make them xml ready,- if this is the case why is there any need for asking the user if whats to save his document in xml or the old format? Just make a cut and throw away the old bytes (that would be really mac like
-Will the new office 2011 also support the open document format *.odt?
I have tons of more questions but it would be already very nice of you to provide the answers to some of these. Thank you very much!
Kind regards
Mar 01, 2010
11:49am
MRLYNX
Mar 04, 2010
11:17pm
Support for PST
Mar 04, 2010
11:24pm
dtbw
Mar 04, 2010
11:17pm
Would love to beta this
david
B-Man
Mar 24, 2010
3:06pm
Beta - me too!
madtowner
Mar 24, 2010
3:08pm
Product Key for 2011 test
Thanks!
error404ts
Mar 24, 2010
3:08pm
HTML emails and font size
Will there be a fix for this?
jonohayes
Mar 24, 2010
3:10pm
CalDAV & CardDAV
will Outlook for Mac support CalDAV & CardDAV?
JasonDeluce
Jun 08, 2010
10:09am
Member of Microsoft Connect
kairgid
Mar 01, 2010
11:47am
How do you get on the beta?
Mar 04, 2010
11:26pm
jschacter
Mar 24, 2010
3:06pm
Outlook 2011
Shekel
Mar 24, 2010
3:08pm
Please make Outlook THE SAME as the PC 2010 office version
I recently had a demo of Outlook for Mac 2011 and I am so pleased that Outlook is coming to Mac but there were some CRITICALLY IMPORTANT features missing:
Formatting in Outlook 2011 for Mac and Entourage is woeful. You can't copy and paste rich media or even tables, insert and format photos in the Mac version but Outlook for the PC has done this well for years.
Please make the addressing in the To, CC and BBC lines easier, can't we type directly into the address bar without having the silly pop-up box?
Can the Mac 2011 Outlook have Outlook Today? This 'All Up' view is really useful
Can you please enable video calls in Messenger for Mac! I am not taking about the corporate Messenger version...this decision my MS to not allow video calls from Messenger for Mac has driven me to Skype.
Thanks! Discuss!
roberts
Mar 24, 2010
3:08pm
Re: Working with Office for Mac 2011
gprovida
Mar 24, 2010
3:08pm
Security Concerns For Enterprise - AutoUpdate
"We're making the updates to Microsoft Office available thru Self Service. Microsoft Office AutoUpdate is one of the applications that doesn't work well with proxy.pac. With some applications we've been able to have them default to gatekeeper [port 80] as a work around, but that doesn't seem to be an option here. [MS Office for Mac 2008].
... Most of the other applications we've ran into that have issues with proxy.pac have a method to allow you to specify alternate proxy settings. ..."
Apple Updates [including iWorks] or Google [Google Apps] are fine, MS seems to be missing an opportunity.
ankmania
Mar 24, 2010
3:10pm
Beta for Mac 2011
I read the posts that there might not be a broad public beta but what are the other options to sign up for the limited beta release. I am a die hard Mac for office user for the last two years and a Microsoft alumni. Thanks!