Mac Mojo: The Office for Mac Team Blog http://www.officeformac.com/ms/blog Welcome to the official blog of the Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) where you can read and discuss candid insights from the team at Microsoft that creates Office for Mac. Wed, 18 Aug 2010 21:08:30 GMT Web Crossing(r) Unix-v6.4 built Jan 14 2010 18:50:13 (source:1372 2010-01-14 15:39:31 -0800)-6.4 (http://webcrossing.com/) http://backend.userland.com/rss <![CDATA[Contest Question #2: Getting creative with Office for Mac]]> Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:07:32 GMT http://www.officeformac.com/blog/Contest-Question--2--Getting-creative-with-Office-for-Mac http://www.officeformac.com/blog/Contest-Question--2--Getting-creative-with-Office-for-Mac Mac Mojo Team We’re excited about all of the responses we’ve received so far after our first question in the contest. We hope you continue to submit great entries, and this week we’re giving you a few more opportunities to enter to win Office 2008 for Mac (and 2011 once available) on a customized color Macbook.



For this entry, we want to know: How have you used Office for Mac applications to build a creative project?

For those who haven’t had much of a chance to use Office for Mac creatively, how could you imagine using Office for Mac in a creative way? What would you like to create? Whether it is a piece of art you made, a compelling story you wrote, a presentation you crafted, or an outside-the-box approach to a project – we want to hear about it!



To enter, simply share your legitimate (contextually relevant, appropriate and legible) response in the comment field of this blog post and/or on Twitter in reply to @officeformac. Comment on both for more opportunities to win! Please see the attached document for full rules and details.

 

]]> <![CDATA[Contest Question #3: Your Best PowerPoint for Mac Presentation]]> Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:07:06 GMT http://www.officeformac.com/blog/Contest-Question--3--Your-Best-PowerPoint-for-Mac-Presentation1 http://www.officeformac.com/blog/Contest-Question--3--Your-Best-PowerPoint-for-Mac-Presentation1 Mac Mojo Team We loved seeing all of your innovative ideas and cool projects that you’ve used Office for Mac to create. It’s amazing what a little imagination can do when paired with the right tools! You have yet another opportunity this week to enter to win Office 2008 for Mac (and 2011 once available) on a customized color Macbook, so share your stories and continue to increase your odds of winning.



For this entry, we want you to tell us about your best PowerPoint for Mac presentation ever. What made that particular presentation so great? Was it your passion for the topic? The response from your audience? A letter grade it helped you land? A milestone it helped you achieve? Don’t be bashful; we give you permission to boast about your moment of glory. Whatever made this PowerPoint presentation so memorable – we want to hear about it.



Remember to share your legitimate (contextually relevant, appropriate and legible) response in the comment field of this blog post and/or on Twitter in reply to @officeformac. Comment on both for more opportunities to win! Please see the attached document for full rules and details.

 

]]> <![CDATA[Contest Question #4: What are you most proud of writing on Word for Mac?]]> Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:07:35 GMT http://www.officeformac.com/blog/Contest-Question--4--What-are-you-most-proud-of-writing-on-Word-for-Mac http://www.officeformac.com/blog/Contest-Question--4--What-are-you-most-proud-of-writing-on-Word-for-Mac Mac Mojo Team This week we will have two more contest questions for you to answer here on Mac Mojo and over on Twitter in reply to @OfficeforMac. For those that haven’t been following along, your answers count as entries into an awesome giveaway that includes a copy of Office 2008 for Mac (AND 2011 once available) on a customized color Macbook.



Now we want to hear from you wordsmiths out there. We know that for many of you, Word for Mac is your tool of choice for all of your word processing needs. For this entry, tell us about the document that you are the most proud of writing on Word for Mac!



This could be a report you wrote back in school, an imaginative story, an important document, a contract, or even something as simple as a ‘thank you’ note. Whatever Word for Mac creation you were most proud of, we want to hear about it.



To submit your entry, share your legitimate (contextually relevant, appropriate and legible) response in the comment field of this blog. Please see the attached document for full rules and details.

 

]]> <![CDATA[Office for Mac 2011 Behind-the-Scenes: Conversations, Templates and more!]]> Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:07:16 GMT http://www.officeformac.com/blog/Office-for-Mac-2011-Behind-the-Scenes--Conversations--Templates-and-more http://www.officeformac.com/blog/Office-for-Mac-2011-Behind-the-Scenes--Conversations--Templates-and-more Mac Mojo Team

Today we have the first in a series of behind-the-scenes looks at Office for Mac 2011. And who better to show the new tools and features than the people who created them.  We want to introduce Eric Schuchman, Program Manager, PowerPoint; Ryan Panchadasaram, Program Manager, Outlook for Mac; Amy Wang, Developer, Outlook for Mac; and no stranger to Mac Mojo - Han-Yi Shaw, User Experience Manager. The team has a short video (above) and here is a quick look at the new feature they discuss: 



•    Starting off with the new Template Gallery in Office 2011, this feature allows you to quickly and easily pick a template from the built-in designs to the thousands of templates online – giving you a head start to create great looking, professional documents.



•    Core features in Outlook for Mac like the Conversation View help you sort emails easily to keep track of what you need to do. Additionally, the new file-based database is faster and provides more stability with Time Machine support.



•    Tying all of the new features together is the Office for Mac ribbon, designed as an evolution of the Office 2008 Elements Gallery while also utilizing the classic Mac menu and Standard Toolbar giving you the best of both worlds. We have put the most commonly used controls at your fingertips making it easier for you to find what you need. You can even minimize the ribbon and the Toolbar for more screen space or for the more advanced users who rely on keyboard shortcuts.



Check back in with Mac Mojo or on Facebook as we begin to reveal more sneak peeks at Office 2011. Office 2011 will be available the last quarter of the calendar year.



Looking forward to sharing more updates as the summer goes on!

 

]]> <![CDATA[Contest Question #5: When has Excel for Mac been the most helpful?]]> Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:07:27 GMT http://www.officeformac.com/blog/Contest-Question--5--When-has-Excel-for-Mac-been-the-most-helpful http://www.officeformac.com/blog/Contest-Question--5--When-has-Excel-for-Mac-been-the-most-helpful Mac Mojo Team We’re already on the fifth (out of seven) contest questions for our giveaway of Office 2008 for Mac (AND Office for Mac 2011 once available later this year) on a customized color Macbook. Continue to answer each question we pose here and on Twitter (@OfficeforMac) for more chances to take home the big prize.



This question is for you number crunchers and data heads who can’t live without Excel for Mac. It’s amazing to hear about the many different ways people use Excel. We’ve heard of people managing their personal or business budgets, keeping track of statistics for their favorite team, and even those using it as a food diary to keep track of their calories throughout the day. And it seems whatever data you are working with, there is always a helpful formula to make managing it even easier. So for your next entry into the contest we want to know: In what project of yours has Excel for Mac been the most helpful?



To submit your entry, share your legitimate (contextually relevant, appropriate and legible) response in the comment field of this blog. Please see the attached document for full rules and details.



And just to make sure you’ve capitalized on all of your chances to win, here are the other blog posts that serve as places you can enter:



Contest Question #4: What are you most proud of writing on Word for Mac?

Contest Question #3: Your Best PowerPoint for Mac Presentation

Contest Question #2: Getting creative with Office for Mac

Your chance to win Office for Mac 2011, and more

]]> <![CDATA[Office for Mac 2011 in the Store This October]]> Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:08:15 GMT http://www.officeformac.com/blog/Office-for-Mac-2011-in-the-Store-This-October1 http://www.officeformac.com/blog/Office-for-Mac-2011-in-the-Store-This-October1 Mac Mojo Team It's official, Office for Mac 2011 will be available at the end of October! Depending on what type of user you are, we’ll have two different editions available to purchase at retail — Office for Mac Home and Student 2011 and Office for Mac Home and Business 2011. Additionally, starting today, if you buy Office 2008 for Mac, you will be able to upgrade to Office 2011 when it is available at no additional cost through the Microsoft Office for Mac Technology Guarantee Program.



Many have asked, “How much will Office for Mac 2011 cost?”

The new lineup has a lower price per installation for all editions. Below is a quick look at the pricing structure.



Office for Mac Home & Student Edition 2011 (Word for Mac, PowerPoint for Mac, Excel for Mac and Messenger for Mac 8 )   

$119.00 US ERP (1 install)

Family Pack: $149 US ERP (3 installs)



Office for Mac Home & Business Edition 2011 (Word for Mac, PowerPoint for Mac, Excel for Mac, Outlook for Mac and Messenger for Mac 8 )

$199.00 US ERP (1 install)

Multi-Pack: $279 US ERP (2 installs)

   

If Home and Student customers determine that they need the additional functionality of a desktop e-mail client, they can easily step up to Office for Mac Home and Business 2011 using online upgrade functionality.



Additionally, there is a special edition for higher education students, staff and faculty – Office for Mac Academic Edition 2011. The edition includes Word for Mac, PowerPoint for Mac, Excel for Mac, Outlook for Mac and Messenger for Mac, and it will retail at authorized academic stores and Microsoft, http://www.officeformac.com, for $99 (U.S. ERP).



And, for those that want to buy Office 2008 today, you’ll be able to get Office 2011:

Today, we are announcing a program to allow qualifying customers to upgrade to Office 2011 at no additional cost when they purchase Office 2008.

•    Qualifying purchase details: Office 2008 for Mac must be purchased between Aug. 1, 2010, and Nov. 30, 2010, at Microsoft or authorized reseller.

•    Program registration: Customers can register for the program online at http://www.microsoft.com/mac/techg. Qualifying registrants must fill out the form and submit their product key(s) and dated sales receipt for Office 2008 for Mac by Dec. 31, 2010.



Complete details on this upgrade offer can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/mac/techg.



We look forward to sharing more details leading up to October!

 

]]> <![CDATA[I know I've spelled this right!]]> Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:08:00 GMT http://www.officeformac.com/blog/I-know-I-ve-spelled-this-right http://www.officeformac.com/blog/I-know-I-ve-spelled-this-right Eric Paquin Today, it is with great excitement that I can reveal what we have been up to for the last few months! For us on the localization team, being busy doesn’t mean writing super snazzy new features for Office. We do review these to ensure they are suitable for our non-American English markets and that they can be adapted to the different locale we support – but this is another story…

 

I can reveal that we are adding 2 new languages to the Office family – Russian and Polish! We have come a long way since Office 2001 where we only offered 6 languages (English, Japanese, French, German, Spanish, Swedish). By 2008 we added Italian, Dutch, Finnish, Danish and Norwegian. The two new additions bring our offering to 13 languages!

 

While we are adding new language support there will not be full right-to-left support for languages such as Arabic and Hebrew. We understand that some of our customers need support for RTL languages, and we'll continue to prioritize our language support based on market opportunity and technical complexity. At this time, we don’t have any updates on languages or features beyond Office 2011.

 

Since I am talking about languages, let me talk about another feature that has seen a makeover in Office 2011 – our proofing tools. While you might not see anything really obvious at first glance, we’ve updated all our tools and applications to use the same APIs as Office 2010 (our Windows cousins!). This opens the door to many things: 3rd party proofing tools companies that are relying on Windows API can now port their tools to work on the Mac and, of course, we can also increase our proofing tools offering by converting the tools included in Office 2010. So as a first step, we are introducing 3 more proofing tools languages (on top of the 2 new full languages): Catalan, Czech and Turkish!

 

So you can now correct your spelling in 17 languages!

 

One application diverges from the others - Outlook. Since Outlook is using Webkit at its core, it benefited from Apple integrated proofing tools. Although more limited and with less languages available (“only” 12), it opened up new possibilities such as language detection which means, if you frequently send mails in different languages, you don’t have to go to your Tools menu to change the language option every time you write in a different language.

 

Enjoy Office for Mac 2011 - It's going to be a great vintage!

]]> <![CDATA[Contest Question #6: What's on your Office for Mac to-do list?]]> Tue, 03 Aug 2010 23:08:23 GMT http://www.officeformac.com/blog/Contest-Question--6--What-s-on-your-Office-for-Mac-to-do-list http://www.officeformac.com/blog/Contest-Question--6--What-s-on-your-Office-for-Mac-to-do-list Mac Mojo Team It’s the last week to enter your submissions for our current giveaway, so continue to leave a comment on each post and submit your answers on Twitter (@OfficeforMac) for more opportunities to be one of our lucky winners. Do we have to remind you that Office 2008 for Mac (AND Office 2011 once available later this year) on a customized color Macbook is at stake? We thought not.



This week we want to hear how Office for Mac helps you regularly stay on task. From the frequent requests that land in your email inbox, to the ongoing projects that you are working to wrap up – Office for Mac helps us stay productive. So for this contest question, we want to know: “What’s on your current Office for Mac to-do list?” Let us know how you are using Office for Mac to get things done!



To submit your entry, share your legitimate (contextually relevant, appropriate and legible) response in the comment field of this blog. Please see the attached document for full rules and details.



And just to make sure you’ve capitalized on all of your chances to win, here are the other blog posts that serve as places you can enter:



Contest Question #5: When has Excel for Mac been the most helpful?

Contest Question #4: What are you most proud of writing on Word for Mac?

Contest Question #3: Your Best PowerPoint for Mac Presentation

Contest Question #2: Getting creative with Office for Mac

Your chance to win Office for Mac 2011, and more

 

]]> <![CDATA[Contest Question #7: How does Office for Mac help you as a professional?]]> Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:08:09 GMT http://www.officeformac.com/blog/Contest-Question--7--How-does-Office-for-Mac-help-you-as-a-professional http://www.officeformac.com/blog/Contest-Question--7--How-does-Office-for-Mac-help-you-as-a-professional Mac Mojo Team While the contest is coming to an end, we’re excited that we are getting close to declaring the winners for our Office for Mac prize pack – including Office 2008 for Mac (AND Office 2011 once available later this year) on a customized color Macbook! This will be the final question that you will be able to submit an entry for – so be sure to get your comment in on this post and in reply to us on Twitter (@OfficeforMac). All entries must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. PT tonight to be eligible.



This week’s question is for those who are hard at work: How does Office for Mac help you to be a better professional? Perhaps you use Excel to keep track of your company’s finances or you create PowerPoint presentations for your next big pitch. Or maybe you are working to land your next big job with a professional-looking resume created in Word. How do you use Office for Mac to help make you look like a star at work?



To submit your entry, share your legitimate (contextually relevant, appropriate and legible) response in the comment field of this blog. Please see the attached document for full rules and details.



And just to make sure you’ve capitalized on all of your chances to win, here are the other blog posts that serve as places you can enter:

Contest Question #6: What's on your Office for Mac to-do list?

Contest Question #5: When has Excel for Mac been the most helpful?

Contest Question #4: What are you most proud of writing on Word for Mac?

Contest Question #3: Your Best PowerPoint for Mac Presentation

Contest Question #2: Getting creative with Office for Mac

Your chance to win Office for Mac 2011, and more

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