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Office 2008 Coming January 2008

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We announced today that Office 2008 for Mac will be released to manufacturing (“RTM”) this December, which will allow for retail availability in the US in mid-January (planning for Macworld), and allow us to deliver Office 2008 to our volume license customers and global customers in the first quarter of 2008.

We had hoped to deliver the product in the second half of 2007 and as you know might imagine, this was a tough slip for us. Moving RTM to December means you, our customers, won’t have our product this year, and I am very clear a lot of folks are eagerly awaiting Office 2008. Slipping delays when our team can move on to our next release of Office for Mac - we’re working to get releases out on a more frequent basis, delivering more good stuff to Microsoft Mac customers more often.

As tough as it is, I firmly believe that this slip is the right call for MacBU. Delivering Office at the right quality level is super important to the entire team and to Microsoft’s long standing commitment to the Mac platform, and it was clear from our June and July quality checkpoints that no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t release our product in time for the Christmas season with the kind of quality we wanted.

We’re in an “all hands on deck” mode right now to ensure Office 2008 gets finished on time, and so you will not see final versions of our RDC client or file format converters until sometime after we ship Office.

Starting in September, we are planning a series of “sneak peeks” to show you more of the features and functionality of this release. I’m very pleased that we can soon start sharing more of what the team has been up to – stay tuned.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    PingBack from http://www.macdunyasi.com/2007/08/02/office-2008-2008e-kaldi/

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    A full year after the Office release...and no converters until afterwards? Wow....wouldn't want to trade places with anyone there!

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Kind of a let down, I think Office 2004 is sometimes unbearably slow and seeing this is a major disappointment. Oh well, only a few months to go.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Oh well, as disappointing as it is that the release date has been pushed back, the important thing is to have a quality product with really up-to-date functionality.  Speaking of that, will there be any integration between Office:mac 2008 and PC-only products such as Sharepoint?

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Does this mean that the next release of Microsoft Messenger for Mac also will be delayed? It's now been six months since the 6.0.2 release and many of us are eagerly awaiting new features like video support and shared folders.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Mario and Zelda) once said, "A delayed game is eventually good; a bad game is bad forever."

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Buh-bye

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Please take the time to get it right the first time.  Interested in a beta tester? johnwhalen at yahoo.com.  MS Office user since Mac SE.  Still miss Word 5.1, but like the new ribbon on Windows side.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    As long as the new Office has a real MAPI client that interacts with an exchange server to the same level that the Windows client I am happy. Please, please, please make this priority number 1. I don't care about the Project Center, I don't care about to-do lists, I just want to be able to read and respond to my email, create and respond to invites, etc. like a normal Windows users....but on my Mac!

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    That was predictable.  Guess the MacBU isn't that much different than the rest of Microsoft, after all. Are we going to get a beta soon? Are we going to get details on what's actually in Entourage soon?  Will Entourage be a full-fledged Exchange client?  Can I finally ditch Windows from my Mac?

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    I thought that this was pretty obvious based on the state of the file converters. If there are still bugs in the converters, then obviously, Office isn't coming along too well.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Can you please build the converters into the Office 2004 suite?

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Well, I am a bit disappointed, but I'd rather you put out a top-notch product, so good for you for knowing that you need to delay it a bit. Are you going to release any beta type software? Thanks.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Another great reason to switch to google apps...this may do it for my organization.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    This is good news - at least that we have a release date although I am disappointed by the lack of news up to now. What are you going to do for new Mac buyers who have not purchased office 2004, instead preferring the OpenOffice Mac port until Office 2008 releases? If I buy Office 2004 now, which it looks like I need to, will you give me a free upgrade to 2008 in January? Perhaps I should just wait until SUN's contribution to the Mac-port starts paying off and we get a native, OOo supported version (http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/) - probably in the same timeframe...

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Bummer...but I'm looking forward to the sneak-peeks. As an Exchange and SharePoint admin for Windows and Mac clients, I'm especially interested in what MacBU can pull off in feature parity with Outlook 2007.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Craig, that's good to hear we can get a sneak peek soon.  However, ( and i'm sure you are sick of hearing this) I have to say that without VBA it is likely to be very difficult for many users to upgrade to it. One idea might be to supply a copy of 2004 on the 2008 disks for those who still need VBA. Can you say a bit more about 2008 - possibly let us see a video or screenshots? regards, Peter

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    >…so you will not see final versions of our RDC client or file format converters until sometime after we ship Office. I can't stress enough how utterly unacceptable this is. We saw Office 2007's new file formats released in January of this year. And we won't have a reliable converter for the Mac platform until over a year later? That a fully functional read/write version of the converter was not released at the same time as Office 2007 was infuriating. This latest slip only adds to the impression that Microsoft is either deliberately slighting Mac users, or hopelessly incompetent. As a person who supports around 250 Mac users in a predominantly Windows environment, I can only express rage, frustration and unbridled scorn for the Mac business unit today. Nor is it merely the Mac users that are effected. Our PC users are currently confused and in many cases downgrading to Office 2003 to retain the seamless integration with their Mac-using colleagues that they have come to expect.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Ridiculous and par for the course.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    As a 20 year Mac manager overseeing 300 corporate users, I'm so not surprised. I went to Microsoft's Office for Mac roadshow a couple of months ago and I could see at that time they were not all together like Office was good to go. Typical performance from Microsoft.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    No worry, just make the Exchange support really good in Entourage 2008 and I'll let this one slip by. If you are interested in a BETA tester I would be glad to lend a hand also. ;) Looking forward to the sneak peak this fall. :)

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Oh, well. I was hoping MacBU would release a really good office suite before the year was over. You know, the kinda thing worthy of the world's No. 1 computer firm. Full compatibility with Windows office, full exchange support for Entourage, full functionality of Outlook, snappy performance, lots of other goodies. The delay means the new Office for Mac will appear one year later than Office for Windows. It might even lose some features (Vista did!).

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    This is actually a good thing.  It means that the Office 2008 moniker will actually be correct, since it will have come out in 2008, NOT 2007! But since I'm still using Office v. X, I'm not sweating too much.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    A disappointing announcement-and I'm sure a tough decision. So, I'll weigh in with a perspective from a loyal Mac user from the late 80's until my workplace switched to PC's in 97...and I finally got sick of maintaining a personal PC at home and 'switched' back to Mac in 2006. Here it is: Like many people, I cannot get access to my workplace Exchange Server for my personal computer (PC or Mac). I think the ability that Entourage has to check Outlook Web Mail and treat it as another Entourage mailbox is incredibly useful to me. The fact that the calendar actually syncs with my work Outlook calendar is key for me. So, my message is: ADD FUNCTIONALITY. I want tasks, and further refined functions. I want access to contacts (even downloading the GAL from Exchange?) I think many users of Office 2004 are comletely unaware of this cool feature of Entourage-I ran into it on the MacBU Blogs, BTW. Make it better-and advertise it. Make me drool for 2008....oh yeah-and since my workplace won't let me have access to the Exchange server, I'll add that my experiences in trying to get work email and calendar functions (which as I said I get in Entourage) synched in any succesful fashion to either a Treo 650 or my newer Blackberry Pearl have been a disappointment. Want to really wow us? Add enhanced features to Entourage for checking OWA and 'forwarding' mail and calendar events to a smartphone...remembering that OWA is the only 'portal' I have into my work Exchange Server. A tall order...but in the meantime, I want to say that the existence and quality of Office 2004 was a key point in my decision to 'switch back' to the Mac. I'll look forward to 2008...especially since you're now gonna use the extra time to give me what I need :-)

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    A disappointing announcement-and I'm sure a tough decision. So, I'll weigh in with a perspective from a loyal Mac user from the late 80's until my workplace switched to PC's in 97...and I finally got sick of maintaining a personal PC at home and 'switched' back to Mac in 2006. Here it is: Like many people, I cannot get access to my workplace Exchange Server for my personal computer (PC or Mac). I think the ability that Entourage has to check Outlook Web Mail and treat it as another Entourage mailbox is incredibly useful to me. The fact that the calendar actually syncs with my work Outlook calendar is key for me. So, my message is: ADD FUNCTIONALITY. I want tasks, and further refined functions. I want access to contacts (even downloading the GAL from Exchange?) I think many users of Office 2004 are comletely unaware of this cool feature of Entourage-I ran into it on the MacBU Blogs, BTW. Make it better-and advertise it. Make me drool for 2008....oh yeah-and since my workplace won't let me have access to the Exchange server, I'll add that my experiences in trying to get work email and calendar functions (which as I said I get in Entourage) synched in any succesful fashion to either a Treo 650 or my newer Blackberry Pearl have been a disappointment. Want to really wow us? Add enhanced features to Entourage for checking OWA and 'forwarding' mail and calendar events to a smartphone...remembering that OWA is the only 'portal' I have into my work Exchange Server. A tall order...but in the meantime, I want to say that the existence and quality of Office 2004 was a key point in my decision to 'switch back' to the Mac. I'll look forward to 2008...especially since you're now gonna use the extra time to give me what I need :-)

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    We've made the difficult decision to delay Office:Mac 2008. We're targeting Macworld Expo in January

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    The only thing I need, is a fully compatible exchange client. Forget about the rest in the suite, cause I found really good working alternatives. Please, tell more about Entourage and it's features. I just want to know, if I have to look for a substitue for our exchange server - maybe leopard server.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Sorry to hear this .... worth getting it spot on though! I think the sneak peaks will be welcome .... I must admit that I am not using Office as much as I have done in the past. This is not being clever or irritating, but there will have to be some BIG reasons why I would stop using Keynote and also Neoffice. I look forward to the progress and release with anticipation!

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    We’re in an “all hands on deck” mode right now to ensure Office 2008 gets finished on time .... lol ..... you are already no more in your initial planification :-( That's too bad ! Maybee more good Project Managers would help deliver in the time your product ! The full community is waiting on you ! Frustrating and bad news for the Mac community every month ! Why the other companies developp on the same time their programm on multi OS and Microsoft never can ? I just find that a little TOO MUCH ! Sorry for this comment but we can't more correctly work if someone as 2007 documents and other one 2004/2003 ! No compatibility ! And stop saiding convert the documents ! It's actually impossible to convert any Excel file on a Mac ! I need to start my Parallel programm ! I hope the result would be good !

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    First of all, I wanted to thank you for all of your hard work.  Someone needed to say it! However, I think everyone will agree that the MacBU needed a kick, and I'm glad to see that someone has stepped in to do that. Its quite sad that it took MacBU over three years since we've seen an upgrade to a product.    I'm not just talking about Office.  The RDP client upgrade was promised almost a YEAR ago now, and it could have used one way before that.  Other than minor security tweaks and MSN Messenger "upgrades", Microsoft has actively left itself out of the community. I won't be purchasing 2008 because of missing VBA integration, but its nice to see the company supporting the Mac platform again.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    The most important thing for our university would be full parity between entourage and outlook so exchange works the way it's supposed to. Technically, 95% of our users won't use any new features anyway. Unless a company completely rewrites human interface interaction, how much do you need to upgrade a word processor or spreadsheet program (of course they do need to work and not crash repeatedly).

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    would love it if we could finally get MS Project and MS Visio included in the Mac Office. Is there even a 25% chance that this would ever happen. Also are you guys woried that MacBU could be shut down once Intel Macs have flooded the market and everyone just realizes that it's easier to use Office 2007 within boot camp etc?

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    I'm sorry to hear about the delay. This has been the first version of Office I've been really intrigued by in a while. I appreciate that the floating toolbar UI of v.X and 2004 are being ditched, and I'm one of the few users who probably won't miss VB anyway. That said, it might serve as an olive branch if some kind of open beta could be implemented for users who are that eager to move off of 2004 (I'm especially thinking of the Intel users). Barring that, releasing say Word 2008 ahead of the rest would perhaps quell some criticism. I know these decisions involve more people than just you, but I'm thinking out loud here ... trying to offer solutions rather than mere criticisms.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    This is unfortunate, but I understand the challenge and certainly prefer a polished product over something that isn't ready for "prime time" use. Since this will be the first version written for Intel, I'm really hoping for a product that is as close as possible to the PC version and with 100% cross platform compatibility. As others have posted, PPT is especially bad about rendering files differently. Please, above ALL ELSE, make PPT 100% cross platform, PLEASE! I've waited 3 years for an upgrade, what's another 4 months. Here's to January!

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    The truth! http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    A quick response to the comment from "Mike in Alaska", who requested that the MacBU use this extra time to "ADD FUNCTIONALITY": I think the Microsoft developers know this, but this is not the time to be throwing in new features (above and beyond what you've already added to the Office 2008 code). Fix what's there, and shoot for an as-stable-as-possible release in January. If there's new stuff that should be added, save that for Office 2009, or even some kind of intermediate upgrade.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Office is delayed. Fine. No converters out? Not fine. All hands should be on those converters first, since the end product won't be here soon enough.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    I look forward to this release!! Keep on the good work guys! Harald, Norway

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    My company has delayed roll-out of Office 2007 until Mac compatibility can be assured, but had planned to update all of our systems starting this fall.  I don't know what the final plans will now change to, but either option is bad. My recommendation: Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize.  Here are the two top items for me and others in my company:  * A file conversion tool to bridge the gap between me and outsiders who upgrade.  (Did you really need me to tell you that?)  * A fully compatible exchange client. Both of these would be good to have available yesterday.  Perhaps you could sell them alone, making the other office applications available as free downloads?

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Well, as some other have said...  with this delay until January of 2008, Office 2008 had better be good--really, really good.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    One more plea for feature/function parity between Entourage and Outlook 2007. I'm at a large publishing company and one of the people in charge of purchasing decisions has recently started moving our editors off of Macs and onto PC's. The missing functionality in Entourage is her only concrete reason when she's approacehd about it (unless you count herridiculous price comparisons between Mac Pros and Dell Optiplexes). Having this feature/functionality parity would return us to being able to make more rational decisions rather than her winning an argument just because the e-mail client doesn't do half the stuff that the PC version will do.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Said it before, and I'll say it again: The only thing I hate more than Microsoft products is the fact that I'm forced to use them by people ignorant of alternatives.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Microsoft’s new Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) General Manager, Craig Eisler, announced this morning that Microsoft Office 2008, originally scheduled for release in the second half of 2007, won’t be available until January 2008....

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Wow, Mac users are babies (yes, I've been Mac-only for 20 years).  Remember back to life before Office 98.  Remember Word 6?  I'm using Office 2004 on my Intel Macs and it's fine for the 7 hours a day I use the MacBU's software.  What's the big deal?  Want PowerPoint to load 5 seconds faster?

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Craig, I hope you are the man to take the MacBU from an all time low to the top. I hope this delay is because you set the bar much higher than previously. Here's some advice:

  1. We need a good surprise from you guys and we need it soon; the Mac community is loosing faith  in you - something as unthinkable as an early release, VBA support or a new product.
  2. Hire more people to get the job done.
  3. Stop making "Mac-only features" until Office has ALL the functionality of its PC counterpart. What do we care if there is a Mac-only Publishing Layout View if Office does not support VBA?
  4. Make Office a PRO application - not an iWork-inspired, down-trimmed, bubbly-looking, light version of Office 2007. If you want style inspiration, get it from Adobe CS3: feature-rich, streamlined and consistent.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    I'm disappointed that it's late, but am sure the wait will be worth it!  I agree that I'd prefer a stable, polished version of Word/Excel/PowerPoint/Entourage in first-quarter 2008. What about retail availability in the rest of the world?

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Really, awful.  Sadly this isn't even going to be a product that has full exchange support.  We get it, you don't think this is important to the business world.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    "Better late than never." Office O8 is the only major piece of software that is not Intel-Mac compatible.   We appreciate your efforts, Craig. We all recognize that your company is not good a releasing new software.  Look at Vista.  A few months late on Office '08 is better than the delay in getting Vista out. You will probably set a record by being a few months close to your original target.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Doesn't bother me. I'm not going to get it anyway. Office 2004 suits me fine.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    The big test is whether you guys (MBU) are going to allow Entourage to import data from Outlook. This time around, please act like a company that wants to develop products that meet your customers needs.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Someone suggested that you adopt the following pricing structure (which seems clear and straightforward to me) $299 Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh Home Basic (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) $149 Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh Home Basic Upgrade from Office 2004 $399 Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh Home Premium (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Entourage) $249 Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh Home Premium Upgrade from Office 2004 $499 Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh Business (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook) $349 Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh Business Upgrade from Office 2004 $599 Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh Enterprise (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook and 5000 extra pieces of clipart) $449 Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh Enterprise Upgrade from Office 2004 $749 Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh Ultimate (everything above plus a free Pink Zune!) $599 Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh Ultimate Upgrade from Office 2004 $149 Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh Student Teacher

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Obviously this is disappointing--I just bought a MBP in anticipation of 08 coming in 2 months--but now its more like 6. Honestly, 2004 is fine from a feature perspective, but I am finding that Rosetta does have its share of issues.  I am a heavy, heavy user of Excel and PowerPoint, and each has its own quirks under emulation. Excel crashes often enough that I am saving documents every 2 minutes (I get about 3 crashes a day when I'm cranking).  PowerPoint seems more stable, but constantly leaves artifacts behind from moving objects around the screen (is this a Santa Rosa driver issue?)  And even on the 2.2 C2D, performance across the suite is only adequate and not really snappy. The reality is that 2004 is workable (but far from ideal) for the time being and when it is not, I have a 2003 install in my Boot Camp/Fusion setup.  Unfortunately, the lack of VB and Access will require me to hang onto the PC version of the suite for a while.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    If your ability to write an English blog entry is any reflection on your coding, we're all in for trouble. "...and as you know might imagine, this was a tough slip for us...."

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    MacBU GM Craig Eisler posted a new release date on the MacMojo blog. Office 2008 for Mac will be available in the US in mid-January 2008 (planning for Macworld) and global general availability will occur in the first quarter of 2008....

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Well, I was trying to hold off on buying iWorks but this cinches it.  I start a graduate program in a few weeks and I'm not gonna hold out until January for something better than Office 2004.  You just lost whatever the Student/Teacher price was.  Good job.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Hey Craig, I work in software so I understand.  It's disappointing but I'm sure that there are good reasons; certainly better to release quality software late rather than a POS early.  What would be nice, though, is to make a beta available.  I use Office 2004 and it certainly does the job.  I'll admit that Office 2007 makes me a bit jealous, but I'm sure that you'll give them a run for their money in January. Just a voice of reason in a sea of madness.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    One schedule slip will likely beget others given Microsoft's track record with Vista.  With an Intel Mac, I have waited patiently more than a year for a Universal binary version of Office.  My patience has now run out and I will be purchasing Apple iWork '08 with my California/Microsoft Antitrust Settlement check.  Rumor has it that Apple will have a basic Excel app in its new suite.  If not, the NeoOffice or OpenOffice equivalent will suffice.  Considering the pervasiveness of Microsoft's malaise, Apple's '08 suite will likely be more compatible with Office '03 and '07 than Microsoft Office 2008 for the Mac.  This company is definitely not the same Microsoft that vanquished Lotus two decades ago.  Of course, with no prospect of becoming a new "Microsoft Millionaire," the employee morale and motivation is not what it once was either.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    I got home this evening and browsed these comments-and saw two references to my earlier post. I don't think I communicated my point thoroughly: Like an awful lot of people out there, my (government) employer WILL NOT let me connect to their exchange server. Not now. Not ever. Before configuring Entourage to check my OWA this relegated me to having the large part of my life (70+ hrs/week) organized only on my computer at work. Now..not being an IT pro, and putting enough time into maintaining Outlook organization for calendering and tasks, etc at work, I'm simply frustrated by the lack of a good solution on the part of Apple or MS to help me out here-I have limited calendering on my home Mac(s) along with work email via OWA in Entourage, but no tasks, no Global Address List for addressing emails to work folks-and synching with a smart phone from my home computer (again-without the ability to connect my personally owned cell phone to the exchange server) is just not there. OK, so I'm lobbying for Office 2008 to offer an enhanced solution. Why? because right now, the thin tether of connectivity I do have is through accessing Outlook Web Access through Entourage. Maybe that's what my detractors didn't realize? I'm positioning that my situation is representative of many thousands of people out there. I'm willing to spend money on a MAC solution. Whoever gets it to me first-Apple of MS, will get my money. I agree with the argument that adding bells and whistles at this point is folly-get it out, and make it good...BUT: this disconnectivity between work and home computing is a big, dumb problem. It's too easy for everyone to disavow any obligation to solve it...and again, the current ability to access Outlook Web Access through Entourage IS THE CLOSEST THING IVE EVER SEEN TO A SOLUTION. I use it every day. Now, I just want you to realize what you've got-and the problem(s) you can solve here by adding some focus to it. For all you Entourage 2004 users out there-if you have Outlook Web Access to your work email, and you use Safari, Firefox or Explorer to check your work email, and are frustrated by the disconnect between home and work-then Google "checking Outlook Web Access with Entourage" It's on a MacBU blog. Give it a shot-it's easy. See what I'm talking about. Then you'll understand my post-I want them to acknowledge the value and the market-and make it better. That's all.

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Perhaps it would be a good idea to use the 4-5 month extension that you now have, and hire on a "few" (read:lots) extra developers to start working on VBA - even if you supplied a VBA "add-on" mid-2008, it would eventually allow VBA-dependent Excel users upgrade to Office 2008 at SOME point!

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Although a delay is always annoying, I personally don't mind… as long as it ends up on MSDN this time around! Any news regarding this?

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2007
    Office 2008 Coming January 2008 blog post from Mac Mojo has the details.

  • Anonymous
    August 03, 2007
    Really revolting for the 1st software company in the world to be uncapable to make software on time it's unbeliveable and innacceptable don't tell me that Microsoft don't have the money ????? And MBU should be working with the windows one not competing and maybe we won't be in that type of situation ! and i don't know if you realise but by not realesing Office 2008 in the world at same time and only in the US, you will have less people buying it as we will find it in Bitorrent and P2P network as people can't wait and need a Native version.

  • Anonymous
    August 03, 2007
    I just switched fffrom PC to Mac and am frustrated with two things in Entourage:

  1. Can't read old Outlook messages saved with msg file extension
  2. url addresses in body of enoturage message are not clikcable. I am, sadly, going back to PC because of this Maybe that's Microsoft's intention?  . .  . .

  • Anonymous
    August 03, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    August 03, 2007
    "Office O8 is the only major piece of software that is not Intel-Mac compatible." Actually, Intuit has yet to release a UB of Quicken, or even announce an intent to do so.

  • Anonymous
    August 03, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    August 03, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    August 03, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    August 03, 2007
    Some of the above have suggested that you could supply a VBA "add-on" mid-2008, as it  allow VBA-dependent Excel users upgrade to Office 2008 eventualy.  That is an excelent idea. Can you possibly indicate on this blog whether that is a possibility?

  • Anonymous
    August 03, 2007
    I'm very disappointed that it has taken SO LONG to have a Universal version of Office for the Mac.  If Apple releases iWork in October, I don't think i'll even bother with Office 2008.   We have 2 Mac notebooks in the family.  Hands down, ALL office applications open 2-3x's faster on our 3 year old iBook G4 THAN our dual core Macbook Pro!!!  This is unacceptable. Many customers are fed up with Microsoft with the poor performance of Vista, and now the other shoe has fallen with Office in this delay.  You'll have to give me a copy of Office 2008 for free if I'll look at it.   I might change my mind later, but as of right now, I am VERY frustrated.

  • Anonymous
    August 03, 2007
    Is it possible to be on of the beta testers for the Office 2008 product?

  • Anonymous
    August 03, 2007
    The new Parallels Beta supports Expose for Windows windows.  I'm perfectly content at this point with Office 2007 running in Parallels on a Mac.  I'm getting great performance and (obviously) 100% fidelity with Office and support for Exchange. Microsoft should disband the MacBU, acquire Parallels, and do some great work to skin the Mac look and feel on any apps running inside the Parallels VM.  I'd also be happy with MS-made extensions to MacOS that make Macs more friendly in a PC Server environment.  MS would also likely give better pricing to end users looking to adopt a Parallels + Windows solution. In so doing, Apple effectively becomes another PC OEM for Microsoft.  Apple's success will also likely translate into Microsoft's success.

  • Anonymous
    August 03, 2007
    Well what can I say, I am a bit disappointed, I did wait it and I also Borrow the money from my friend and then boom, nothing, but I still can wait to try it, who know maybe this delay is good for someone (and maybe for me)

  • Anonymous
    August 04, 2007
    WHO DO YOU HAVE WORKING FOR YOU? They must all be completely incompetent programmers. Seriously, how can you not have file converters almost a year after the PC version ships? This is not a difficult project to do. It's not like you have to reverse engineer the format like Open Office BUT YET they manage to do it WAY before you do. Are you serious MS?

  • Anonymous
    August 04, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 04, 2007
    I lead a team of 35 techs and admins that manage 2000 Macs world-wide.  We need Entourage to have MAPI for Exchange connectivity, not (just) OWA.  PLEASE do this. Thanks.

  • Anonymous
    August 04, 2007
    I am switching to iWork and aim

  • Anonymous
    August 05, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 05, 2007
    Hasn't it occured to anyone that Microsoft is DELIBERATELY shafting the MacBU? With the Mac's growing market share, maaaaybe MS feels a little threatened about long-term implications. Denying full Office compatibility throws a major wrench into the gears of people who might have switched, who were "on the edge" but the extra hassle of worrying Office didn't work quite right deterred them from taking the jump.. After all, the most common complaint seems to be "I guess I will have to buy Windows/Parallels and Office 2007"...oh, yeah, THAT is the last thing MS wants. There is no clearer proof that the Justice Department should have separated the OS and Office divisions of Microsoft than that they are so obviously sabotaging the Office versions for the competing OS. Shame on you, Microsoft. Not the MacBU, as I'm sure you're doing the best you can with the insufficient resources you have. Please, SPIN YOURSELVES OFF and join Apple. At least you'll get funding.

  • Anonymous
    August 05, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 05, 2007
    I think Kent (above) misses the point.  We bought macs to have the mac experience, not windows.  If we were to run win office on parallels/windows that would defeat the point.

  • Anonymous
    August 05, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 06, 2007
    Tomorrow my university email is being converted to Exchange and I am not looking forward to having to use Entourage in its current semi-compatible state. The other alternative, using OWA on Safari, appeals even less. Please include full MAPI support in Entourage 2008.  I look forward to the day when a Microsoft product is fully Microsoft compatible.

  • Anonymous
    August 06, 2007
    A bit disappointing, but I respect this choice. I do hope Office 2008 will handle the new file format without any problems... Well, good luck making this a good product!

  • Anonymous
    August 06, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 06, 2007
    On my comment about Office Live, I Eventually managed to get my email through Entourage but I have to be a paid subscriber to do this as the ability to read email in a mail client is considered a 'premium' feature of Office Live. So Ive found a workaround but it requires me to pay and puts me at a disadvantage to the free users on a Windows PC. (I only want to be a 'free' user) Angus

  • Anonymous
    August 06, 2007
    Please put full VBA support on the Mac platform. I like cross-platform features. All of your customers do.

  • Anonymous
    August 06, 2007
    Another member of the "full Exchange/Outlook" support chorus. I don't care much about VBA. Fix the really basic stuff first; give me a good Excange client.

  • Anonymous
    August 07, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 07, 2007
    iWork 08 is now out, Pages / Keynote and the new Numbers program can open/convert Office 2007 native files ! It seems Apple has beaten Microsoft to the first shipping (non beta) product for OS X that can open Office 2007! No worries, Entourage 2008 is still what I am waiting for !!!

  • Anonymous
    August 07, 2007
    Why can Apple do converters before Microsoft can for their own products?  From Apple's iWork '08 page: "Import your Microsoft Word documents into Pages ’08 with ease. Whether they’re Microsoft Office Word 2007 (Office Open XML) or earlier Word files, Pages will open them. Pages imports not only the text, but also the styles, tables, inline and floating objects, charts, footnotes, endnotes, bookmarks, hyperlinks, lists, sections, change tracking, and other elements of your original Word document." "Versatile in so many ways, Keynote imports presentations created in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 (Office Open XML) as well as earlier versions." "Numbers handily imports spreadsheets created in earlier Excel formats, as well as Excel 2007 documents created in new Office Open XML formats."

  • Anonymous
    August 07, 2007
    Just ordered iWork '08.  It'll be here Friday.  You lost.  For those that want to try it out, just add "/trail" after the main iwork address.

  • Anonymous
    August 07, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 07, 2007
    I also ordered iWork 08. You guys lost. Sorry. It's very pathetic that Apple can beat you at your own converters. If you would have made converters available earlier, I wouldn't have jumped ship. Looks like Office 2004 will be the last MSFT product that I'll ever use.

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2007
    I downloaded the iWork trial and so far, it seems to handle Office 2007 documents without a problem.  Looks like my $79 is going towards this now instead of Office 2008, unless there are some compelling features that have yet to be shown.  Sorry, but your delays and excuses for not having converters out by now is just tiresome.

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2007
    Ok, I don´t care about Office anymore, I´ll be using my iWork 08 but... please!!! do you REALLY have to wait so long to release a decent MS Messenger?! Don´t think is that hard!

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2007
    iWork fully supporting Office 2007 before you guys even got to beta is to say the least laughable. i know a guy who work for a Gold Partner of Microsoft (they make a plugin for word) and they haven't even got around to supporting Vista yet never mind Office 2007 files anyway Good Luck MBU p.s. when you do finally support your own format, please support iWork Documents too... especially Keynote :)

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2007
    You guys obviously aren't doing anything too complex with your Office files. I just tried the iWork 08 trial and it can't even come close to handling my spreadsheets. Most of the forumlas do not work correctly. The word processor seems great but Numbers is nowhere near ready to replace Excel on my machine. I removed the program 30 minute after using the trial. Nice first attempt by Apple but nowhere near Office 04 let alone Office 08.

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2007
    Man, I hope everyone drops Office 08 for iWork.  Then they can disband the MAC BU and put the job for making an Exchange client back in the hands of the people who made Outlook 2001.  They're the only MS folks who've ever made a decent Exchange client.  Maybe the MAC BU should ask them for some help?

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2007
    I also think we are going to switch to iWork 08.  We are already using Mail.app, iCal and adress book with Kerio Mail server (an exchange like server), so the exchange support was not a concern for us.  And now that Numbers is out, there is no reason to wait for Office 2008. sorry MACBU... good luck

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2007
    Let's see: MS Office 2008 for Mac, a version of Office 2007, ships 2008. iWork '08 ships mid-2007 Oh, and costs 1/4 of the price of Office, for five users. Is there nobody at MS who can do math any more?

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2007
    Above I mentioned that full Exchange support via MAPI would be good to have.  If such a thing were to happen, then you should also keep WebDAV access as an option.  I say this because my university seemingly only lets people within the firewall log on with MAPI - and having to use the useless non-IE OWA on a Mac outside it would be too bad to bear. Why does everything with Microsoft have to be such an uphill struggle to use? I still can't work out why when I bring a Word document created in Word for Windows that the figures and tables suddenly renumber themselves beginning at 0. Why should I have to worry about such bizarre formatting issues? And I hope you're bringing the new fonts included in Office 2007 to the Mac.  When I start getting documents in Calibri I want to be able to see them properly. It's a font I have come to like.

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2007
    OK everybody.  I'm disappointed that the MacBU has delayed Office 2008 and removed VBA support for Excel but please stop comparing it to iWork.  iWork can save in Office 2007 formats but it is not a replacement for Excel or Word because Numbers doesn't support automation and VBA and a number of other Excel features it just saves in the Office 2007 OpenXML format.  Remember saving in different formats does not guarantee feature compatibility across the various applications using that format. Keep complaining maybe they'll drop Office 2008 like they did Internet Explorer siting Apple making a comparable product via Safari yet Safari isn't compatible with a chunk of websites out there and various MS services/sites that all require special software in IE.  Let's not get started on Windows Media Player.  Shut up and wait for Office 2008.

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2007
    Uh, Jeremy, you mention that Numbers '08 doesn't support VBA. Guess what, neither will Excel '08. And stop placating Microsoft. They'll do whatever they want regardless if you're their tool or not.

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2007
    Oh, and goodbye Microsoft. I, like countless others, are celebrating the release of iWork '08 by removing you from my Mac and my future plans. Suddenly, the delay of Office 2008 doesn't bother me at all...;)

  • Anonymous
    August 09, 2007
    Is there going to be any RTL writing support?

  • Anonymous
    August 09, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 09, 2007
    Why is anybody shocked about this?  It is ingrained in the culture of this company.  Is this the first or last time Microsoft will do this?  No. I am sure this went down as acceptable. OpenOffice Aqua for me, once it is ready. Between the converters, VBA loss, delays, (and the next announced disappointment) - you guys are making the OpenOffice argument for me.

  • Anonymous
    August 09, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 09, 2007
    I understand that with the .net architecture change and the Mac intel move, you need time to release Office 2008 but with the extra delay now I cannot understand the VBA dismissal since the MacBU said earlier: "supporting VBA would add a 9 months delay". We need VBA in Office to be compatible with colleagues and other law firms who produce Word documents. It's true that iWork is slick although it now lacks some pro features. But as it costs less and comes with new features with each release, it may become a real alternative next time so don't mess with Office 2008. Dear MacBU, compatibility with the Windows side is your best competitive advantage, if you lose that, your future may be in question.

  • Anonymous
    August 09, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 10, 2007
    I hate to parrot what's pretty much inanimous by this point, but feature-compatibility with Windows Office is essential. As a Mac user, I use Office for Mac because some things requires MS/Windows compatibility, whether I like it or not. So far I've found that Word for Mac otushines Neo/OpenOffice for me. Same for Excel. But much as I love Entourage, I just don't feel it's yet where it needs to be. Mainly as it just doesn't bring in everything (notes, categories, tasks, etc) that's in my Outlook/Exchange profile. I love the look and feel of it, but it really does need to be a fully featured Exchange client. Mac-only features are pretty much useless, as I'm sure I'm not the only person who uses MS Office for Mac to avoid (for once) the differences between the platforms.  Full feature compatibility and the 2007-format convertors (for Office 2004) are probably the most important things for the majority of Mac Office users. If we didn't need to be compatible with Windows users and networks, we'd probably not be getting MS Office. So why full compatibility isn't a priority is a mystery. That said, I do like Office on the Mac. As a standalone office suite I actually rather like it. But to be fully Windows-environment compatible, it is still lacking.

  • Anonymous
    August 10, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 10, 2007
    Adrian, Wait until Word 2008 cuts VBA support (both Bookends AND Endnote rely on this for integration with Word). See how well your statement holds up then. How long do you think it will take Endnote to transfer all of its macros over to Applescript? Oh, hold on, Applescript can't do the things that Endnote needs it to do. Or Bookends for that matter. What will you have to say about Word then? Oh, and Nisus Writer Pro does RTF (it is its native format) quite well and works with Endnote and Bookends flawlessly.

  • Anonymous
    August 11, 2007
    With Mac's making more impact on corporations, that run their business with MS products like Exchange, SharePoint and SQL servers, the MBU should add full compatibility with the Windows family of products. Parallels is an OK work around, but the Mac user community would prefer native mac applications to get their job done. Keep up the effort.

  • Anonymous
    August 11, 2007
    PingBack from http://www.thereformed.org/2007/08/02/microsoft-pranks-macoffice-hopefuls/

  • Anonymous
    August 12, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 13, 2007
    when will messenger for mac be updated. it's really sickening, i mean come on you guys, it takes you forever, i mean if wanted to release an instant messenger client all new and updated at least make it a little decent, it keeps bugging, i can't close a chat window without messenger closing. comparing the client for mac and the one for windows, u can see a gr8 big difference. you guys are so slow, and you offer very little products, there is practically nothing to download from this whole mactopia excuse of a website. you guys use macs, are you really satisfied with ur prodcuts. update messenger plz!!!

  • Anonymous
    August 13, 2007
    I am pretty much with everyone else that has commented. The only feature I really care about is having the equivalent functionality of the Windows versions and their associated technologies. That means a real Exchange client, Sharepoint support, etc. The other most important item is making document exchanging between Windows users 100% accurate.

  • Anonymous
    August 13, 2007
    The Microsoft Macintosh Business unit is a joke, I work for a software development company and if we pulled some of the things the Microsoft Mac Business Unit is pulling we would not have any customer period.  To not even have file converters ready for release to your customers give them the ability to open files is ridiculous   Especially when other companies are releasing software with the capability. How do these guys stay in business, I would be ashamed if I were a developer for this division  where are their professional standards.

  • Anonymous
    August 13, 2007
    Scott, First, I was talking about Mellel not Nisus (for the record, Nisus is a much better product than Mellel). Second, Endnote nor Bookends will work if you have an image in the document because it becomes a rtfd "file" which you have to break open in order to get at the text file. Jon at Bookends says he'll release an update that will work with rtfd (but I prefer Endnote). Besides, I need to be able to give my work to both Win & Mac people (which kills Nisus for me right there).   Third, I've talked (well, emailed) with the people at Endnote and they were aware that MS was abandoning VB (good riddance IMHO--there's even talk that VB is going away for good in the next Win Office release--you know how rumors can be though) and will have non-VB integration into Word in the next release of Endnote.  Which should be out around the same time that Service Pack 1 for Office 2008 will be out (plenty of time to see if the new Office is a dog or not).

  • Anonymous
    August 13, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 13, 2007
    One item seems missing in MS Office.  Now that many Mac products integrate iPhoto and other media patches, wouldn't it be nice if Office did the same.  Imagine clicking on "Insert Image" and up pops the iPhoto library.  This would make it so simple to use that feature. Since Office is late anyway, why not take the time between now and December to include that possibility?

  • Anonymous
    August 13, 2007
    Another comment.  I have used Microsoft Publisher 2000 (both in Windows and on VPC) for many years.  It works flawlessly, is easy to use, and creates very professional looking documents, newsletters, books, etc. Since it is considered an Office Integrated program Windows, wouldn't it be wonderful to have it available for the Mac Office as well. Right now I am using Belight's Swift Publisher.  It works much like Publisher 2000, but is missing several very important features.  Two of these are the ability to print book-style and the other is to include a mail-merge feature. Nothing out there can compare to Microsoft Publisher (at least that I have found).

  • Anonymous
    August 13, 2007
    Just checking, and it seems pretty clear that true parity with PC Office users will never be. Our 85,000 member non-profit group just went to a system based on MS Access for all Chapter secretaries. Which means I have to run a PC just to access member records. Because Microsoft picks and chooses which parts of Office to port to the Mac. I had hoped the switch to Intel would at last bring true crossover with Office, but obviously not. I have no reason to upgrade beyond Office 10 because I don't need more memory hogging bells and whistles that do nothing to improve my workflow. If I look at the MS Office for PC features, that's what I expect for my major investment in the Mac version as well. Until that day comes, I'll stick with Apple's products and dance with the one what brung me.

  • Anonymous
    August 14, 2007
    Hello, so if after so much time you are still unable to deliver a quality product able to run on intel macs, so please make some efforts to enhance fluidity of office 2004 under Rosetta... My experience (and all of my collegues) Office 2004 runs like S.... on intel macs. It barely can handle word documents larger than 30 pages. It crashes after inserting some illustrations. And it is so SLOW. One can write a whole sentence before it appears on the screen is that a quaity product? Do you really expect your customers to bare this for 2 years??? Come on, open your eyes and start taking care of us. PS look at Adobe they did a great job (their cs2 runs better under rosetta than office and they updated already their whole suite)

  • Anonymous
    August 14, 2007
    Leopard?

  • Anonymous
    August 14, 2007
    Gavin Shearer has joined MacBU.

  • Anonymous
    August 14, 2007
    One of the best things that has really come to fruition during the lifespan of OS 10.4 is the ability (and willingness) for third party developers to hook in to the Apple standard databases and file locations for all sorts of information. Any program can be designed to store and access contacts from Address Book, event management in iCal, images from iPhoto, etc. Many of my favorite Mac apps from "small developers" do this brilliantly and it makes a tremendous positive impact on my ability to keep my life and my data organized. And so I present the ONE thing that would "buy me back" to Office 2008. You see, I've already moved on to NeoOffice (and trialing iWork 08) for actually opening and editing your new Office 2007 documents. BUT ... if Entourage was the best darn client out there for managing PIM data and e-mail stored in the STANDARD Address Book/iCal/Mail repositories, AND if it could be the bridge to seamlessly importing/exporting that information back and forth across Windows Outlook / Exchange setups ... AND if PowerPoint tied into my existing media libraries from the iLife apps ... AND if Word could mail-merge from Address Book and use OS 10's built-in dictionary ... then I would return. And you know what? As a Mac user (and not as a business user), I'm stoked to see robust AppleScript support in 2008. And let's see some Growl support. Basically, WORK THE MAC. If you can buck up, embrace Apple's standards that make my life easier (like the grassroots little guys), then you WILL get my upgrade fee when 2008 hits the shelves. If you instead deliver a hollow shell of some PC suite ... I'm fine with the available alternatives for editing your file format. Cheers :)

  • Anonymous
    August 14, 2007
    Adrian, Nisus default file format is RTF (which in Windows defaults to open with Word), which can be read by any word processor and is actually a Microsoft file format that is updated with each version of Word to save pretty much anything Word can. If you will look at the converter closely, it takes .docx and converts it into .rtf with no loss of formatting, features, etc.   I share my Nisus files without a hitch to Windows users all the time. Scott

  • Anonymous
    August 17, 2007
    Craig, Please us the added time to dump (or at least have it optional) Entourage and replace it with Outlook. When Outlook first came out it wasn't as important as it is now. Why oh why then, this is one element left out in the latest version? Please disregard those who keep harping on having it compatiable with Exchange server. They are missing the point big time...what most of the 95% want is that you bring back Outlook and then those compatibility problems with the Exchange server goes away...dump Entourage replace with Outlook. Those who want the "Apple" experience can buy I-Works and those who want to be compatible with Office want Outlook and not Entourage.

  • Anonymous
    August 17, 2007
    I sort of agree with Snugharbor. I'd gladly settle for a fully Exchange-conversant version of Entourage. (But I really mean fully) However, those of us buying and installing MS Office for Mac are doing it because, in this case, it's the full MS experience we're after. Or, more accurately, full MS-compatibility. If "good enough" was good enough, there are cheaper or free alternatives. But as they're not "good enough", the full-price alternative absolutely has to do the job required of it. Also, being a techie by nature, I totally "get" that bringing back Outlook would be such a major undertaking that it would be in Office After Next, at the earliest. But that integrating better with Exchange Server would be a whole lot quicker. If not exactly easy. But I'm still in agreement about using Office because of needing to fully interact in a Windows environment.

  • Anonymous
    August 17, 2007
    MacBU: We need a native Exchange client. If it isn't going to be Entourage, please give us a separate Exchange client to use. ASAP. With total parity that is available for Windows. "A-I-D-A. Get out there - you got the prospects coming in. You think they came in to get out of the rain? A guy don't walk on the lot lest he wants to buy. They're sitting out there waiting to give you their money. Are you gonna take it? Are you man enough to take it?"

  • Anonymous
    August 19, 2007
    Microsoft のOffice 2007のXML文書形式であるOpen XM...

  • Anonymous
    August 20, 2007
    Can't wait!  I use XP and Office 2007 at the moment, but to have a gorgeous iMac sat on my desk whilst I RDP to my servers... Ahh, utopia!  

  • Anonymous
    August 20, 2007
    sorry been a busy week but here's the wheat without the chaff - frankly I was bored by most of the stuff

  • Anonymous
    August 20, 2007
    Is this the last post before release?!?!

  • Anonymous
    August 20, 2007
    Is there any news about a Msn Messenger update? It's quite unbeliavable that, up to now, solutions made through a reverse-engeneering process like Adium or aMsn are far superior to the official MS client...

  • Anonymous
    August 21, 2007
    I'm still waiting for an answer regarding Messenger for Mac. Will the next version be delayed and shipped as a part of Office 2008 or will it be released earlier? An update is long overdue... I know that the MacBU is waiting for a new webcamtechnology that will be put into Windows Live Messenger - but what's the status of this project?

  • Anonymous
    August 21, 2007
    I hope that Entourage will have all features as Outlook on PC, because latest version has a lot of weekness as Exchange client.

  • Anonymous
    August 21, 2007
    Hi, I don't where else to make a suggestion for Office 2008 or maybe sometime future release. I would like to see Office be able to share contacts with the OS X address book and appointments with iCal etc.

  • Anonymous
    August 23, 2007
    What would be super helpful would be an option to revert to the same keyboard commands for Excel on the Mac as in the PC version. The differences dramatically slow down productivity and seem intentionally obtuse to keep people from switching to the Mac OS. Thanks

  • Anonymous
    August 24, 2007
    I would love to see OneNote on the mac.

  • Anonymous
    August 24, 2007
    Hi Ben - We're ahead of you!  If you're using Tiger and Entourage 11.2 or later, you can do this.  In Entourage, go to Preferences -> Sync Services, then select the items that you want to synchronise.

  • Anonymous
    August 24, 2007
    Here's a classic problem that I hope is addressed in the new Entourage.  Today I got an e-mail from a client that included, as an attachment, another e-mail that had directions for a project we're working on.  That attached message was an .msg file from Outlook which Entourage can't open.   Maybe there's some secret or add-on that will do this.  Anyone know?

  • Anonymous
    August 25, 2007
    Try fixing MS Messenger while you're at it. Its frankly a joke. It can't even log in behind some DSL routers, and all it would need to fix it is to expose the preference to allow to log in over http. Thats not even beginning to mention the sheer feature lack between it and the Windows version. Could MS been even more transparent about its disdain for the Mac?

  • Anonymous
    August 25, 2007
    I'm glad you're reading the comments Craig. Please do take them on board.

  • Anonymous
    August 25, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 25, 2007
    WE NEED MSN MESSENGER FEATURES!!!!!

  • Anonymous
    August 26, 2007
    Thanks Nadyne, I am afraid I still run Office Xv. So will have to Office 2008 to enjoy the synced contacts and calendar etc. Was going to update to Office 2004 but then Apple went and switched to intel. So thought I would wait for the intel native version. Ben.

  • Anonymous
    August 27, 2007
    I'm the CIO for a large global company, excess of 50k staff.  We are moving more and more to MAC OS and the Office products are working pretty well.  THE KEY ITEM:  Entourage compatibility to Exchange, specifically, search deleted items on the server, access to MIMOSA archive information.

  • Anonymous
    August 27, 2007
    Looking forward to the version.  Great move on having the guts to delay a product to produce something of quality.  Entourage is a great product.  Even with its issues it still is a better and easier way to stay organized than with Outlook. I realize this is wishful thinking but it would be great to see a Mac verion of Project.  If that isn't possible it would be nice to see a plug in between Entourage and Project Server.

  • Anonymous
    August 27, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 28, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 29, 2007
    MacManX - regarding Messenger, the roadmap outlined by Mary in that post from last year is still correct, and progress has been made. We still expect you'll see A/V support working with (what is now called) Office Communication Server first, and then on the free public WL service, as a result of service update schedules.

  • Anonymous
    August 29, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 30, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 30, 2007
    It's incredible to read this many people just taking a delay with.."oh well.. only a few months to go". Yes quality is definetly something we want on the product but c'mon!! can you manage a project or what!? I'm already forecasting a lot of bugs on your product and subsequent releases of "patches". Is quality here the real issue?

  • Anonymous
    August 30, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 31, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 31, 2007
    Yet another desperate Exchange support plea. I support 150 Mac Office users and this is the MOST important need. I'll be specific with my requests:

  1. MAPI support. We don't want the constant syncing and slowness of WEBDAV. There are also possible auditing and government record-keeping compliance issues with caching of copies of email. Local sync should be optional.
  2. Kerberos support or the ability auto-login from the AD machine log in credentials.
  3. Ability to book resources in meeting requests.
  4. Able to open, read and write to PST files (not just import)
  5. Compose complex HTML messages. (we use a third-party script now)
  6. Able to detect changes in the Exchange environment, such as a mailbox move or public server change. These are hard set at profile creation in Entourage, and break if changes are made on the back end. Somehow Outlook can pick these changes up automatically. Heck, Outlook 2001 on the Mac usually could also (a true MAPI client.)
  7. I'll second Shane's suggestions above for auto-account creation from the log in, and ability to hide "Folders on my computer." Please, please give us a real Exchange client equivalent to Outlook. I've been making my requests to every Microsoft rep at trade show for years, and they typically say "Yea, Yea, This is what we hear the most."

  • Anonymous
    August 31, 2007
    The release date for Microsoft's new office suite for the Mac has been pushed back to December 2007....

  • Anonymous
    September 01, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    September 02, 2007
    I work with both Windows and Mac, and definatly perfer Macintosh. I am wondering if the new version of Entourage will import Office 2007 .pst files cause i would like to get away from Windows as much as possible.

  • Anonymous
    September 03, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    September 03, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    September 04, 2007
    Thanks Geoff for your reply! Yes, there is a roadmap regarding the syncronization with LCS and WLM technologies, but no info on when this might occur, hence my curiosity. It would be nice to know how things are going since it's been a year since the above mentioned post. You mention that 'progress has been made' so I'm keeping my hopes up! :)

  • Anonymous
    September 05, 2007
    Typo: Second paragraph, seventeen words in. 'know' should be 'now'.

  • Anonymous
    September 05, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    September 05, 2007
    Keep an eye on Mac Mojo for sneak peeks at new Office 2008 features including Entourage 2008. In his Office 2008 for Mac Sneak Peek Kick-Off Craig Eisler, MacBU General Manager, announces a commitment to Entourage in the enterprise and begins with a look

  • Anonymous
    September 06, 2007
    Hello ! I'm very inresting about Office 2008 for mac ! A question : Could we have the video, sound and games with Live Messenger 2008 for mac ???

  • Anonymous
    September 14, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    September 14, 2007
    I strongly agree with an earlier comment: "I just want to be able to read and respond to my email, create and respond to invites, etc. like a normal Windows users....but on my Mac!" Anything else must be a consious strategy against Mac, that surely must hit back eventually. Please MS - don't try to position Mac as the choice for freelancers and small businesses only - it is not the case.

  • Anonymous
    September 17, 2007
    Not surprisng, considering how long it has taken for a native version of Office: Mac. I quit using office 2k4 last november when i migrated to an intel based mac because quite frankly, performance under rosetta is bad. very bad. the MBU has known about the transition to intel from apple probably since before it was officially announced to the public, and yet it has taken YEARS to even have a release date for a native product. Its unnacceptable.

  • Anonymous
    September 19, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    September 26, 2007
    I'm glag the user experience is enhanced but what about supporting Right-To-Left (RTL) languages like Hebrew, Arabic, etc.? Should this important feature stay only for Windows users?

  • Anonymous
    September 27, 2007
    Still nothing, not a single word in any direction, from Mac BU on RTL Unicode support? I've said it before, and I'll say it again: without this feature, I won't--no, I CAN'T--use Office '08 effectively. This support is built into Mac OS X, and works reasonably well in all iWork and iLife apps, third-party apps like Mellel and Nisus, and the Finder itself … but what about Office '08? Even Office '04 has a few niceties that I'd like to use … but RTL support is a necessity.

  • Anonymous
    October 08, 2007
    ComputerWorld has a rather good showdown of email clients on Mac OS X. The best breakdown of features I’ve seen on the Mac side in some time. That said, I think they were slightly unfair to Thunderbird. For example, Thunderbird does have cale..

  • Anonymous
    October 08, 2007
    ComputerWorld has a rather good showdown of email clients on Mac OS X. The best breakdown of features I’ve seen on the Mac side in some time. That said, I think they were slightly unfair to Thunderbird. For example, Thunderbird does have cale..

  • Anonymous
    November 26, 2007
    Before I left for TechEd Barcelona I picked up a new MacBook Pro . I was headed to Europe for 3 weeks

  • Anonymous
    November 26, 2007
    Before I left for TechEd Barcelona I picked up a new MacBook Pro . I was headed to Europe for 3 weeks