Mac Mojo

Congratulations! Enjoy the party. And when you show up at work tomorrow, think up something really crazy to put into Office 2010! :-D

Woo...better late than never!  I can't wait to never use the .docx converter again!

DO you think you guys will sync up schedules so the future versions of Office release for PC and Mac at the same time?

Well done you guys! I'm looking forward to getting 2008 in the New Year. I hope it lives up to everyone's expectations!

Is this January 15th a worldwide release date? I'm here in the UK and I'm waiting with baited breath for this release!

Well done and congratulations on the signing off =)

It's official: Mac Office 2008 has been released to manufacturing. The product launch is January 15 at MacWorld. (And, I know I uh, work for MacBU and all that, but I really like the software.)...

How do I obtain the information necessary to port a plug in from Word 2007 to Word 2008?

Just curious, but why are there no MacBU apps on TechNet? Is there something similar so we can test MacBU applications before they come out?

When is this going to be available for Technet Subscribers to download?

Is it on a CD or DVD? Just curious.

I'm not gonna install Messenger 6.0.3 (old product included into a new one) or whatever, anyway.

I'll wait for version 7.0 or so.

Until then, Adium X is my good friend, quack quack!!!!!

That's very exciting! I can't wait to load it up!

Congratulations are in order, I wish you all very happy Holidays which I am sure you will enjoy.

I attest to the due diligence with whch the team 'attacked' the bugs we reported.. these guys (and gals) aure consume a lot of coffee folks!

Godspeed.

I work at a college and we have had to use the converter often. Since it expires 12/15 and 2008 isn't due out until 1/15 is there a converter available thet does not expire 12/15? Appreciate your help.

I'll be you're all saying "finally!"  So are we.  Good job. I've sent in my Super Suite Deal form, so I look forward to taking your work for a spin!

Did you know a tools called indcredimail ?

There are some good ideas on it !

Hello - I just converted to Mac Sept 07 - I got office 2004 and the ONLY thing that is really lacking in Entourage for me (compared with Outlook) is the "search" function - in Outlook the search is comprehensive - looking anywhere in the message - to, from, subject, body - even attachment. In Entourage 04 the search is VERY limiting - It only searches to/from/subject/project - and if an alias is used it won't even search the email address, and vice versa. This has ben the only real 'negative' as I rely on my email as a database of information, and I literally can't find some things. WIll the search be better in 08?

Thanks

Does it finally support RTL languages like Hebrew? if so I will definitely buy it. Looks shiny.

great work, will it be available on MSDN as well? If so on what date? Thanks.

Any release date for Italy?

I've heard mid/end of February but I wish it was released on January too, here.

Merry Mac Christmas and a Apple New Year 2008!!!!!

You have GOT to be kidding. You're releasing to the retail channel BEFORE your licensing customers?!? By 15 days, or more!?!?

It's bad enough that we've had to deal with our Mac users not being able to open the new Office documents, since we refused to install a pre-release (and, as I understand, rather buggy) converter on our computers. I had hopes that I could finally put that behind me with the release of Office 2008 on the 15th. The 15th would still be during the our academic winter break, which would allow a transition to the new version of Office before the spring term begins.

Now, with it not being released until 2/1, I now have to wait until summer, given a hard and fixed rule we have not to roll out major software or operating system revisions after a semester begins.

It's bad enough that you guys don't release any pre-release versions on TechNet Plus. As a result, your biggest customers are left fumbling in the dark for answers and are left to scramble to get up to speed once the software is released. Now, you apparently consider us licensing customers second class citizens to the retail channel, and you make us sit idly by and wait for the software, while everyone else gets it first? Unreal. Simply... unreal.

Is the "Export to pdf" function fixed for multiple sheets?

Does copy and paste of graphics actually work?  I am tired of stupid work arounds to insert graphics into a document/presentation that need to viewed by Windows users.  The need "Quicktime compressor" message is very frustrating. I am really, really, really annoyed that simple copy and paste does not work with Microsoft, though every other cross platform company can do it.

This seems very much to be about a great product that is super good and absolutely fabulous and impressive and something that will blow us away. But does anyone have any list of the actual new features? What makes it good?

Apparently there will be no test drive available yet for some time.

What about support for Mac OS X Services?

What about ligatures and glyph variants?

What about right-to-left Hebrew and Arabic?

What about recordable AppleScript macros?

What about support for high-definition graphics (scalable PDFs and the like)?

What about automatic conversion of kanji and hanzi to phonetics with the phonetic guide (as is already supported in Word for Windows)?

What about multilingual resources to display the interface in different languages?

Hi Geoff,

I saw your response "Ron - what sort of plug-in? Office for Windows currently has options for developer customization that we don't."

Our PC plug-in invokes web services to load documents from a DB and add a new ribbon to enable the functionality.  How do I get the documentation on what developer customization that you do support, so we can bring a product to market some time close to release of Word 2008?

I use Office 2007 at work and, after a bit of ramp up and through a learning curve with it, I have to say I am looking forward to this new Mac version.  Office 2007 is more powerful than its predecessor, and feels more robust.  I expect these features and more will show up in "our" new mac version and some other goodies that will set it aart fom the pc version.  Way to go MBU!

Wow, "polycarbonate disc", that is SO retro.  Is that really how it's going to be delivered?

Even Office for Windows is now a download.  I don't use "polycarbonate discs" anymore.  The only thing that should require a DVD these days is the operating system itself (since if that is toast you have not 'net connection.)  Everything else should get delivered via the internet!

Please tell me this will be available for a download?  Such a waste of resources to have a box these days -- high speed internet delivery is the only way to go.

So please consider making this available online.  It's more environmentally friendly, more convenient, faster (delivery in an hour vs. overnight), cheaper (for both you and me), and overall just with the times.

congratulations. I will buy it on the 15th.

Congrats on the completion!

I look forward to upgrading in the new year!

Amzing that the one response from MS did not include any answers concerning Entourage functionality!

Are the categories going to finally work with Exchange

Are NOTES and TASKS going to finally sync with Exchange

Has there been any improvement in having this product WORK with the product you put out.. EXCHANGE

My office is currently using "outlook anywhere".  And right now the current version of entourage doesnt support that.  Will the new version support it.  They are talking about I should just switch to a PC because they won't poke a hole through the firewall for my entourage to get my e-mail.   Thanks in advance.

Does anyone know if there's going to be upgrade pricing and academic pricing on Office 2008?  I figured there will be, but I wanted to know how much...

So if I read you correctly I will get a copy to deoply in my organization faster if I buy a box from a joe schmoe vendor than by logging in to our hideously huge and expensive MVLS agreement?

It is pretty obvious we get yet another less than useful version of entourage (from an enterprise perspective).

It took ten years for me to accept that this truly is attrition warfare so 5% of my budget this year goes into sponsoring OpenOffice (specifically the Aqua port).

And for those of you taking perverse pleasure in the lack of a docx converter... use TextEdit (running 10.5 or better iirc might work on earlier version) as it supports the format.

I can only hope that the nasty "disk is full bug" in Word is going to be solved and that Powerpoint won't hang anymore when I open PPS files attached to e-mail.

I'm wondering why nothing has been told about the ever existing differencies between Mac and Win implementations. Does the gap grow wider with this new release or is something happening in the battle field? Value of the new Mac version will not be very high unless a real compatibility can be reached.

I have to ask myself...Would I have made the same decisions if I were MS?  It is not that the end user base has been asking for full Exchange compatibility for only a couple of months...it has been years.  Same goes for the database.  I can't imagine that it couldn't have been changed...I think it didn't want to be changed.  

Most businesses use Outlook with Exchange so why cut into the potential of OS sales by making Entourage just as compatible?  Right now, I know there are a lot of Mac users utilizing Parallels or VmWare to run Windows just to use Outlook.  MS doesn't care since those users still need to have a licensed version of Windows.  I mainly use Entourage with my hosted Exchange server, but still have to go to Outlook for some of those "features" that are missing.  So I boot up my virtual Windows and start Outlook.  I am sure MS would rather have that then no OS at all?

As I know a lot of you have the same feelings, I am extremely disappointed in the complete lack of improvement to Entourage.  Out of the Mac Office suite I use that program the most!  To me, it seems the biggest improvement is Intel native...Yippee!  I think?  Other than that and the "bug" fixes...what improvements/features have been made?  Anyone?  We are sure learning a lot about the new Word.

I do want to thank the MacBU, they worked hard and I am sure they did as directed.  However, I hope there will be some other options on the horizon other than Mac Office 2013.

Anyone know when Office 08 will be released in Australia please , im busting to get it !

The animation on < http://www.macoffice2008.com/ > showing the new user interface is embarrassing !?

If that is any indication of how together this new version of Office for Mac is I'll wait before I buy (if I even bother), iWork 08 + Office 2004

will probably be good enough for now.

Excellent!  I hope the icons are well mace - the previous icons had a faint grey box behind them like the transparency wasn't set right.  512x512 should be awesome!  Anyway, I am pleased to say that Office:Mac is the ONE Microsoft product that I truly have no complaints about.  The MS Mac development team has done a great job on it, and I hope they continue to do so with this release.  If it's anything like 2004, it's got to be good.  Looking forward to getting my copy!

I am a new convert to mac platform and invested a lot of money in purchasing a leopard macbook and a year's tutorial plan. As a grad student i have heavy work with text. I needed a mac compatible office package but cannot buy  the office 2008 because according to retailers, it can only be sold on the 15th of january - even if i get into hot water for not meeting deadlines. What kind of logic is this that says the software must only be sold on the 15th. This is a bad mistake by Apple. I think you are beginning to forget that the customer is king. The same forgetfulness, which made a lot of clients begin to abandon windows. Why announce the product if you are not ready to sell it , nd then tell folks to buy the old one and get an update later. Not everyone has the time for such rigmarole. It costs money and wastes time.

When will it be available to Software assurance customers? As of the 15th it is still not up and ready to download. Nor is it on MSDN for developers to develop against.

Did VBA get cut?

If so, how do we migrate our Excel automation applications?

A review on Amazon.com by a customer indicated that Analysis Toolpack have been removed from Excel 2008. Has the Office 2008 compensated for its removal in the Formula Builder?

Since this is now done, what do you guys get up to? I've always wondered... I mean, is half your staff told to get new jobs? What other projects could possibly be needed to be done... other than waiting for a new office to be released so that it can be ported into MAC.

By the way, does this work on ALL Mac platforms? Or is there some extra work required to get it to work on Leopard?

Now, where are the guys who are doing this kind of work to get things to work on Linux?