Microsoft Spiffs Up Office for Mac

Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Macintosh Business Unit has introduced its second service pack for Office for Mac 2008. The pack increases the productivity application's speed and provides additional sharing tools.

New is the Document Connection for Mac, which allows users to browse documents using SharePoint and Office Live workspace.

Another plus in this mid-cycle release is Office Live Workspace support for Safari 4.0 and Firefox 2.0.

The service pack also has new capabilities for PowerPoint presentations.

Microsoft did not return a call to the E-Commerce Times in time for publication.

Officially called "Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 2," the application is aimed at a constituency that is quietly but quickly growing: Mac users who really should be on Windows.

Increasingly, perceived security flaws in Windows are driving users -- particularly enterprise users -- to shift to Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) as a defensive move. When they go, however, they still want to use familiar software such as Word and Excel.

Loyal Group

As far as service packs go, this one serves its purpose, Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group told the E-Commerce Times. "It corrects some of the problems in the product."

Getting it right is important to Microsoft, he said, particularly as it goes on the offense to target Mac users.

The Microsoft group that delivers these Mac-ready applications is fiercely loyal to Apple, according to Enderle.

"They tend to pay more homage to Apple than Microsoft," he noted. "It is a very unique unit in that it is more loyal to the competition than their own parent."

Service Pack Features

Included in the service pack:

• Custom Path Animation, which adds the ability to author motion-path animations. Users previously could only play back motion paths.
• Default Theme, which lets users define their default theme, including fonts, color scheme and slide layouts.
• Speed boosts:Launch and scroll times are faster in Microsoft Word 2008 for Mac; calculations are processed more quickly in Microsoft Excel 2008 for Mac.
• Enhanced support for SharePoint. Document Connection also allows for easier collaboration within a SharePoint environment by simplifying how users can browse, access and manage files online and offline.

Customers can download SP2 for free today, and it also will be available from Microsoft AutoUpdate.

Mac users also can access a full trial version of Office 2008 for free.