Microsoft has finished work on Office for Mac 2011 and is on schedule to release the new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook (né Entourage) before the end of October 2010.
While Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit hasn’t yet revealed the launch date, Amazon briefly listed both the Home and Student and Home and Business editions for sale on 26 October.
The biggest changes are the introduction of the ribbon interface first introduced in the Windows version and the renaming of Entourage as Outlook, to match the Windows equivalent. As well as providing closer integration with Windows, the new Outlook provides better compatibility with Microsoft Exchange server and does away with the universally unpopular single email database, replacing it with a new system that, among other things, will provide support for Time Machine backups and for Spotlight searching.
“We started two and a half years ago with some big goals to deliver major improvements customers have requested as well as new stuff we were dreaming up, and to release faster than we had before,” said Geoff Price, product unit manager. “We also made a big commitment to invest heavily in ‘the basics’ — fundamentals of software quality including design polish and finish, consistency and usability, and particularly performance and responsiveness, and to re-engineer our internal development processes around those goals. And we’re releasing the bits on the exact day we planned.”
Microsoft announced in August that Home and Student, comprising Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Messenger will cost £89.99, or £109.99 for a three-licence Family Pack; Home and Business adds Outlook to the mix from £189.99. Anyone who bought Office after 1 August 2010 will get a free upgrade.
Microsoft has also completed Windows Phone 7, the new version of its mobile OS which, it hopes, will help it recover ground lost to Apple and Google Android. It marked the occasion by staging a mock funeral for the iPhone.
