Office 2004 for Macintosh

today previewed Office 2004, the next version of at Expo keynote and announced it will release the product in the "first half of this year". Office 2004 for the Mac includes many Mac-first features, including Project Center and other features such as Scrapbook, a new Excel page layout view, new Word note-taking features, compatibility reports, voice recording functions, and other new features. Office 2004 will be available in same three versions a the same prices. Microsoft also free upgrades to Office 2004 for all new purchases of Office v.X in its "technology guarantee."

The versions include: Standard Edition for $400 (Word 2004, Excel 2004, PowerPoint 2004, Entourage 2004 and MSN Messenger 4.0); Student and Teacher Editionfor $150 (same as Standard Edition, but discounted pricing); and Professional Edition for $500 (includes Virtual PC 7 with WinXP). All editions of Office 2004 for Mac will be offered in English, with certain editions localized in French, German, Japanese, Spanish and Swedish. For the first time since Office 98, Office for Mac also will be localized in Italian.



Microsoft's "technology guarantee" offers a free upgrade to Office 2004 for any new purchases of Microsoft Office v. X for any purchase of Office v.X between January 6, 2004 and 30-days after the product is released. The promotion also provides inexpensive upgrades to the Office 2004 Professional Edition: $90 estimated reseller price from Office v. X Standard Edition and $130 from Office v. X Student and Teacher Edition. The promotion is valid throughout the United States and Canada, as well as internationally.

by MacNN Staff