Office 2008, 2004 updates

Microsoft Tuesday released updates for Microsoft Office 2008 and 2004 for Mac . Office 2008 v12.1.2 contains "several changes to improve stability and performance" and includes "fixes that an attacker might use to overwrite the contents of a computer's memory by using malicious code." Office 2004 v11.5.1 also includes bug fixes and security improvements, according to Microsoft's website.

At 159.6 MB, the Office 2008 update includes minor bug fixes and improvements on each of the Office 2008 applications. Word opens more quickly, text display within tables has been improved, headers and footers are more reliable and the display of form fields has been improved. Excel 2008 includes speedier calculation, security fixes, better reliability for New Zealand-specific formulas, and improved stability for workbooks with PivotTable reports. Entourage 2008 includes mostly bug fixes, including better stability when using Microsoft Sync Services, improved reliability for reccurring calendar events and an updated junk mail filter.

The 14.5MB Office 2004 update is largely a security release, although there are minor fixes in Word and Entourage. The Word update fixes a problem that causes Office applications to crash when opening certain documents containing numbered lists. Entrourage includes an updated Japanese postal code dictionary.

Both updates are free, and available through Microsoft's AutoUpdate software or from the company's website.

by MacNN Staff