Tuesday, October 10,2006 @ 8:45am
Next Mac Office due in late 2007
Microsoft doesn't expect to ship the next version of its flagship suite Office for the Mac until the second of half of 2007, confirming a report from last month. Code-named Office 12, the next version of its flagship office suite will bring an enhanced look and feel to match Mac OS X's interface evolution, and enhanced features as well as Universal Binary support for native performance on Intel-based Macs; however, Reuters reports that the company does not expect to ship the much-anticipated Universal update until eight months after the release of its Windows counterpart. Microsoft currently expects to ship the next version of Office 2007 for Windows in January, which could mean that Mac users would wait about three and half years since the last major update. Office 2004 for Mac was released in January of 2004.
Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit group product manager Mary Starman confirmed the release date while saying that the update will bring an interface overhaul in line with Apple's interface guidelines and the direction being taken by Mac OS X Leopard.
"This may draw on elements of the 'ribbon', a new strip of commands and formats to debut in the Windows version of Office 2007." Reuters also confirms that Word, Excel and PowerPoint will adopt XML as their native file format--much like its Windows counterpart.