July 9 - 3:30pm EDT   Microsoft's Monday event should mark a more formal debut for the company's Office Web suite, tipsters said on Thursday. Although announced nine months ago, the suite is now said by Neowin to be getting a demonstration. It's not known if Microsoft will commit to a public release at the gathering. [full story]

May 15 - 11:05am EDT   Microsoft has drawn criticism over the timing of a new security patch, targeting the company's PowerPoint presentation software. Windows users can now download update MS09-017, which addresses a zero-day vulnerability known to have been used in real-world attacks. The patch is moreover said to reduce the vulnerability of Office and PowerPoint in general, by removing a mostly irrelevant PowerPoint 4 converter. The creation of PowerPoint 4 files has not been supported since Office XP. [full story]

January 12 - 11:00am EST   Keynote is the oldest and most mature program of the iWork suite, which has regularly bested Microsoft PowerPoint in features and ease of use from its inception. With the latest version, Apple has continued innovating to keep Keynote '09 the star of the entire iWork suite. [full story]

November 6 - 4:30pm EST   Jumsoft is shipping Keynote Objects FX 3.0, its latest art collection for Mac apps. Objects FX is in particular aimed at both Keynote and Pages, and supplies a variety of pre-rendered 3D images for inclusion in presentations or documents. Version 3.0 doubles the collection size from 50 to 100, in categories including the likes of parties, plants, and soft or metallic objects. [full story]

May 1 - 4:20pm EDT   Jumsoft on Thursday unveiled Keynote Jam, a collection of 56 high quality 3D rendered images ideal for use in Apple's Keynote presentation software. The collection includes a number of colorful icons, such as checkmarks, a globe, several Apple-inspired designs, as well as a plethora of other symbols, tools, and shapes. Jumsoft also claims the icons work with Microsoft Powerpoint and graphics applications, and are available for free from the company's website. [full story]

December 21 - 10:15am EST   Microsoft has released a new beta of its Open XML File Format Converter for Mac OS X. The utility converts Open XML documents into a format readable by Office v. X or Office 2004 for Mac, and supports batch operations in addition to single-file use. Five different file types can be altered: these include standard and macro-enabled Word documents (.DOCX and .DOCM), as well as PowerPoint shows, templates and presentations (.PPSX, .POTX and .PPTX files). [full story]

November 27 - 5:40pm EST   Microsoft's Mac Business Unit has updaed the Office 2008 Sneak Peek site, unveiling a few new features from PowerPoint and Word. PowerPoint 2008 now allows users to export slideshows directly to iPhoto in either PNG or JPEG format, which the company intends for users to be able to upload to their iPods so they can bring their presentations with them, without requiring a computer. Apple Remote support has also been introduced, allowing presenters to make use of the small six-button remote in PowerPoint. Word 2008's Notebook Layout View has been improved, providing greater flexibility for idea management. Users can customize their workspace background with different images, ... [full story]