Microsoft launches Office 2011 for Mac
Released this month is the Mac version of Microsoft Office. We take a look and see what's new.
11 October 2010
According to Microsoft, Office has over 500 million users worldwide (on PCs and Macs) and that three-fourths of Macs run a version of Office for Mac.
Compatibility
One of the key reasons for buying Microsoft Office is compatibility - it's the world's most popular office suite, hands-down. This reason holds true for the Mac version - in a PC-centric world, it's vital that documents, spreadsheets and presentations can be exchanged freely. The current Mac version of Office, Microsoft Office 2008, isn't bad in terms of compatibility, but it does have some rough edges. Complex layouts in Word, for example, can 'fall apart' when the file is moved from Mac to PC. With Office 2011, Microsoft reckons that it has pretty much got compatibility nailed - and exchanging files should be trouble-free. It's important for Microsoft to get this right, not only to make things easier for users, but also because competitive products (such as Apple's iWork suite) now have a pretty good degree of compatibility themselves.
Collaboration
An increasingly important feature of the Windows version of Office is collaboration - being able to work on the same document with other people, using technologies such as SharePoint, SkyDrive and Office Web Apps. The Mac version has finally caught up with the Windows version - and collaboration is now fully built into Mac Office 2011.
User Interface
The Ribbon has been one of the most important changes to the Windows version of Office - and it's now made its way onto the Mac version too. This replaces the Elements Gallery found in Office 2008 for Mac, which was liked and disliked in equal measure. Unlike the Elements Gallery, the Ribbon can be customised and collapsed - and, unlike on the Windows version of Office, the menus can still be used should the user prefer. Microsoft has also put quite a bit of effort into making the interface more Mac-like.
Outlook
Perhaps the biggest news for Office 2011 is that Microsoft has ditched the Mac-only e-mail, task and calendaring client Entourage and created a brand new Mac version of Outlook. This really is big news - within business, many people almost live within Outlook and it's seen as an essential tool for the large proportion of businesses - who rely on the Outlook/Exchange combination. Importantly, Outlook for Mac uses exactly the same PST file structure as the Windows version, making moving between platforms very easy indeed (although this only works for versions of Outlook from 2003 onwards). Outlook 2011 is up-to-date and full-featured, containing for example Outlook's Unified Folders - enabling multiple e-mail accounts to be viewed as one.
Word
Word was already well-featured in Office 2008, but the 2011 version sees the program mature nicely. It has previously been a fairly haphazard tool for creating complex page layouts, but the new publishing view makes the creation of newsletters and leaflets far, far easier. Text reflows effortlessly around pictures - and guides enable items to be placed with greater precision. Writers will really value the full-screen view, which removes the entire user interface so that you can concentrate on your writing alone. Although a simple idea, this is one thing that people will use regularly. The way that styles are managed has been given an overhaul, using a colour-coded system to make it far easier to select styles from those in use.
PowerPoint
Again, the previous version of PowerPoint was already well-polished and the 2011 version builds on that to deliver a really stunning application. Presentations are now more portable - for example, if you previously added a video file to a presentation, then you'd have to send both if you wanted someone to watch your PowerPoint file. Now, video (and other media) is fully embedded, so you only have to send the one file. Slide transitions and animations are significantly improved, giving real pizzazz to a presentation. PowerPoint for Mac has one feature which isn't available in the Windows version - a 3D layered view for organising elements on a slide, enabling you to drag items between the front and back layers with far greater ease (and with more fun) than you'd have thought possible.
Excel
As with the rest of the Office suite, Excel is now brought into line with its latest Windows counterpart. For Excel, this means lots of excellent changes. One of the more useful of these features is Sparklines, which are tiny charts that sit in a single cell - really useful for showing (for example) a bar-chart representation of the number in the preceding cell, or the sum of the cells in that row. The style of the Sparkline can be quickly changed by browsing through the different chart types on offer. (It's worth noting that Sparklines can't be seen by people with earlier versions of Office.)
Conclusion
Pricing has been brought in line with the Windows version - and, for the first time, activation added. This is important, because although some software for Mac (such as Adobe CS5 and QuarkXpress) allows two concurrent activations (say, for a desktop and a laptop) Office does not. So, if you work on two machines, you'll need the two-licence version. The bottom-line question is whether it's worth forking out for the new version of Office - does the investment make sense? In our view, the answer is, without doubt, yes. Office 2011 is faster, more robust, more polished and more compatible.
