Aug 13

Office For Mac Updates

When talking about Microsoft software for Apple computers, there's a very long story to tell, starting in the early 1980s. Don't worry, we're not going to go back that far into the past now! In the more recent years, one of my greatest disappointments regarding Microsoft's software for Macs was Internet Explorer. We all know there are sites giving you nightmares unless you're accessing them via Internet Explorer, and - from my own experience - I tell you Internet Explorer 5 is not the most reliable browser one would like to use. Why only IE 5? Because Microsoft decided to discontinue development of its browser for the Mac platform back in June 2003, when version 5.2.3 was released. Fortunately, it didn't happen the same with Office for Mac, as we're going to see right away...

I don't know about you, but I am not crazy about the latest version of Microsoft Office, no matter the platform we're taking into account, so the fact that the Redmond giant decided to come up with updates to both Office 2004 and Office 2008 for Mac is very good news. On Tuesday, Microsoft announced these two updates, both increasing stability, performance and also patching various security vulnerabilities.

Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.5.1 Update, with a size of almost 15MB, is also updating the Japanese postal code dictionary in Entourage. Even more, an issue that caused unexpected Word 2004 exits when opening documents with numbered lists inside them has also been solved.

At last, the Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.1.2 Update, a heavy 160MB download, repairs a global problem that was preventing all Office 2008 applications from running AppleScript scripts via the Script menu, but it also comes with various individual fixes for Excel, Entourage, and Word.

These being said, I finally have to give you a few hints - a few Apple authorized resellers, like Amazon.com are offering up to 30 percent off various Office 2008 productivity suites, as long as they are purchased with a new Mac. If you want a new Mac, or consider getting one for a friend, you should hurry up - the promo ends on the 8th of September!