2010's Macworld expo in San Francisco is underway, and although appearing subdued without Apple itself in attendance, the show has provided a closer look at Office for Mac 2011 courtesy of Microsoft.
The upcoming revision of the Office for Mac suite, expected to launch before the end of the year, will arrive as a long-awaited successor to Office for Mac 2008 and incorporates a number of significant changes.
Claiming to have used end-user feedback to build Office for Mac 2011, Microsoft has revamped the software's user interface with a design it calls the "Office for Mac Ribbon".
Residing at the core of all Office for Mac applications, the Ribbon interface takes elements of Microsoft's PC software and combines them with the classic Mac menu and Standard Toolbar. Microsoft believes that the familiarity of the interface will provide a "more consistent experience across platforms", cheekily adding that consistency is key as 75 per cent of Mac users also use a PC.
In addition to a refreshed interface, the software giant is introducing a number of new features to its suite - of which the most significant are arguably the addition of new co-authoring tools and built-in access to Microsoft Office Web Apps.
The latter will allow Mac users to tap into the web-based extension of Office, allowing users to continue to work from any system with a browser. Currently in Beta, Office Web Apps is expected to officially launch alongside the release of Microsoft Office 2010 for PC in June.
Microsoft also used its Macworld stage to reiterate that Outlook for Mac will be returning in Office 2011 as a replacement for the existing mail solution, Entourage. Designed from the ground-up as a new application, Outlook for Mac has been built using Apple's Cocoa programming environment and will offer extensive integration with Microsoft Exchange - including the added ability for Windows users to import .PST files.
Microsoft expects Office for Mac 2011 to be available late in 2010, and the company is believed to be introducing a limited beta in the coming months.
