New Special Media Edition provides powerful digital asset management tools.

PARIS — Sept. 25, 2007 — The Macintosh Business Unit (Mac BU) at Microsoft Corp. today announced at the Apple Expo in Paris its product lineup for the upcoming Microsoft® Office 2008 for Mac release. The flagship product, Office 2008 for Mac, is the core suite that includes Microsoft Office Word 2008, Microsoft Office Excel® 2008, Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2008 and Microsoft Office Entourage® 2008 for exceptional productivity on the Mac. A new combination for Mac users is Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition, which features the Office 2008 applications together with the Microsoft Expression® Media digital asset management system. Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition is geared toward professional users who need Microsoft Exchange Server support and Automator tools and are looking for one product to meet their productivity and digital asset management needs. Completing the product lineup is Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition, a specially priced version for users with basic productivity needs.

All versions of Office 2008 for Mac support the new Open XML file format and are Universal applications that will perform natively on Power PC- and Intel-based Macs. Each version will be available in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Swedish, and, for the first time, in the Nordic languages (Danish, Finnish and Norwegian).

“We built Office 2008 with the unifying goal of making it easier for Mac users to access the tools they need to get the job done — whether it’s creating a brochure for their business, managing their family schedule and finances, or finalizing a presentation to share between Macs and PCs,” said Craig Eisler, general manager of the Mac BU at Microsoft. “And, of course, Office 2008 for Mac will provide the document fidelity with the 2007 Microsoft Office system that our users need to stay connected with their friends and co-workers on PCs.”

Delivering the Industry Standard

Office 2008 for Mac features a leading suite of applications that Mac customers rely on to get their work completed with Word 2008, Excel 2008, PowerPoint 2008, Entourage 2008 and Microsoft Messenger for Mac. Mac users can simplify their day by using powerful new tools and easily located classic Office for Mac features.

As showcased at Macworld Expo 2007, Office 2008 for Mac is designed to help users get more from their Macs by making key functions accessible through a more intuitive design and by introducing smart features such as Ledger Sheets in Excel 2008, My Day with Entourage 2008, Publishing Layout View in Word 2008 and SmartArt graphics in PowerPoint 2008 that are simple to use and yield powerful results. Entourage 2008 also features improved Windows® Exchange Server support, with enhanced reliability and functionality.

“We’ve worked closely with Microsoft since it launched the first version of Office for Mac more than 20 years ago,” said Ron Okamoto, vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations at Apple. “Office delivers tremendous compatibility across platforms for Mac and PC customers, and we look forward to another great user experience with Office 2008 for Mac.”

A Suite to Meet Every Need

The Mac BU will offer two versions in addition to Office 2008 for Mac that meet distinct user needs:

• Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition features the complete Office 2008 for Mac productivity suite specially packaged with a full version of Microsoft Expression Media for Mac to empower the media-savvy Mac user with smart digital asset management tools. Expression Media is a powerful and customizable image management software application for importing, annotating, organizing, archiving, searching and distributing users’ ever-growing collections of digital files.
• Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition provides the basics of Office 2008 for Mac for home and school users. This version includes three user licenses for use by consumers and students but does not include connectivity to Microsoft Exchange Server or support for automated workflows.

Pricing, Availability and Technology Guarantee

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac will be available in the United States beginning Jan. 15, 2008, with global general availability in the first quarter of 2008. There also are specially priced upgrade versions for legally licensed users of previous versions.

• Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, $399.95 (U.S.)* for the full retail version; $239.95 (U.S.)* for the upgrade version
• Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition, $149.95 (U.S.)* for the full retail version
• Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition, $499.95 (U.S.)* for the full retail version; $299.95 (U.S.)* for the upgrade version*

Today also marks the start of the technology guarantee program that allows customers in select regions who purchase qualifying Office 2004 for Mac product(s) to upgrade to a version of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac for only the cost of shipping, handling and applicable taxes. More information about the program specifics in various regions is available at local Office for Mac Web sites.

Same old high money microsoft issues... from Free to $500, with stop-offs at $150 and $240. A suite to meet every budget. Whew!

And no VB macro support in Excel, I think. There have been articles a few months back about all that.