US SOFTWARE HOUSE Microsoft has proudly announced that it has signed off and shipped its Office for Mac 2011 to Apple.
This is exciting news for anyone who wants to bring the Microsoft Office experience to the Mac party, possibly.
The updated Office for Mac has had a number of tweaks, to be fair, and improves the way the applications hook into things like Sharepoint and Outlook. As well as this, the Vole said that it had given it a spit and polish and made it a bit more Mac-like. For example, the software apes Apple's 'ribbon' effect, making Apple users feel more at home while lost at sea in the Microsoft applications.
"We made a big commitment to invest heavily in 'the basics' - fundamentals of software quality including design polish and finish, consistency and usability, and particularly performance and responsiveness, and to re-engineer our internal development processes around those goals," wrote Geoff Price of the Vole's Mac business unit in a blog post.
The Redmond, Washington firm released a supporting video to go with its announcement, which is pretty amusing. In it, it discusses some of the features that were cut from the release, including pitch control and a vuvuzela. You can delight in what the Vole thinks is funny.
Now it is on its way to the user community, and Price and his team are waiting to take user comments on the chin.
"The feedback from our usability and beta tests has been great so far," Price added, "but the real test is when you take the software for a spin and see how well it works for you - we truly hope you do, and we can't wait to hear what you think. Office for Mac 2011 has left the building", said Price.
