On Thurdsay, software manufacturer Microsoft announced that it would delay the release of its long-anticipated Office 2008 for Mac suite until mid-January of next year.
According to Macworld News, the suite, which will be Intel-native, was originally scheduled for release in the second half of 2007. Representatives have stated that the software will go to manufacturing this December and be released at the next Macworld Expo in San Francisco.
“We made the decision to do this so we could give users the type of quality that they deserve,” said Craig Eisler, general manager of the Macintosh Business Unit. “This is a quality-driven decision.”
Eisler also commented that changes, such as Apple’s hardware switch to an Intel-based architecture and new Office file formats, made the originally scheduled release that much more difficult. Transitions such as a change from FreeScale’s CodeWarrior to Apple’s Xcode system to build the software became necessary and added to the duration of the project.
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On Thurdsay, software manufacturer Microsoft announced that it would delay the release of its long-anticipated Office 2008 for Mac suite until mid-January of next year.
According to Macworld News, the suite, which will be Intel-native, was originally scheduled for release in the second half of 2007. Representatives have stated that the software will go to manufacturing this December and be released at the next Macworld Expo in San Francisco.
“We made the decision to do this so we could give users the type of quality that they deserve,” said Craig Eisler, general manager of the Macintosh Business Unit. “This is a quality-driven decision.”
Eisler also commented that changes, such as Apple’s hardware switch to an Intel-based architecture and new Office file formats, made the originally scheduled release that much more difficult. Transitions such as a change from FreeScale’s CodeWarrior to Apple’s Xcode system to build the software became necessary and added to the duration of the project.
“Changing development tools is not something you’d voluntarily do in the middle of a product cycle,” Eisler said. “But if we wanted to target Intel processors, it was a necessity.”
Office 2008 will center around the Office Open XML programs which are currently being used in Microsoft Office 2007 on the Windows platform. Other new features will include a Publishing Layout View (which allowes for layout-rich documents to be created in Word) and Ledger Sheets (which allow for common financial management functions as budgets, invoices and registers to be created without the user needing to generate formulas from their end.)
Final pricing and terms have yet to be determined for Office 2008, although Microsoft has released updated versions of its Open Office XML File Format Converter, which allows for compatibility between Office 2004 for Mac and Office 2007 documents.
Not the best news in the world, but also not the worst. If you have an idea or feedback about this, let us know in the comments or forums.