Office 2010 for Windows hits RTM this month and the revamped Office 2011 for Mac will follow. Here’s a look at what’s in store.
BGR has uncovered a handful of screenshots of Microsoft’s next gen Office 2011 suite for the Mac, including a first look at the new Outlook for Mac client which will replace the largely unloved Entourage.
Outlook 2011 for Mac aims to carry over the core features and functionality
of Outlook for Windows (pic courtesy of BGR)
It’s a return to glory for Outlook, which was originally offered as a stand-alone Mac email client primarily for business use before being deep-sixed in favour of Entourage.
The new client aims to mimic Outlook for Windows, although it won’t be a complete feature-for-feature match. It’s been built from the ground up using the native Cocoa environment of Mac OS X and will support greater Exchange synchronisation including public folders, managed folders and category syncing.
Outlook for Mac will also use a different database to that of Entourage, which Microsoft says will be “a reliable, high-speed, file-based database” compatible with Spotlight searching and Time Machine backup.
While the program will import PST databases from Outlook for Windows, although it’s not known if Outlook for Mac will use PST as its native database or adopt an all-new format.
When Office 2011 for Mac ships towards the end of this year we’ll also see a revised ribbon UI based on that of Office for Windows.
The revised UI in Word 2011 (above)and Excel
2011 (below) is a more complete implementation of the
Office ribbon than
in Office 2008 for Mac (pic courtesy of BGR)
Microsoft has already had one stab at implementing a ribbonesque UI in Office 2008, but claims that Office 2011 is a more mature evolution which is closer in shape and spirit to the ribbon of Office for Windows. Both the ribbon an the familiar toolbar can be collapsed to maximise screen space for keyboard jockeys.
Office 2011 for Mac is also expected to include other ‘hand me down’ tech from Office 2010 for Windows, such as live document sharing among multiple users and support for Office Web Apps.