Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac: What's New?

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac is out. And, here's what's new...

Microsoft really likes to have multiple versions of the same product. There are five versions of Windows Vista. And, there will be eight versions of Windows Server 2008 when it is released. So, we should be happy there are only three versions of Office for Mac 2008 to choose from :-) All three versions come with the five core applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Entourage, and Messenger. Office for the Mac 2008 (which I'll call standard edition here) is US$399.95 (239.95 upgrade). Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition is $499.95 ($299.95 upgrade). And, Office for Mac 2008 Home and Student Edition is $149.95. The Media Edition adds the Microsoft Expression (60-day trial edition available). The Home and Student Edition doesn't have Office-specifc Automator Actions (more on this later) or the ability to work with Microsoft Exchange Server. However, it does provide three users licenses.

New for All Office Applications

• Works with Mac OS X 10.4.9 and above. Tiger and Leopard only, folks.


• Universal binary. Finally! Office 2004 for Mac seemed to run slower on my Core Duo-based MacBook than my G4-based Mac mini.


• Open XML. This means it is file compatible with Microsoft Office 2007 for Windows.


• Elements Gallery. This is the new User Interface (UI) for Office 2008. The MacBu team did not bring over the new Office 2007 for Windows Ribbon interface. However, I think this Elements Gallery has a strong resemblance to the Ribbon while maintaining a Mac-ish feel. You can read about the design choices behind this in their blog entry titled: Welcome to the New Office 2008 User Experience.


• Automator Actions for Workflows. My guess is that the most controversial aspect of Office 2008 is that Microsoft dropped support for Visual Basic scripting with this release. What we have instead is this new feature that uses the Automator introduced in Tiger. You can find an extensive article about how to migrate your VBA scripts in this MacTech article: Moving from Microsoft Office VBA to AppleScript:MacTech's Guide to Making the Transition.


• Save as PDF. This is what is looks like. You can create PDF documents directly from each of the Office 2008 applications.

Microsoft Word

• Document Elements. These elements are professional designed templates for structures within a document. Some examples of elements are cover pages, table of contents, and bibliographies.


• Publishing Layout View. This view lets you freely place text, photos, and other graphics and can be used to create newsletters and others kinds of visually complex publications. I wonder if it is as capable as Microsoft Publisher for Windows (since Microsoft does not have a Publisher product for the Mac)? My family holiday newsletter became too complex for Word for Windows to handle a few years ago. This prompted me to use Publisher for that annual task. Should be interesting to try to recreate my newsletter in Word 2008 sometime.


• Notebook Layout View. This feature has been enhanced since its introduction in Word 2004. It doesn't have all the features that Microsoft OneNote for Windows does. However, the upside is that Mac users can stay within the confines of a single application rather than needing to use two (Word and OneNote).

Microsoft Excel

• Ledger Sheets. Pre-defined worksheets with forms designed for inventories, invoices, budgets, and more.


• Formula Builder. Wizard-like process to create complex formulas.


• Sent to HTML Email. Just want it sounds like...


• 1600 Columns and 1,000,000+ Rows. Yes, even more people will use Excel as a flatfile database :-)

Microsoft PowerPoint

• SmartArt Graphics. This was my favorite new feature in PowerPoint 2007 for Windows. It lets you transform a simple (or not so simple) bullet list into a graphic that illustrates the concept. If you are design challenged like me, you will definitely grow to love this feature.


• Sent to iPhoto (iPod). This lets you transform your slidedeck into JPEG or PNG files that can be synced to iPhoto and, from there, to your iPod. Nice.


• Apple Remote Control Enabled. Use your Apple Remote as a presentation device. Also very nice.

Microsoft Entourage

• Caveat... I never use Entourage. I still use the baked in Apple apps plus Thunderbird for email...


• My Day standalone application.


• To Do List.


• Phishing Protection.

Note: I only listed the new features that interested me personally. I don't have access to Microsoft Exchange Server for my work or personal email. So, the Exchange features in Office 2008 don't interest me.

The old Mac Mojo Office for the Mac Team Blog has been writing a lot about Office 2008. I suggest heading there for more details. You can find the new Mac Mojo blog (as of Jan. 15, 2008) here. I'll be writing more about Office 2008 for Mac after I actually buy a copy :-)