I have n’t really had the exposure to the next version of Microsoft Office to make any classical statements about any features contained in the Universal edition of Microsoft ’s agency productivity suite slate for release in the second half of 2007 . A 30 - minute demo and a fleeting coup d’oeil atpublicly availablematerialsare hardly enough base to declare , with any amount of certainty , if Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac is plump to be a aspiration or a misfire .
I do feel comfortable saying this , however : establish on what I ’ve seen thus far , Microsoft understandably understands that the bounteous job with Office is not some variety of missing feature or capacity , but rather , the fact that many exploiter are unaware that features and capability they ’re necessitate already exist . By using this Office update to emphasize “ discoverability”—this is a polite way of saying , “ Your program is so massive , I have no idea how to make it do the things I desire it to do”—Microsoft is acknowledging that it does n’t want to emphasize new features in Office 2008 . Rather , it necessitate to make it easier for us mortals to reach the feature that already live .
That is why , when you open up the approaching update to Word , you ’ll find a feature like Microsoft ’s Elements Gallery , a form of submenu that afford you quick and easy access to pre - formatted documents , tables , charts , and the like . Or why Office 2008 adds something Microsoft dub the Publishing Layout View , which is a special workspace in Word for make depicted object - copious written document through pre - built templates and puff - and - drop graphics . ( My note about this lineament contain the phrase “ Kinda looks likePages ” in all caps and underline several times , just to give you an estimation of what Microsoft may be aiming for here . )
I can not say it any more plainly : the Mac variant of Office need to add more characteristic like Bill Gates needs another federal anti - trust investigation . The next edition of Office simply need to run well on Intel - based Macs , and it needs to make it easier to get to the tools the entourage already offer up . Microsoft seems to understand this , and that can only be considered an supporting development .
