This morning, my team announced that Office for Mac will be available on October 26. We’ve got another video for you, showing off some more of our new features (including a Word 2011 feature that I love and use all the time: full-screen view). Go check it out: Office for Mac 2011 Behind the Scenes. The fine folks at Amazon.com have it ready for pre-order now: Home and Student Edition (1 license or 3 licenses, doesn’t include Outlook) and Home and Business Edition (1 license or 2 licenses, does include Outlook)
The reviews are starting to come in. Macworld has reviews for Word, PowerPoint, and Excel; I’m waiting for the Outlook review! Although today is the annual Microsoft Company Meeting, and Raymond Chen (whose Old New Thing blog is required reading) theorised that we would see Microsoft execs give a parody of the Old Spice Guy commercials, I’m going to be glued to my mail, browser, and twitter to watch reviews come in.
Now that the embargo has lifted, I can finally start answering questions. Who wants to start? Depending on length, I’ll either answer directly in the comments or write a new post.
Hi Nadyne,
I have a few questions:
-Did PPT get the “reduce file size” ability of the Windows version?
-Can Outlook 2011 manage server side rules on an Exchange server?
-What is the minimum OS requirement? 10.5?
Thanks,
Steve
Jim Gordon just posted a comment on my Facebook page, “Office 2011 is so sweet you could put it on dessert.”
How many rows and columns are there in Excel 2011?
Will Outlook 2011 sync with Google Calendar? If not can it sync with iCal and then iCal can be synced with Google Calendar? I know iCal can sync with Google Calendar but to effectively sync Entourage 2008 and iCal and make this work as a conduit to Google Calendar took 3rd party software.
No, Outlook 2011 doesn’t sync with Google Calendar.
At this time, Outlook doesn’t support syncing with iCal; that will come in a future update.
Does Outlook 2011 support calendar sync to sync services like Entourage did? If you are an iPhone user and don’t use Exchange this is a BIG deal?
Did they take the GUI formula builder called “Calculator” out of Excel? It was in Excel 98, X, 2004, 2008 and I don’t see it in 2011? In 2008 you would go to “customize toolbars & menus” click on the commands tab and then drag the calculator to your toolbar or menu of choice. The description Excel gave it was “Helps you create basic arithmetic calculations in Excel by offering a layout that is based on a ‘real’ hand-held calculator.”
It made things so much fun, less intimidating and easy!
Are there plans to bring the Math Add-in for Word/Onenote 2010 to Word 2011? Thanks.
He Nadyne,
what are the chances that the agenda in outlook 2011 for mac will have a option like MS office 2010 for showing the week numbers??? Would be very great if the possibility will be put inside! Greetz
It doesn’t today. Let us know that you’d like it in a future update to Outlook. Go here:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/suggestions.mspx
Tell us that you want it, and tell us why you want it. Be verbose. You want to be convincing, and just “I want week numbers” doesn’t tell me why we should invest in doing it. You can post here too, to tell me about it, but posting there gets it into our big hopper of feedback. Posting here means that I have to remember it, and trust me when I say that you don’t want to rely on my very bad memory!
I don’t know about the other guy, but here goes my reason. I’m a single dad and my son lives with me on even week numbers and with his mother on odd ones. It would make my planning a whole lot easier if I could see the week numbers directly in my calendar. I hope it makes sense…
I love the effort you guys have put in Office 2011, best version ever!
Terve,
A lot of us Europeans use weeks numbers as a quick reference tool to set up meetings, arrange holidays, agree on delivery schedules, etc etc… PC version had the option of showing them and is really useful!
Please…???
Unfortunately the no ical sync broke the deal for purchasing Office 2011 for our county. We were considering it to replace about 300 desktops.
Amazing that MS would leave it out. Most Mac users do not interact with Exchange therefore the calendar feature is a wasted effort.
From a perusal of responses from Mac users online this is a huge omission.
As I said earlier, it’s coming in a future update. We left it out not because we didn’t think Mac users wanted it, but because we wanted to ensure that it’s of high enough quality. We’ve been working closely with Apple to get it where it needs to be, and we’ll update Outlook the second we can with this much-needed functionality.
Thanks for the info. It is a big disappointment that Outlook can’t sync with iCal. It’s like being given a Porsche without the steering column.
Will It be available on msdn before 26. Oct If It would, when?
I work a lot in Scandinavia, and almost all meetings are booked by looking at week numbers. It it absolutely vital that you add such a feature for the mac version of outlook.
What is the realistic timeframe for the iCal sync patch/update?
I don’t have a timeframe to share. We’re working on it closely with Apple to resolve it.
You have week numbers in the PC version and you had it in Entourage. Why would mac users not need week numbers? In many parts of Europe we plan using week numbers. It’s like removing the week day in a week view for us. And please, use ISO week numbers.