[Macpartners] Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Release Project Underway

[Patrick McNeal]

Good Afternoon,

In collaboration with IT colleagues across campus, Information  
Services & Technology (IS&T) has officially begun the Microsoft Office  
2008 for Mac release project.

Due to significant changes to Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, IS&T  
recommends that users WAIT to upgrade while software testing and  
evaluation are still underway.

Timeline
--------
IS&T anticipates announcing support for Office 2008 by May 2008.

New Features/Support
--------------------
  - Supports the Office Open XML Format
  - Runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macintosh computers

Major Known Issues
--------------------
- Endnote X and EndNote XI are not compatible with Word 2008 for Mac.
- Office 2008 for Mac does not support Visual Basic for Applications  
(VBA), the programming language used in macros.  In particular, Excel  
Add-in that require VBA, such as Solver and Analysis, do not work.

For a complete list of known issues, along with other information,  
please see the Office 2008 for Mac Release Project Notebook at:

http://web.mit.edu/swrt/releases/office2008

If you have any questions, suggestions, or would like to participate  
in the release of Office 2008 for Mac, please contact the release team  
at office-release at mit.edu.

--Patrick

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Patrick McNeal
Macintosh Platform Coordinator - Software Release Team Client Support
Services Information Services and Technology Massachusetts Institute of
Technology N42-250E Cambridge, MA 02139
+1 617 253-0196
mcneal at mit.edu