Microsoft lifts lid on Office 2007 for Macs

By Shaun Nichols on Sep 21, 2006 9:58 AM
Filed under Software

Port will bring over XML format but no 'ribbon'.

Details have begun to emerge of the forthcoming version of Microsoft Office 2007 for Macs.

Mary Starman, group project manager at Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit, offered several insights as to how the new Office will look and feel in an interview with APC magazine.

The new version will be written in Universal Binary, providing a performance boost for new Intel-based Macs.

The Mac version will use the XML file format as in Office 2007 for Windows, which should make for easy sharing between platforms.

Microsoft's new ribbon interface that has had the PC world abuzz, however, will not be making its way to the Mac OS.

"We will be doing a user interface refresh, but it will not be exactly like you see in Office 2007," said Starman. "It just would not make sense."

Starman estimates launch of the new Office for the Mac to take place six to eight months after Office 2007 for Windows, which could be as early as January 2007.