Microsoft Ships Office 2008 for Mac

Tuesday Microsoft announced that Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac has shipped. It was originally slated for release in the 2nd half of 2007 but was delayed with a new shipping date set for this year's Macworld. And they made it.

Of course, total development time on this suite was 4 years.

Although the new version of Office for Mac supports the new Office 2007 for Windows formats (such as .docx for Word), you can still choose to save in compatibility mode (which, as I've said before, most users I know still do, to ensure compatibility with Office 2003).

Unlike the Windows version, however, you're not saddled with "The Ribbon." Whew.

There are three different versions of Office 2008 for Mac, as follows:

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. The core suite includes Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage along with Microsoft Exchange Server support and Automator tools. The MSRP is $399.95 (U.S.) for the full retail version and $239.95 (U.S.) for the upgrade version.

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition. This version contains three licenses for basic productivity needs and consists of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and a non-Exchange Server-enabled version of Entourage. The MSRP is $149.95 (U.S.) for the full retail version.

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition. This edition combines the core suite with the Microsoft Expression Media digital asset management system. The MSRP is $499.95 (U.S.) for the full retail version and $299.95 (U.S.) for the upgrade version.

One other thing of note: VBA has been removed from this release, replaced with enhanced support for (the incompatible) AppleScript. VBA will also be removed from the Windows version when Office 2007 is replaced, sometime in 2009.