Microsoft Offers Office for Mac SP2

Fourteen months after the previous service pack (and six months after giving the world a peek at Macworld), Microsoft on Monday rolled out Office 2008 for Mac SP2. There's still no sign of the promised Entourage upgrade to Exchange Web Services (EWS), but fans of Office Live Workspace and SharePoint ought to be pleased, BetaNews reports.

Photo: Microsoft Offers Office for Mac SP2

The Redmond, Wash.-based computer giant (NASDAQ: MSFT) said Service Pack 2 for Mac Office 2008 goes beyond basic fixes and updates to add new features. It will be available as a free download starting sometime Monday.

The additions include a new tool called “Document Connection for Mac” that will let Mac Office users share documents using Microsoft’s Sharepoint and Office Live Workspace collaboration tools. Those capabilities were introduced in preliminary form earlier this year, Bizjournals.com reports.

Mike Tedesco, senior product manager for Microsoft's Mac Business Unit commenting on the release said: "With SP2 we are not only delivering on top customer requests midcycle, but also taking a first step in bringing Microsoft software plus services to Mac users," InformationWeek reports.

For users of older versions of Office, the Mac BU has also released an updated version of the Open XML File Format converter, bringing it to version 1.1. This software lets users of Office 2004 for Mac or earlier convert the new, XML-based .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx files to versions that can be opened in the older versions of Office.

Both Office 2008 for Mac SP2 and Open XML File Format Converter 1.1 are available to download now from Microsoft's Mactopia site, or you can grab the updates via Office's Auto Update, Ars Technica reports.