Outlook for Mac Announced

Well, it looks like my MacBook Pro is going to have some fresh new software to run pretty soon, courtesy of the Mac Business Unit here at Microsoft.  Pre-orders start later this week on August 18th.

There are some pretty interesting developments in the announcements this morning.  My personal interest will be in the new Outlook for Mac product. Outlook for Mac is being built from the ground up as a Mac OS X application using Cocoa. It will have a new database that delivers a reliable, high performance, and integrated experience with Mac OS X.  Users will be able to back-up with Time Machine and search email, calendar and contacts with Spotlight. Additionally, Outlook for Mac and the rest of Office will include Information Rights Management, which helps keep sensitive information for only audiences that you intend. IRM compatibility will make it possible for Mac users to share and receive sensitive information using Microsoft Office tools.

We also released a free download for Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition.  Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition uses Exchange Web Services as the primary protocol to communicate with Exchange Server. In addition to several calendaring improvements, this new version of Entourage synchronizes notes, tasks, and categories with Exchange Server.

We also announced some SKU changes.  Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition will launch September 15, 2009.

See the press release @ https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/aug09/08-13macoutlookpr.mspx for more information.

Get Entourage @ https://download.microsoft.com/download/9/8/5/9857705B-2510-47EB-A00C-125F6D4297FB/EWS-1300-EN.dmg