Office 2010 for Mac incoming – 32bit only
By Jenny • Jun 10th, 2010 • Category: software
- Photo: Stock.Xchng
Microsoft has announced that, while it’s Office 2011 for Mac productivity suite remains on course for a holiday season (October-December) 2010 release, the software release will support the 32bit platform only.
Does not support Cocoa yet
The reason Microsoft is unable to prepare a 64bit version of Office 2011 is because the company has yet to integrate Cocoa – an Apple development standard – that Apple requires for all 64bit applications. And the hold up has been Microsoft’s attempts to optimise the current Windows Office 2010 release and Office 2011 release for incoming updates.
But most users won’t notice the absence of a 64bit version of Office 2011 for Mac, claims Microsoft. The Office for Mac team explains in a statement: ‘The largest difference between using a 32-bit and 64-bit version is the memory capacity available for your content. Most users with typical or even larger-than-average document content will not notice a difference in performance’.
What to expect from Office for Mac 2011
- Photo: Apple
Though Microsoft has yet to roll the red carpet ‘preview’ treatment on Office for Mac, we can make some educated guesses from the look of Office 2010 and the one or two tidbits Microsoft has revealed. One major departure is Office for Mac 2011 will finally have Outlook instead of the decidedly average ‘Entourage’ as its email client. Additionally, Microsoft’s Ribbon user interface has been customised for Mac, and Office for Mac 2011 users will be able to share/edit one another’s documents through the use of Sharepoint and Sky Drive.
Office 2010 (for Windows 7) was well received and Microsoft hope they can carry this momentum across to the Mac. The company also, in conjunction with Facebook, revealed docs.com, its first web-based productivity suite to compete with Google Docs, showing Microsoft has begun embracing the reality that the platforms its current cash cows – Windows 7 and Office 2010 – belong to will no longer go unchallenged.
Tags for this article: Cocoa, Office 2010, Office 2011, Office for Mac, Office for Mac 2011, windows 7
