There's something in the water at Microsoft's Redmond headquarters today. The software giant said on Friday that it has released Office for Mac 2011 to manufacturing.
"This means we’ve signed off on final testing and the product is officially getting sent on its way to production and to customers," wrote Geoff Price, Product Unit Manager for Microsoft's Mac business unit. The RTM marks the end of the beta testing phase and finalisation of the product.
Office for Mac 2011 has undergone 6 different private beta builds. Microsoft issued a beta 3 update in late May which included brand new splash screens, icons and minor tweaks to several toolbar and ribbon icons. Office for Mac won't come with all the components that are available in Office Professional Plus for Windows, but will support Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Office 2011 for Mac will be the first time Outlook is available on the Mac OS X, offering similar functionality and appearance, including a Mac inspired theme ribbon, as Outlook 2010 for Windows.
Office for Mac 2011 will also allow for multiple document editing, so users can edit the same document at the same time, without getting a lockout notice. Office for Mac will include document sharing with other Mac and Windows office users, through SharePoint, SkyDrive and web apps. Microsoft is expected to release Office for Mac 2011 on October 26.
Not to be outdone by the Windows Phone 7 team's RTM shenanigans, Office for Mac released a joke video featuring a few features that didn't make the final product. Amongst the "missing features" is an Auto-tune recorder, exploding Excel charts and email alerts in Outlook with a Vuvuzella. Enjoy the video below.
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