Prepare for Mac Office 2008

There’s some good news for Mac users who depend on Microsoft Office. Currently, the two ways of running Office on a Mac are using the Power PC binary or virtualizing the Windows version.

I’m sure a lot of Intel Mac users are unsatisfied with the performance of the Power PC version; Mac Office 2004 currently has to be translated (through Rosetta) on both Tiger and Leopard.

However, if you purchase ANY version of Office 2004 (this includes the Student and Teacher, Standard, or Professional Edition), you’ll get a free upgrade to the top of the line Mac Office 2008 Special Media Edition (excludes shipping and handling). Sounds like a really good deal to me. This means you can save up to $500 on a new copy of Office 2008.

There are two ways to redeem it. You can download your coupon, print it out, complete it, and mail it to Microsoft with proof of purchase. However, you can also redeem it online (though you’ll still need to send your proof of purchase via snail mail).

Let’s look at Mac Office 2008 a little closer. Just like its soon-to-be-predecessor, Mac Office 2008 comes in three different versions. At the low end, you have the Office 2008 Home & Student Edition followed by Office 2008 (we’ll refer to this as the standard version). At the high-end, there is the Office 2008 Special Media Edition, which completes the entire line-up.

They all come with the four basic productivity suite applications: Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Entourage. Of course, if you pay more for the Standard and Special Media Edition, you’ll also get Exchange Server support as well as Automator Actions. The Special Media Edition also includes Microsoft Expression Media (previously known as iView).

Expression Media is an application that is used to manage and catalog digital assets (photos, movies, audio and any other type of media file). It handles tagging, batch processing, and almost everything else you need. Basic image editing tools are included to simplify your workflow, while Expression Media will also handle the creation of videos, slideshows and web galleries.

Mac Office is due for release in January 2008. So, let’s hear it, are you using Mac Office, iWork or something else?