Office 2008 For Mac Brings Modest Improvements

After a number of delays, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) finally has Office 2008 for Mac ready for release Tuesday; it's the first update to the platform in four years and the first Office product to run natively onIntel (NSDQ: INTC)-based Macs.

Office 2008 for Mac includes Word, Excel for your spreadsheet needs, Powerpoint if you want to create a presentation and Entourage for email and time management. The bundle also includes Windows Messenger, but considering it was barely updated, I'm choosing to focus on the four major programs.

For those of you who upgraded to Office 2007 for Windows from an Office 2003 installation, you were probably shocked by the major differences. The same isn't true for the upgrade from Office 2004 for Mac to Office 2008 for Mac. In fact, each program looks virtually the same except for a few cosmetic upgrades thrown in to add some style to an otherwise vanilla design.