Behind Your Business

Microsoft Office 2008 Mac users may have had to deal with a few bumps in the road, but Microsoft has offered users a chance to storm past those bumps with a boost in speed.

Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit on Monday made a free update available to Mac users making the software faster and more reliable. The update comes 18 months after Microsoft first released Office 2008 for Mac and after users requested feature updates.

Microsoft Office 2008 Service Pack 2 is a mid-cycle update available to users that will improve both access to and browsing of documents on SharePoint products and Microsoft Office Live Workspace, according to the company.

"There's never been a better time to try Office 2008 for Mac -- with SP2 we are not only delivering on top customer requests mid-cycle, but also taking a first step in bringing Microsoft software plus services to Mac users," said Mike Tedesco, senior product manager for MacBU at Microsoft. "This connection unlocks the door for Mac users to Microsoft services for easier collaboration and file sharing with colleagues, customers and classmates."

The 180MB update is available for download from both the MacBU Web site and through the AutoUpdate tool in Office 2008.

Requested Features

Mac users requested more speed, so Microsoft boosted the speed in Microsoft 2008 for Mac by adjusting the launch and scroll times. "Calculation speed in cells in Excel spreadsheets has been increased up to 24 percent," said Tedesco in an e-mail. "The outline view in Microsoft Word has also been overhauled and now works up to 10 times faster than before."

Microsoft also delivered on users' request for features by including a custom path animation feature in PowerPoint, giving users the ability to create and control motion-path animations. In the past, users could play back motion paths, but were not able...