Microsoft shows Mac users its new outlook on life

Dubbed as the better and faster version of its predecessor, Microsoft Office: Mac 2011 is packed with a ton of clever new features, but its ease of set up still leaves something to be desired.The social aspects Of Mac Office 2011:Catching up to some of Google Doc's features, the new Office: Mac 2011 allows collaboration on files. Handy of course, but getting from setup to actually using the free small business collaboration tool called SkyDrive, took over an hour. We like to think of ourselves as pretty tech-minded, so why was it so hard?  For a start, the sign up process implied that we needed a Windows Live or Hotmail account - there was however a link that lets you use your existing email address. Since I now have the dubious pleasure of owning a Hotmail account, which is slowly filling with herbal Viagra spam, we wonder whether the system could have made that more clear to us.Once in the system, the level of collaboration offered is less than expected - Excel is the only product in the suite that allows live collaboration. Word and PowerPoint don't. That confused the heck out of me - you'd have thought the most logical product to have live editing would be Word. We hear that this is a restriction of the current free SkyDrive edition, and that the new version due for release at the end of Q1 2011, will allow co-editing of Word and other file types.Sharing in the clouds: Cloud storage will become predominant for businesses in 2011, with Microsoft document connection allowing an individual or business to share documents on Microsoft’s cloud servers and providing the ability to use and edit that document from anywhere. Again the process of setting up this requires time and some technical ability, but it's a great concept from Microsoft knowing where the trends are heading in terms sharing and storing documents.Overall Impression:Compared to Office: Mac 2008 this product is well designed and definitely more user friendly, but could still make make improvements.IT expert Jamie Nelson from GetITHere told us that Microsoft is working on a Skype-like product called Microsoft Lync, which will allow collaboration and live editing on Word, PowerPoint and Excel called.I'd like to see Office 2011 implementing a social sharing feature as well, which could allow an author to seek feedback from their online friends, for example.To use Microsoft Office for Mac 2011: your Mac computer must have an Intel processor, Mac OS X 10.5.8 (Leopard) or later, at least 1 GB of RAM, 1.8 GB of available hard disk space, HFS+ hard disk format (also known as Mac OS Extended or HFS Plus), 1280 x 800 or higher resolution screen, DVD drive or connection to a local area network (if installing over a network), and Safari 5 (recommended)The Final Word:The Office: mac 2011 is great for individual use, but if you want to use all that the system has to offer, we suggest you get your friendly IT expert on it. It'll save you a lot of hair pulling.Microsoft office for mac home and student retails at NZD $259.95 and the home and business edition retails at NZD $379.95 with one license and NZD $499.95 with two licenses.