Office 2004 11.5 adds XML; Office 2008 12.1.1 ships

Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled updates for Office 2004 and 2008, offering users some stability, security, performance, and compatibility fixes with the two business productivity suites. Office 2004 11.5.0 adds compatibility with documents from Office 2008 for Mac and Office 2007 for Windows by offering an update to the Open XML File Format Converter, allowing users to convert files from the newer versions of the suite.

Office 2008 12.1.1 saw some improvements regarding stability when opening or using the suite's applications, as well as formatting for dates contained in charts. Word saw refinements to Macro handling, opening documents from the Finder, Macros, font handling, and overall reliability with graphics in .doc documents.

Excel now properly handles international decimal separators for error bars, while opening files from the Finder has also been refined. Overall reliability was improved when calculating or editing a formula, updating chart data, and referencing cells, as well as several other optimizations.

PowerPoint and Entourage were both optimized for performance and stability.

Filed under: software
Other story tags: Microsoft, Office, 2008, 2004