Redmond, Washington — Microsoft is striking a new chord to get Mac OSX users back on board with a new features on a 30-day free trial of its Office 2011 suite of applications before shelling out serious cash.
Microsoft and Apple products in general are not normally considered as having happy-go-lucky compatibility, but Microsoft Office for Mac just upped its appeal with the full version of its Office 2011 for the Mac productivity suite available for consumers to try out at no charge.
Although for Microsoft, it seems a little late coming to the party, but seeing as the Mac App Store and Open Office provide a host of free choices, but the productivity tools of Office 2011 are hard to beat. Anyone who needs access to PowerPoint or Outlook even minimally is likely inclined to purchase the suite — but now can put it off for a month.
Microsoft has now announced a 30-day free trial of the software for Mac computers that can be suitably found on Microsoft’s Office website. Apple computers will be entitled starting next week, just in time for the MacWorld Expo.
A full 900MB trial of Microsoft Office for Mac can be found on its product page (registration required). According to Cult of Mac, the download requires an Intel-based Mac with an extra 2.5GB of space lying around, but is the full Home and Business version of the software, complete with all of its familiar components including Outlook, the only apparent limitation being the 30-day shut-off.
Once the 30 days trial period is over you will be prompted to purchase the software, which costs $119.99 for the student version, $149.99 for the family pack, and $199.99 for the business version or the software will stop functioning. Prior to this offer, Mac users would either have to take the expensive plunge and purchase Office, or visit a retailer with the software to demo it out in store.
“We know it is essential for some of you to be able to test out new features,” said Pat Fox, Microsoft’s senior director of product management for Mac Office, in a blog post last Tuesday.
“For those that will be trying the suite for the first time, we hope you enjoy some of the new items — Outlook for Mac, new co-authoring tools, Excel Sparklines, Dynamic Reorder in Word & PowerPoint, and more,” wrote Fox.
Unleashed last October, Microsoft Office For Mac 2011 includes legacy products Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and Outlook, bundled up to include more interactive interfaces. For example, the Dynamic Reorder function within Word lets you interactively re-order all the layers within your document or presentation.
With most Mac users we know having moved over to free Open Source packages like the excellent OpenOffice.org, after years of wrestling with Microsoft’s horribly bloated and practically unusable 2004 and 2008 versions, we think the Redmond Goliath will have a job on its hands convincing people to hand over $199.99 for Office Mac 2011.
Microsoft Office has done generally well with Office for Mac, surpassing internal company milestones. The latest versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook for Mac are undoubtedly the best Microsoft has ever released, and the company is obviously keen to court the growing number of users who have chosen OSX as their primary operating system, but we can not help but wonder how many Macolytes will be tempted back to the dark side.
Users can grab the UK version of the 30-day trial here or there is a FAQ here. Other countries have their own localized packages. For more details, view the slideshow here.