ANTenna Blog -- Apple

Mac-based SMBs have been able to store and access documents on Microsoft Office Live Workspace but not work with Office documents directly, the way Windows users could. Today Microsoft released Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 2, which adds that capability along with other features and stability enhancements.

The Service Pack includes Microsoft Document Connection, a tool that enables Mac Office 2008 to open and save files stored online in an Office Live Workspace as well as on a SharePoint portal. In addition, Document Connection is supposed to make it easier to upload documents and check them in and out. These features not only make it easier for Mac office users to collaborate, they make it easier to collaborate with Windows-using colleagues.

The update also improves the stability and performance of Office 2008 across the board, as well as adding new features to each Office application. A full list of the enhancements is available on the Microsoft support site.

Office with SP 2, also called Office 12.2.0, also becomes the minimum requirement for Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac Web Services Edition. Now in beta, the Web Service Edition will use Exchange Web Services rather then WebDAV to make Entourage better able to work with Microsoft Exchange Server installations.

Between the potential for collaboration, improved stability, added features, and new baseline for future upgrades, installing this service pack is pretty much a no-brainer for any business. Download it here.