Following yesterday's leak of several screenshots from the next version of Microsoft's Outlook for Mac, Chinese site cnBeta now shares much more information [Google Translate] about the upcoming version of Microsoft's productivity suite for Mac.
The report shares several presentation slides outlining some of the features of the next Office for Mac, as well as a timeline showing a planned release sometime in the first half of 2015. Microsoft team members had previously suggested the suite would launch this year.
The slides point to four key focus areas for Microsoft during the development cycle of the next Office for Mac, including a modernized look with full Retina support to match the OS X aesthetic while still aligning the experience with Office for Windows, improved connectivity with cloud services including Office 365 and SkyDrive (OneDrive), significant improvements to Outlook, and the addition of OneNote, which appeared as a standalone release earlier this year.
(Click for larger)
Taking a quick look at some of the changes to the core Office apps, the slides address the addition of the Quick Access Toolbar from the Windows version throughout the upcoming Mac suite, improved organization of tools and formatting, new support for Excel 2013 functions, Threaded Comments and improved Presenter View for PowerPoint, and enhanced Reply Comments and "Expand and Collapse" paragraph view toggles in Word.
Microsoft Office for Mac has not seen a major update since late 2010, when Office for Mac 2011 was released as a comparable version of Office 2010 for Windows. But while Windows saw the release of Office 2013 early last year, no corresponding version of Office for Mac has yet been released. The next version of Office for Windows is similarly expected in the spring of next year.
Thursday January 15, 2026 10:56 am PST by Joe Rossignol
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another eight months, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices.
Below, we have recapped 12 features rumored for the iPhone 18 Pro models, as of January 2026:
The same overall design is expected, with 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch display sizes, and a "plateau" housing three rear cameras
Under-screen Face ID...
Friday January 16, 2026 7:07 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple plans to upgrade the iPad mini, MacBook Pro, iPad Air, iMac, and MacBook Air with OLED displays between 2026 and 2028, according to DigiTimes.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman previously reported that the iPad mini and MacBook Pro will receive an OLED display as early as this year, but he does not expect the MacBook Air to adopt the technology until 2028 at the earliest.
A new iPad Air is...
Friday January 16, 2026 12:12 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
In select U.S. states, residents can add their driver's license or state ID to the Apple Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, and then use it to display proof of identity or age at select airports and businesses, and in select apps.
The feature is currently available in 13 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, and it is expected to launch in at least seven more in the future.
To set up the...
Sunday January 18, 2026 3:51 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 27 is still many months away, but there are already plenty of rumors about new features that will be included in the software update.
The first beta of iOS 27 will be released during WWDC 2026 in June, and the update should be released to all users with a compatible iPhone in September.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that iOS 27 will be similar to Mac OS X Snow Leopard, in the sense...
Sunday January 18, 2026 6:50 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
MacBook Pro availability is tightening on Apple's online store, with select configurations facing up to a two-month delivery timeframe in the United States.
A few 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro configurations with an M4 Pro chip are not facing any shipping delay, but estimated delivery dates for many configurations with an M4 Max chip range from February 6 to February 24 or even later. At...
About damn time. Office for Mac was really getting long in the tooth. Unfortunately, no matter how much I love Pages, I just can't rely on it exclusively, because I can never ever be sure that if I finish something in Pages and export it to doc it will look like exactly the same in MS Word... and yeah, there are documents that you are kind of obliged to send in .doc (not in PDF), that is the sad truth... :(
As a Seattleite, I know one of the Microsoft Office for Mac team members. I get the impression that they are Apple devotees, working within Microsoft to bring out the best version of Office for OSX and iOS. Although Office for iPad is not perfect, it's pretty damn good, and it's definitely more an iOS8 app than a "Microsoft app running on an iPad." I expect the same from this team's next version of Office for OSX. Let's cut them some slack, guys, and give them time to do it right.
I just want it to work right. i.e.: work like the Windows version of Office. It doesn't have to look the same. Just work the same.
We have users that move from Windows to OS X. They like Mac OS X, they HATE Office for Mac.
Same with me. I spend most of the day in OS X. It does everything I want it to - except run the real Office. I have to load up a virtual machine or boot into Windows just to run Office.
Office for Mac has been Office in name, only so far.
"Outlook 2011" is just a misnomer for Entourage 14.0. And of course, every version of Entourage/Outlook for Mac never works like the previous version. 2011 doesn't look or work like 2008. 2008 doesn't look or work like 2004. Fonts work differently. Labels and colors work differently. Rules work differently. Nothing is consistent with "Office".
This can't come soon enough! I need Office for work, and this looks like Mac users will finally get what they deserve: a first class Office on Mac.
I'm probably in the minority here, but I think Microsoft is slowly turning in the right direction under Satya Nadella. It's a big ship and there's a lot of Ballmer to undo, but I am hopeful.
I'm very happy to see more concrete evidence of an update! On a side note, did anyone else chuckle when they saw the "support for new Office 2013 features and capabilities."? I guess "new" is completely in the eyes of the beholder....
