Office for Mac 2011 Behind the Scenes: Sparklines, PivotTables & Photo Editing!
Today we’re excited to show you the second video in the behind-the-scenes series – including new compatibility features and new tools like Excel Sparklines and Photo Editing tools. Check out our own Kurt Schmucker demoing the features:
A little detail on the video highlights:
Visualize Your Data with Sparklines: Now in Excel 2011 you can create Sparklines for large amounts of data to get a quick visual summary of data using tiny charts that fit within a cell near its corresponding values. Use Sparklines to show trends in a series of values, such as the price of your home, or your monthly expenses. Sparklines debuted in Excel for Windows 2010, and due to our close working relationship with the team, we are also able to provide them in Excel 2011 – making it easy to share workbooks across platforms.
Photo Editing with Ease: Across the new Office for Mac suite, users now have the ability to do basic photo editing tasks in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2011. No need to leave the application you’re currently working in to do photo editing, even complex tasks like background removal or color correction. With new and improved picture editing tools and SmartArt graphics everyone can feel like a design pro.
Though not shown in this video, a bonus to accompany what was featured in the video, we wanted to share the enhancement of PivotTables, which summarize and analyze your lists. New improvements to PivotTable reports and Excel Tables, (formerly known as Lists), provide you with feature-rich tools to help you quickly display the relevant details and add sophistication to your results. New PivotTable report designs and layouts allow you to add totals, subtotals, or switch to a compact, outline, or tabular layout with less effort to make your PivotTable report more readable and presentable in a few simple clicks.
Stay tuned as we near the official release of Office for Mac 2011 in October and unveil more details on the suite – you can also follow us at Facebook and @OfficeforMac.
When can we pre-order??!
@jay Thanks for your interest! We haven’t announced pre-order availability yet, but Office for Mac 2011 will be available in late October.
Will there be visual basic back in the Office for Mac suite of applications. If my excel spreadsheets are going to work seamlessly between the PC environment and the Mac environment then the spreadsheets I amusing that contain macros should also be functioning on the Mac side as well. If not, then you have not achieved a seamless transition from the PC tot he Mac. This is a huge issue and using Applescript to accomplish the same thing is ridiculous. Yes I could rewrite the macros using Applescript, but the point is to be seamless and leaving out the visual basic component to the suite is a far cry from achieving a seamless experience between the two environments and a major pain. This issue alone is a deal breaker for me and I will not be purchasing an upgrade until it is addressed. Until then, it appears I am relegated to Office 2004, which has a visual basic component.
You do realize that the largest problem with Entourage is not being dealt with in Outlook 2011? Why in the name of everything holy is there still a local database? We reported that issue over and over and over and over, and you’ve decided that changing the name of the application was enough of a fix. Thanks morons!
One thing that I really need to see in the Mac version is the ability to add an alternate text tag to images embedded into a Word document. This is really needed to create accessible documents that can be read by a screenreading software package. As far as I can tell, there is no option in the Mac version. Word for Windows has this option.
I associate the Office Suite with the complete SUITE of tools which should definitely include Visio, Project, etc. Do not halfway solve the problem and give us something to look forward to.
Would be glad to invest and be a loyal customer for the suite if it includes a similar value to the Windows platform. Your team is capable of delivering this and impressing everyone – take the lead
Haven’t you guys given up after Apple launched iWork?
Does “[...] full power of Excel behind them” mean data analysis pack and pivot tables?
Yes, but will it support MS Dynamics CRM, specifically within “Outlook”.
@Robert Plante Yes, VBA 6.5 is included in Office for Mac 2011!
@Mike We appreciate your feedback and will pass it along to the development team.
@vondur We don’t have any further information to share about Word features at this time, but we appreciate your feedback and will share it with the rest of the team.
mac should consider later purchases of 2008..i bought mine last May 2010,
they only consider from august to november
Just completed a proposal using excel, word, and ppt. Sparklines is a powerful visualization tool and the ability to edit photo’s while using the suite is very helpful in preparing proposals. Transporting data across the apps was great.
The world won’t be the same after launch.
Hope you fix the following bugs in the new Office 2011:
1) Round trip editing, please fix the bug when you paste a ChemDraw drawing into a Word or PowerPoint document, then you copy again and paste again in ChemDraw: the hidden specific chemical information has disappeared and the scheme has become a mere image. The problem is situated at the “Copy” function.
2) Allow complete transparency between PC/Mac Office documents containing ChemDraw drawings (or other type of OLE-embedded objects)
Eventually, I wonder if you’ll include OneNote 2011 in the Office suite. I hope so, OneNote is one of the greatest softwares on PC!
Please also correct the bug of this blog: the “Submit Comment” button is invisible in Safari, I had to rewrite my comment under Firefox!!!
Will the equation editor come integrated with word?
Any plans to support BPOS in the new version of messenger in 2011?
I’m currently using Office for Mac 2008 and the current version of Messenger 7 will not login to my corporate messenger service despite the fact I copied the login information exactly from a PC running Office Communicator.
This is one of those little unnecessary incompatibilities that frustrate Office for Mac users time and again. Similar to why the “submit comment” button does not appear on this page if you are using Safari, but it works fine on Firefox. Really guys?
It appears this has been a known gap for some time:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/msonline/archive/2009/11/04/use-your-mac-with-microsoft-online-services.aspx
http://www.officeformac.com/ms/ProductForums/MacMessenger/1329
http://communicatorteam.com/archive/2008/04/29/200.aspx
Please surprise your users, like me, who have pre-purchased Office 2011 with a truly compatible office suite.
Hope you will add Thai language support to Office for Mac soon.
It is quite painful to see broken Thai words in Office for Mac comparing to Windows Office.
@ezy Thanks for your feedback, and understand that it is important. We will pass along to the team
@Chris Have you tried using our newest version of Messenger for Mac 8 beta? You can download it for free here: http://bit.ly/cn5VqD
@Michael Thank you for sharing your feedback. We will forward these insights to our development team.
What about direct syncing of Outlook 2011 with the iPhone?
Any chance Onenote will come to Office for Mac? Just a thought be a real bonus. Specially if it sync to ipod or ipad.
Is onenote ever going to be put as part of Office for mac? I’d like to see onenote but not only would I like to see for the mac but also so it syncs to the mac. Be awesome bonus to office for mac.
@rdafrick Thanks for your interest! Unfortunately we have no information to share, but please stay tuned.
Also, please post newer beta of Microsoft Messenger 8. I heard that the one included with every Office Beta is newer than the current posted version.
Also, is it too late to request these features, “Offline messaging, auto-reconnect after network failure”? Third party app like Adium supports this feature for years. Why does the original manufacturer of the protocol stay lacking with these little but useful features?
Does Office 2011 remember Window Placement? Office 2008 never will open fully maximized, it always leaves a little screen space around the top and sides.
@ezy Thanks for your feedback – we will forward it to the development team. The updated and final version of Messenger for Mac will be released alongside Office for Mac 2011 late October.
@JM Unfortunately we don’t have any information to share at this time, stay tuned as we near the release of Office for Mac 2011.
My hopes for Excel 2011:
1. faster recalc of large spreadsheets — it’s currently faster to use WinOffice in a virtual window than the native Mac app
2. full featured Pivotable — need same filtering options and interface as WinOffice and Pivot Charts
3. improve data filter interface — need vertical scroll bars to speed through long lists instead of the current click-hold scrolling of each line and checkbox interface would be an improvement here too
My hopes for PowerPoint 2011:
1. Better integration of embedded Excel spreadsheets and their editing.
2. Ability to change row/column orientation of chart data that is based on Excel sheet while still in PowerPoint.
Still on Office Mac 2004 and, like Robert, am very glad to see VBA included in this new version, as I have VBA now and was the reason I didn’t upgrade to Office 2008. But, just to clarify, if I purchase the Home & Student Edition of Office 2008 now, will I get VBA support in the download edition of Office 2011 Home & Student Edition (via the promotional window) when it is released? If so, I will upgrade to the new version.
Let me also suggest to some posters that referring to professional people, who work to provide us helpful software, as “morons” is inconsiderate and unprofessional.
@MiddleAges Yes, if you purchase Office 2008 now you will qualify for the Technology Guarantee program http://bit.ly/apeKYk
Will there be a special upgrade price for those wanting to go from Office 2004 straight to Office 2011???
I never bought 2008, since not having VBA macros was a huge issue for me. I hate Applescript.
Dataanalysis ?
Does anyone know, whether or not it is possible to run the data analysis program for excel for mac version 2011? I need that extra program for my studies, but so far it is only the 2004 version for mac, where is should be possible to add this extra feature..
I am looking to Office 2011 with a great deal of interest.
I’m still using Office 2004, becuase
- Office 2007 is really difficult to use from a UI point of view.
- Office 2008 is lacking VBA, so I didn’t even try it. (Except for Entourage 2008 which I’m using)
So, Office 2011 is looking pretty good! Let’s hope it isn’t copy of the 2007 UI!
In spite of the some of the negative comments on the website, I would like to expressly thank MS for the long support cycles they give their products. (Unlike Apple who leaves its users just hanging with abrupt changes in product directions.)
Will the Office 2011 support Tiger 10.4?
Keep up the good work.
JP
@MikeV Unfortunately, no. The free upgrade program for Office for Mac 2011 applies to those who purchase2008 between August 1st and November 30th. You can upgrade to Home & Student for $119 or Home & Business which includes Outlook, for $199. Check this out to find out more : http://bit.ly/cAOq78
@m2608 Yes! Excel 2011 will feature new and improved data analysis tools.
@JP Thanks for your support! We’re glad you’re looking forward to the new suite like we are. Unfortunately Office 2011 supports Mac OS X version 10.5.8 or later.
Thanks for your great website, i love it very much.Welcome to visit our website too.
@Jordan CP3 We appreciate the compliment! Glad you’re loving it and we hope it meets all your Office for Mac needs!
Where is the trial version of Office? We are trying to decide whether to switch from iWork and want a test drive.
I like the look of Office 2011. I especially appreciate that Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook will open fully maximized. Unfortunately, Word still will not open fully maximized. Please fix this problem.
I am getting tired of moving the Word Window up and to the left and dragging the lower right corner to the right and down in order to work in a maximized Word window.
Who do I need to contact in order to get this problem addressed. My clients and I have been filling sporadic reports on this issue over the last two years.
Please add the ability to sort Pivots to excel 2011. Me along with many other are running into this issue, it is very integral to the use of PivotTables for identifying trends in data.
I totally agree with Michel, round trip editing with Chemdraw should be available again!! we could do it with office 2004, but couldn’t anymore in office 2008. That should definitively be fixed! Thanks!
Does Excel 2011 take advantage of the 64bit architecture of snow leopard and also Ram beyond 4gb. Running Office 2008 on a Mac Pro – 2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xenon with 12GB of ram with 10.6.4 installed. When manipulating large spreadsheets the program crawls. For example, copying a large column of vLook-up formulas it could take well over 15 minutes to complete the operation. Any relief in 2011.
Thanks
Does the Excel for Mac 2011 resolve the issues associated with date problems between Excel for Mac and Excel for Windows – i.e the fact that the Excel for mac Calendar starts 4 years and 1 day after the Excel for windows one? In other words if I copy a sequence of dates from a document created in Excel for Windows and paste it into an Excel for Mac 11 document – will the date still be 4 years and 1 day out like it is in Excel for Mac 2008?
Most recently I used the trail of Office 2008. When I went to purchase the software it brought me directly to Office:Mac 2011. I purchased and downloaded the software only to find that it demands an “Intel-based computer.” What are my options now. I can’t use the software, I’ve spent $162, and can’t find anyone to speak with regarding this. Can anyone please help me? Where can I go for answers? With whom should I discuss this? Is there a fix? Should I get my money back, and if so, how? Etc. Thank you very, very much for your response.
Does anyone know how to merge data from multiple worksheets for a Pivot Table? In Office 2007, you could use Multiple Consolidation Ranges but I don’t see that as an option in 2011.
@Troy – We’ve started a thread for you on our Office for Mac forums with your question, here: http://www.officeformac.com/ms/ProductForums/Excel/8262. Please add any other details and check back for an answer.
I am still using Word 7, Excel 5, and Powerpoint 4 for Macintosh, had it since i was in 3rd grade for OS 6. LOL But great job on the new office love it, just as much as the older stuff.
Hello.
One question I’ve been looking an answer to by surfing the web unsucessfully: does Excel 2011 for Mac have an option for building “Pivot Charts”?
Pivot Table is one thing (and I know that it already exists in this Excel for Mac version), but Pivot Chart is another, and I can’t still believe is not included in this 2011 version for Apple. Can someone help me out with this? I’m needing this tool so bad and I’m a bit frustrated I haven’t seen any answer from the Office for Mac Team on Buster’s comment made on september 11, 2010 at 7:29 am…
Building a chart from a Pivot Table on Excel 2011 for Mac is not what I understand as “intelligent” or “friendly”. It is really a very annoying thing to do when someone updates Pivot Table data and then the chart linked to it… Chart values and ranges always get messed up and one must to start all over again…