On the heels of a recent software update (see "Microsoft Releases Office 2004, Office X Updates," 2007-01-08), Microsoft last week released Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.3. The update improves security throughout the suite; improves compatibility with Rich Text Format (RTF) documents created with Office Word 2003 for Windows; corrects calculation of standard deviation in PivotTable reports within Excel 2004; fixes an issue in Entourage 2004 that caused events after 11-Mar-07 to be displayed incorrectly; and updates the Japanese postal code dictionary in Entourage. The updater is a whopping 57.6 MB download, but it includes the improvements and fixes from all previous Office 2004 updates. It's available via direct download or through the Microsoft AutoUpdate utility.

Microsoft also presented us with a preview of features that will be included in Office 2008, the Macintosh refresh of the suite due in the second half of 2007, despite the 2008 moniker. In short, Microsoft is trying to make much of the existing functionality in the Office applications more obvious and easier to use. Alas, there was no word about new collaboration features that small workgroups so desperately need from Word and other applications. We'll keep you updated as details become available.