Brief Hands-On Report--Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Service Pack 2

A new service pack for Office for Mac 2004 was released by Microsoft. It updates the applications to v11.2 and is available for download either automatically through the Microsoft AutoUpdate application, the "Check for Updates" selection under the Help menu of any Office 2004 application or as a standalone file from this Microsoft Web page.

Here are the Office 2004 Improvements:

Word 2004

• Improved performance when using a scroll wheel.
  
• Improved performance when formatting documents.
  
• Improved encryption for password protected documents.
  

Excel 2004

• Improved encryption for password protected documents.
  
• Improved performance when using scroll wheel in Page Layout view.
  
• Improved stability when opening spreadsheets from other Excel versions in Excel 2004.
  

PowerPoint 2004

• Improved text compatibility with Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows.
  
• Increased performance when using QuickTime movies in presentations.
  
• Improved stability when opening presentations saved with Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows.
  

and the Entourage 2004 Exchange Server Support Improvements:

• Gain full access to your organization’s Global Address List information.
  
• Provide delegate access to your Mail folders, Calendar and Address Book.
  
• Share your Mail folders, Calendar and Address Book with assistants and colleagues.
  
• Take advantage of improved public folder performance.
  
• Receive password expiration notification before it expires.
  
• View and manage how much disk space your Mail folders use to ensure you don’t exceed your organization’s set storage limits.

We downloaded and installed Service Pack 2 by the AutoUpdate application or by the standalone updater on several Macs. Service Pack 2 installed 319 files. Briefly using Word, Excel and PowerPoint revealed no problems. [Bill Fox]