Microsoft Adding Lion Features to Office 2011

With more and more Mac apps gaining compatibility with OS X Lion, Microsoft’s widely popular Office suite for the Mac is the next in line. MacNN is reporting that Microsoft is hard at work implementing Lion features like Auto Save, Versions, and full-screen mode in Office 2011.

Apple’s own iWork productivity suite has already been updated with these Lion-specific features, and Microsoft aims at adding these features to Office in the coming months.

“Office for Mac 2011 users will be gaining access to some of the enhancements of OS X Lion, says Microsoft’s Pat Fox. Specifically the work suite will be getting support for Auto Save, Versions and fullscreen mode. Fox has few other details to offer; regarding the timing of an update, the Office team member explains that the wait will likely be “measured in months not days.”

If you use Microsoft’s Communicator for Mac, you can grab an update now that fixes issues with crashes in Lion. The update is available in Microsoft’s AutoUpdate and Download Center.

Microsoft has also said that Office 2004 will never be compatible with Lion, thanks to the lack of Rosetta support in Apple’s latest desktop OS. So, you’ll have to update to a 2005+ version of Microsoft’s suite if you’re a Lion user.

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Apple Set to Update iWork for Lion: Auto Save, Resume & Full Screen Coming Soon

There’s been no word on whether Microsoft will bring the Office suite to the Mac App Store, but Apple’s own iWork suite is available there for $19.99 per app.

[via TUAW]

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