News

Microsoft Updates Office for Mac 2011 SP3

• By Kurt Mackie
• February 04, 2013

Microsoft recently released an update to Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 3 that delivers several fixes to the productivity suite.

Update 14.3 for Office for Mac 2011 SP3 can be downloaded here. The update is just for Office for Mac 2011 on machines running Mac OS X version 10.5.8 or later. Microsoft also requires that a 14.2.3 update be installed first before installing the 14.3 update, per a Knowledge Base article description.

Most of the fixes are for PowerPoint for Mac. Copying text in the Rich Text Format from the Windows PowerPoint version to the Mac PowerPoint version will be enabled after applying the update. A crash issue associated with the "paste special" command is addressed. A display problem in PowerPoint's slide sorter view, in which collapsed slides cover other slides, gets fixed. Lastly, a copying problem is remedied that's associated with URLs that have hash tags.

The update also addresses a calendar problem in Outlook for Mac. This problem occurs when meeting invitations are sent from "non-Exchange calendar servers." In such cases, the calendar date can sometimes be off by an hour, according to Microsoft's Knowledge Base article.

Microsoft has not said when Office for Mac 2011 will get a major upgrade. The company now offers it as an option in Office 365 subscriptions. Subscribers can opt to use Office for Mac 2011 on up to five devices under Microsoft's latest Office 365 subscription model, which has been extended to consumer users. Office for Mac 2011 is a somewhat different productivity suite from its Windows based cousin and will run on Mac OS X 10.5.8 or higher.

Office for Mac 2011 was not updated for the release of the new Office 365 product offerings that were announced last week. However, Office 365 subscribers will have access to the next Office for Mac edition when it becomes available as part of their Office 365 subscription plans, Microsoft has promised.