For the IT professional who implements and maintains applications and technical solutions across an organization, Office 2008 for Mac comes with improved deployment applications. These applications are designed to help reduce the amount of time that is required to plan and execute deployments, as well as to simplify the tasks that are associated with managing the organization's desktop clients. Here are highlights of some of the new and enhanced features in Office 2008.
 | Office 2008 |
Office 2008 offers streamlined manageability for the IT professional, helping your team collect, organize, and share critical information across boundaries. The following list describes some of the new features in Office 2008.
Universal binary format
Office 2008 uses the universal binary format and is therefore optimized for both Intel-based and PowerPC-based Macintosh computers.
Open XML Formats
Open XML Formats are now the default file formats for Word 2008, Excel 2008, and PowerPoint 2008. These new file formats allow users to create documents from different data sources, reduce file sizes, and recover data from corrupted files more easily.
The file formats are based on compressed XML and are therefore substantially smaller than earlier versions of Office binary formats. This helps businesses reduce the costs that are associated with document storage.
Note With the Open XML File Format Converter for Mac, you can convert Open XML files to a format that is compatible with Office 2004
for Mac and Office v. X
for Mac. File conversion tools are available in the
Downloads
area of the Office for Mac
Web site (www.microsoft.com/mac).
Enhanced deployment tools
Office 2008 uses the Apple-recommended Apple Installer technology for installation. This makes the installation process more efficient because the data that Office installs is in the .pkg format. Office Installer is compatible with Apple Remote Desktop and the installation applications are AppleScript-ready.
The Office Installer includes enhanced customization capabilities, such as optional font installations, to assist the IT professional in distributing resources.
Intuitive user interface
The updated user interface in Office 2008 provides a more intuitive experience, which makes the product features easier to find and use. This intuitive user experience also helps minimize training and support demands by providing end users with significantly improved Help capabilities and self-service tools.
Documentation support
The Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Administrator's Guide provides technical guidance for IT professionals who are responsible for planning, deploying, and maintaining Office 2008 in a business environment.
The new and improved Help and training resources provide extensive guidance about how to use Office 2008. They have been designed to give users the answers they need and to help minimize training and technical assistance costs in an enterprise.
| Entourage 2008 |
Entourage 2008 provides enhanced features that help users manage time and information, instantly locate information, and filter out unwanted junk e-mail. Entourage also helps protect users from fraudulent Web sites. When combined with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Entourage 2008 makes significant strides with several updates, including support for document retention policies, support for Kerberos authentication, and support for availability services.
For more information about how Entourage 2008 works with different versions of Microsoft Exchange, see Entourage 2008 features supported by different versions of Exchange Server in the Office 2008 Planning section.
Support for compliance with managed e-mail folders
Exchange 2007 offers managed foldersFolders in the user's mailbox to which managed content settings have been applied. Messages in managed folders are periodically processed by Microsoft Exchange according to the folder content settings. When a message reaches a retention limit, it is archived, deleted, or flagged for user attention, or the event is simply logged., a new approach to mail retention policies, archiving, and regulatory compliance for user mailboxes. Entourage 2008 users can see and interact with these folders just like any other mail folder, but the messages stored within these folders gain retention, archive, and expiration policies defined by the administrator. With managed e-mail folders, users and administrators can easily comply with various forms of external regulation and internal company policies regarding message retention.
Message classification for mail messages and message posts
When used with Exchange 2007, Entourage 2008 displays message classifications on received messages. Examples of potential classifications might include HIPAAThe Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule includes standards to protect the privacy of personal health information., Legal Documents, and Confidential.
Support for Exchange Web Services
Entourage 2008 uses Exchange 2007 Web ServicesA Web Service is an application available on the Web that other applications can share, regardless of the platform and the language that the applications use. Other application developers can subscribe to the Web Service without having to implement the code themselves. This is because of the open standards that Web Services support, such as XML, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Web Service Description Language (WSDL), and Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI). to support the following features:
Free/busy For Exchange 2007 users, Entourage 2008 exposes additional free/busy details, such as subject and location.
Out of Office Assistant For Exchange 2007 users, Entourage 2008 exposes additional Out of Office Assistant settings, such as separate internal and external out-of-office messages.
Autodiscover service For users of Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Entourage 2008 SP1, the Autodiscover serviceA service that returns server configuration information for a mobile device or other client by using only the user's SMTP e-mail address and password. makes it easier to configure Entourage 2008. It uses a user's e-mail address or domain account to configure a user's profile automatically. For more information about the Autodiscover service, see the Exchange Server
documentation (technet.microsoft.com).
Note Web Services are also used for assigning delegate rights. Delegation Web services are available only in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1.
Client certificate-based authentication
Client certificate-based authentication is available with Entourage 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1 (SP1). This authentication is a type of two-factor authentication that uses two separate items, a client certificate and a password, to verify a user's identity.
Kerberos authentication
Entourage 2008 adds supports for Kerberos authentication protocol for Exchange server. This makes signing into Microsoft Exchange Server and LDAP server, which your Exchange account uses for the Global Address List, easier and more secure.
For more information about Kerberos authentication in Entourage 2008, see Using Entourage 2008 with Kerberos authentication in the Office 2008 Planning section.
Junk e-mail filtering and phishing detection
Entourage 2008 now includes improved, customizable junk e-mail filtering, as well as phishing protection that helps detect messages with fraudulent links or spoofed domains.
For information about how to set the level of junk e-mail protection, see the following topics in Entourage 2008 Help:
Customize junk e-mail protection
About junk e-mail protection
Unsafe attachment blocking
Entourage 2008 detects and blocks attachments that are application files or other files that could contain malicious software.
For more information about the different application files or other files that Entourage 2008 blocks, see Attachment file types in Entourage 2008 in the Office 2008 Technical Reference section.
For more information about how to customize the attachment policy settings, see Customize Entourage 2008 attachment settings in the Office 2008 Planning section.
HTML protection
To protect against malicious code that could be embedded in an e-mail message, Entourage 2008 does not run scripts or downloads that are specified by the formatting code in the e-mail message.
Improved S/MIME support
Entourage 2008 supports increased levels of industry-standard signing and encryption algorithms:
Signing algorithms Entourage 2008 can create a digital signature with any of the following algorithms: SHA-512, SHA-384, SHA-256, SHA-1.
Encryption algorithms Entourage 2008 can encrypt messages with any of the following algorithms: AES-256, AES-192, AES-128, and 3DES.
For more information about digital signatures in Entourage 2008, see Digital certificate requirements for sending and receiving messages and How users manage digital certificates in Entourage 2008 in the Office 2008 Planning section.
Improved smart card support
Entourage 2008 supports the use of digital IDs that have been stored on smart-card-based keychains to perform secure messaging operations such as digitally signing, verifying, encrypting, and decrypting mail messages. Several improvements have been made in Entourage 2008 that enhance support for smart cards. For example, users can now send digitally signed and encrypted messages by using smart cards that follow one of the approved specifications: Common Access Card (CAC), Government Smart Card Interoperability Specification (GSCIS), or Personal ID Verification (PIV).
For more information about the different Entourage 2008 features that support the use of smart cards, see Smart card support in the Office 2008 Planning section.
