Microsoft, Apple make for strange partners on Office package

Microsoft, Apple make for strange partners on Office package - "Sometimes you get the comment, 'Hey, what is this?' " said Hoelter, who manages 75 people on Microsoft's Office for Mac team in Silicon Valley. "I say, 'Hey, we have a very successful business here.' "

The long-running collaboration between Apple and Microsoft - one of the oddest pairings in Silicon Valley - represents something of a technological detente between warring camps. Engineers from both companies regularly huddle so that Microsoft can create Macintosh versions of its popular productivity suite, Office. The latest version, Office for Mac 2011 - which includes all of the applications familiar to professionals, including Excel, PowerPoint and Word - is considered the best ever.

The biggest upgrade is a Mac version of Outlook, the ubiquitous e-mail software that is used by most companies. Before this release, Mac users had two options to use a Microsoft e-mail program: they could use special conversion software to run the Windows version of Outlook, or use Entourage, a much more limited Office for Mac e-mail client that was never popular with users. It was slow and lacked key functions many people rely on.

Now Apple fans can use a native Mac version of Outlook that can import information directly from Windows Outlook.

There are a host of other improvements, including faster-running programs and co-authoring capabilities that let users share documents and presentations over the Internet with almost anyone with access to a Web browser. The new Office for Mac's compatibility with Windows Office software means anything produced on a Mac using the new software can be viewed by others using Windows programs without a hint it was created on a Mac.

The new Mac Office version "takes away one of the big fights IT managers have used against the Mac - compatibility," said Barak Berkowitz, a veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur and Mac user. Office for Mac 2011 has garnered rave reviews, including a shout-out from Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook in October, when he said during an Apple event that the software was "exceptionally good."