Microsoft Office

Microsoft on Wednesday announced the first details of a planned service pack to Exchange Server 2010, which will add several new features to the messaging and calendar server software.

In addition to the usual crop of tweaks and fixes, Service Pack 1 for Exchange 2010 will allow for better archiving and discovery of mail, improvements to Outlook Web Access, and better management capabilities, among other features.

Microsoft plans to make available a beta of the service pack in June with the final version due out later this year.

The improvements to Outlook Web Access bring back themes and the ability … Read more

Microsoft is releasing a free add-on that could make life easier for teachers, professors, and others who use the online educational system Moodle.

The plug-in, which works with Office 2003 and Office 2007, allows users to save Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents directly to the open source online service. It also allows users to edit directly in Office a document saved on Moodle, which is widely used in colleges and at some K-12 schools as well.

"We know that it's out there in force," Jon Perera, general manager of Microsoft's Educational Products Group, said of Moodle. &… Read more

It's turning out to be a busy day for Microsoft's legal team.

The software maker on Thursday lost its bid to have a full appeals court review I4i's patent case in which the Toronto company was awarded both millions in monetary damages and an injunction against the inclusion of custom XML features in Word. Separately, meanwhile, the company is suing a maker of Xbox add-ons over that company's Xbox 360 controller.

In the I4i case, Microsoft said it is still figuring out its next move, which could include asking the Supreme Court to hear the case, … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Microsoft has a new plan to make more money from Office: give it away.

With Office 2010, one of the biggest changes is how many ways there are to get Microsoft's most profitable software program for free.

In addition to the free, browser-based Office Web Apps, Microsoft is also offering PC makers the ability to install a basic version of Office on new computers. The new program, Office Starter, includes a stripped-down version of Word and Excel. PC makers, retailers and Microsoft can all make money if the PC buyer later upgrades to a paid version of Office. … Read more

Microsoft is hoping to let Word do better in Chemistry class.

The software maker said on Wednesday that it is releasing an add-on for the word processor that makes it easier to include labels, formulas, and chemical images into documents. Chem4Word, as the add-on is known, was introduced on Wednesday at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society.

It's available as a free download from Microsoft's Education Labs Web site. Microsoft also said it plans to release the code under the Apache open-source license later this year.

Chem4Word, which works with both Office 2007 and the forthcoming … Read more

Aiming to bring its Mac instant messaging software closer to par with Windows, Microsoft on Wednesday offered a beta version of Messenger for Mac 8.

The test software brings, at long last, audio and video conferencing features to the Mac. A final version of the product is due out with the release of Office for Mac later this year.

Microsoft has said since 2008 that it was working to bring those capabilities--long a part of Windows Live Messenger--to the Mac. The company had originally hoped to have a beta version with audio/video capabilities by last year.

The last … Read more

Microsoft on Wednesday fired the latest salvo in its multiyear battle to crack the business telephony market.

At the VoiceCon event in Orlando, Fla., Microsoft demonstrated for the first time the next version of its Office Communications Server product.

Code-named Office Communications Server "14," the new version is part of the Office 2010 wave of products and is due out before the end of the year.

As it has for years, Microsoft is predicting the convergence of communications. At VoiceCon, Gurdeep Singh Pall, the Microsoft VP in charge of OCS, predicted that within three years, over half of … Read more

If you use both Outlook and MySpace, you are part of an interesting demographic. But you are also in luck.

Microsoft and MySpace said on Wednesday that they are ready with the beta version of a tool that lets Outlook users see their MySpace connections within the e-mail and calendaring program. A new "social connector" feature for Outlook lets users connect to social networks, including MySpace, LinkedIn, and soon Facebook, too.

In a blog posting, Microsoft said the connector for MySpace is now ready.

"MySpace for Outlook enables you to view activity updates for friends and colleagues … Read more

Microsoft said on Friday that it plans to finalize the code for Office 2010 next month and, as expected, it kicked off a program enabling those who buy Office 2007 in the coming months to get a free upgrade to the new version.

In a blog posting, Microsoft said that it will have a business launch for the Office 2010 products on May 12. The company has said it expects the software to be broadly available in June.

As for the technology guarantee program, Microsoft says it will apply to those who buy Office 2007 between now and September 30 … Read more