Apr 13, 2011 09:01 GMT  ·  By

As promised, Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac Service Pack (SP) 1 is immediately available for download, according to the team handling Office for Mac at Microsoft.

Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 1 (14.1.0) reportedly fixes critical issues and helps improve the security of the productivity suite.

Specifically, the update includes fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of a computer's memory with malicious code.

Microsoft offers detailed information about the SP1 release over at its official website, including specific fixes and tweaks for the applications comprising the suite.

For example, SP1 fixes an issue that causes Office 2011 applications to close unexpectedly. The update includes Alt Text authoring, and enables authoring of Alt Text for objects, such as shapes, pictures, tables, charts, SmartArt, and movies in Office 2011 applications.

Particularly noteworthy are the improvements delivered to Microsoft Outlook for Mac 2011.

For starters, the synchronization functionality is updated to increase support for Sync Services, and adds calendar, notes, and tasks syncing.

Rules functionality is improved, and it now boasts support for Microsoft Exchange-based Server-Side rules.

The “resend” functionality has been reintroduced, alongside a redirect feature which lets users redirect an incoming email message to other recipients. Creating meeting invitations by including a list of recently used locations is also improved.

Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 1 can be employed by users of Office 2011, Office 2011 Home and Business Edition, Word 2011, Excel 2011, PowerPoint 2011, Outlook 2011, Communicator 2011, Office for Mac Standard 2011 Edition, Microsoft Office for Mac Home & Student 2011, and Microsoft Office for Mac Academic 2011.

The software requires Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later, 1 GB of RAM (recommended), 1.8 GB of available hard disk space, a 1280 x 800 or higher resolution monitor, a Windows Live ID for some functions, and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 for co-authoring.

Download Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 1