Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac Announced

Han-yi Shaw, senior lead program manager, Microsoft MacBU, has confirmed Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac. One of the most notable additions to the software is the new Ribbon, sitting at the top of each document window.

Shaw is responsible for Microsoft’s suite-wide Office User Experience (UX) and Word for Mac. Kicking off a series of posts dedicated to the upcoming look and feel of Office 2011 for Mac, he writes the following:

“What an exciting day for MacBU. Today, we’re unveiling our latest efforts to the world: Office for Mac 2011. For over two years, we’ve been hard at work on this latest incarnation of Office for Mac and I’m so pleased to say that it’s coming along really nicely. With the many new exciting feature additions and improvements, Office for Mac 2011 is shaping up to be the best version of Office for Mac yet.”

Tech-site Macworld claims to have spoken with several Mac Business Unit representatives, who revealed the company’s plans of focusing on three things with the new Office for Mac: better compatibility across platforms, improved collaboration tools, and a more refined user interface.

“The most notable introduction to our new Office 2011 user interface is strikingly new, but readily familiar to Mac and PC users alike,” Han-yi Shaw’s post continues to reveal. “It’s called the ‘Office for Mac ribbon,’ or as we refer to it internally, ‘MacRibbon.’ The ‘Mac’ part tells you that it was designed specifically for the Mac, with all of the recognizable attributes that Mac users have come to love; the ‘Ribbon’ part signifies the shared lineage with the ribbon seen in Office 2007 and now Office 2010 for Windows,” Shaw explains.

The Office for Mac ribbon will be available across the entire suite, according to Microsoft’s Program Manager. A screenshot of the Office for Mac ribbon can be seen at the top of this article (click to enlarge). Shaw promises to follow up with additional posts that give fans a more in-depth look at the Office for Mac ribbon.