Office 2004 for Mac Mainstream Support Extended to 2012

Microsoft managed to breathe additional life into Office 2004 for Mac, making sure that customers will be able to enjoy support well after the next iteration of the productivity suite aimed at Apple Mac computer users will hit the shelves. In this regard, the Redmond company reveals that Mainstream Support end-date for Office 2004, originally October 13, 2009, has been extended. Current users of Office 2004 for Mac will be able to continue running the product, as well as enjoy support from Microsoft through January 10, 2012, the company promised.

“The date has been extended to 2012 specifically to ensure continuous cross-platform compatibility for Office 2004 customers reliant on VBA until support for VBA is released in the next version of Office for Mac. This extension does not change the 5-year support policy for other Office for Mac products, including future versions. Nor does it affect any other Microsoft products, including Office on the Windows platform. With the additional support, we will continue delivering all the types of support associated with Mainstream Support, including security updates and non-security bug fixes,” noted Mike Tedesco, Sr. Product Manager, Mac Business Unit at Microsoft.

Microsoft has found that the vast majority of Office 2004 for Mac users have already made the jump to the latest release of the productivity suite for Mac OS X, namely Office 2008 for Mac. However, those sticking to the old version are doing so because of the support for Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), which is featured into Office 2004, but not Office 2008. However, moving onward, the company will make sure that the next iteration of Office for Mac, scheduled for availability in the fall of 2010, will also support VBA.

“We’re excited to be returning support for VBA in the next version of Office for Mac, scheduled for availability in the 2010 US holiday season. We’re also continuing our policy of supporting Office 2004 and Office 2008 side-by-side, so customers can take advantage of new features of Office, while keeping the older version around for documents containing VBA macros. We appreciate customers’ patience during this transition,” Tedesco added.