After a series of delays, Microsoft plans to release Office for Mac 2008 to brick-and-mortar and online stores on January 15, making this the first update in about four years. We've tested beta versions of the new applications over the last month without running into glitches.

Office for Mac includes Word, Excel for spreadsheets, PowerPoint for presentations and Entourage for e-mail and time management. There's no Microsoft Access database application for the Mac, although FileMaker's upcoming release of Bento offers Mac users a new choice.

Unlike Microsoft Office 2007, the interface changes don't look radically foreign next to the 2004 edition. That's good news for anyone who doesn't want to relearn the locations of common functions. The 2007 applications for Windows arrange functions within tabs, while the 2008 Mac software largely clusters functions within the same drop-down menus including File, Edit and View.

By and large, most of the changes focus on attempting to help users craft more attractive documents. For instance, Office for Mac features the same templates and Smart Art graphics as the Windows counterparts, including 3D and translucent designs. These are pre-built templates with 3D and translucent designs.

There are more welcome and substantial changes as well. Now you can save to PDF, and Automator actions are supported. The new My Day tool for Entourage floats on the Mac desktop, widget-like, displaying calendar items and to-do lists. This is handy if you rely on Entourage but don't want to run it all the time.

Office for Mac saves work in the same new Open XML formats used by Office 2007 for Windows. We're not thrilled about this being the default option, even though you can save your work in the older DOC, XLS and PPT formats. Free file conversion tools won't be available until up to 10 weeks from now, or eight weeks after the applications are available in stores. That means that, for now, should you save work in a new Open XML format in a hurry, someone with the older software won't be able to open it. Although we're glad that Microsoft offers free converters, we find the forced extra steps annoying in Office 2007. That said, the new document types are smaller and purportedly more secure than their predecessors.

You'll need a Mac with 1.5GB free on the hard drive, running at least OS 10.4.9, with 512MB of RAM and a 500MHz Intel or PowerPC processor.

The least expensive option is the AU$229 Home and Student edition, formerly Student and Teacher, which lacks support for Exchange and Automator. At AU$649 the full Office for Mac feels pricey, even though it includes Exchange support. The AU$849 Special Media Edition handles Exchange and adds Microsoft Expression media management software. Microsoft offers a variety of upgrade options.

Still, the prices feel hefty next to the Apple's AU$99 iWork '08. Indeed, rivals to Office for Mac seem like a bargain, even though they offer fewer tools. Mac users can choose from iWork '08, the free OpenOffice 2 or tools with free online components including ThinkFree, Google Docs; Spreadsheets and Zoho Office. These all fit the bill for composing and editing text documents, juggling spreadsheets and creating slide-show presentations.

However, people who rely heavily on productivity software for such tasks as bulk mailings or crunching scientific calculations in spreadsheets may prefer Microsoft's package. Although we like Apple's attractive, introductory Numbers spreadsheet application, for instance, Excel for Mac is more robust, handling a million rows of data.

Word
Although the look and feel is refreshed, Word isn't drastically different from its predecessor. Its changes should mostly please those creating documents they want to show off. We really like Publishing Layout View's elementary desktop publishing tools.

Document Elements' building blocks make swift work of adding cover pages, tables of contents and the like. OpenType ligature support improves the appearance of fonts in Word.

Those in academia should appreciate new reference tools, which ease the process of switching between citation styles. And users who wrangle with form letters will find that Mail Merge has become more intuitive, with step-by-step instructions.

Excel
As well as making charts easier on the eyes, Excel for Mac 2008 adds tools for walking through complex formulas. Formula Builder steps you through building calculations, keeping recently-used ones at the top of its memory. As you type in the Formula bar, Excel will auto-fill values that may match. Excel has expanded and can now handle a total of around 17 billion cells, as many as its Windows cousin. The Elements Gallery offers Ledger Sheets, templates for commonly-used tasks such as managing a household budget or administrating a company payroll. We find these handy for getting started with a project.

PowerPoint
Microsoft continues to tout its Smart Art graphics, which can turn a bulleted list into nearly any kind of diagram or flow chart with a few quick clicks. However, as with Office 2007 for Windows, we find Smart Art initially a bit less intuitive than advertised. The Toolbox's new Object Palette keeps formatting options in one place. You can resize elements with a zoom slider easily, just as Dynamic Guide lines help to align text boxes and pictures.

While making a public presentation, a detailed digital clock is meant to help keep you on track. A Thumbnail View like the one in Office 2007 may help to keep from losing your place. You can flip through slides on location using an Apple Remote. And there's an option for sending a presentation to iPhoto, making it accessible as a PNG or JPEG for iPod viewing.

Entourage
Although Mac users can rely on Mail, Entourage offers more business-orientated features. The 2008 upgrade offers more practical functions than its 2004 counterpart, such as an Out of Office assistant that lets you craft vacation messages specific to the recipient. Filters for junk mail and phishing are beefed up. There are To Do lists, accessible in the My Day widget along with appointments and the colour-coded calendar. You can accept or reject a meeting directly within a calendar event. Meetings can be forwarded directly to others, and conflicting and adjacent appointments are better managed.

Messenger for Mac
Microsoft also throws in this free instant messaging application, which enables users of its IM tool and Yahoo's to contact each other. Messenger for Mac enables users to check spelling, pick from among many emoticons and see what people are listening to on iTunes. Companies using Live Communications Server 2005 can encrypt their messaging, and users can chat with those using iChat, AOL, AIM, Yahoo and MSN.