If you haven’t downloaded the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit’s Office 2001 Service Release 1 (SR 1) you’ll want to do so if you’re running Office 2001 under Mac OS X. It does enhance compatibility a bit, though Office (especially Word) has worked surprisingly well for me in the Classic environment.
You can download the free updater (it’s a 9.4 MB file) at the MacBU Web site. If you’re running Mac OS X, you should use the Startup Disk control panel to switch to the Mac OS 9.1 (Classic) system folder and then restart your Mac.
As Microsoft says, “SR 1 updates the files installed with Microsoft Office 2001 for Mac or any Office 2001 application and provides continued compatibility and support for users of Mac OS 9.1 and Mac OS X in the Classic environment.” You can see yesterday’s story for details on the update, but, if you use Office 2001, you’ll want to get it because:
1) Updates and fixes have been made to all applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage) in the Office 2001 suite. (Sorry, but there are no new features, but updates to existing features have been provided.)
2) The version of Office built especially for OS X (it will be Carbon, not Cocoa) won’t be out until sometime this fall. Why? The folks at the MacBU say that, “Because Office is a very complex set of applications, completing a Mac OS X version that looks and feels great will take some time.”
Speaking of Microsoft products for Mac OS X, I still don’t have a release date for a completed version of the Carbonized Internet Explorer. The version of IE that ships with OS X is officially a “preview,” not a completed product. And it does have some problems. Sometimes it doesn’t want to let me surf the Net and download files at the same time, something with which I have no problem (well, okay, not too many problems) running IE 5 on the traditional Mac operating system.
Speaking of cruising the Internet, if you run across Web sites that require RealPlayer or Microsoft Media Player, you may have some difficulties. There are no OS X versions of these products and, again, no release dates for them. But, of course, there is an X version of QuickTime Player.
Tomorrow I’ll let you know how AirPort works with Mac OS X.