Their relationship has seen its highs and lows, but this year Microsoft and Apple mark two decades of working together. The collaboration began with Word 1.0 in 1984 and Excel 1.0 in 1985, followed by a 1987 release of PowerPoint 1.0 that didn’t ship for Windows until 1990. In the first half of this year, Microsoft plans to build on its previous accomplishments by shipping Office 2004 and Virtual PC 7.
An article on Microsoft’s Web site runs through the company’s history on the Mac, complete with a timeline on a separate page that details important events from the past 20 years. Plenty of insights and anecdotes from Mac Business Unit employees are sprinkled liberally through the article.
The piece also details all the new features — such as Project Center, Word Notebook Layout View, compatibility reports, and others — Mac users can look forward to in Office 2004, as well as a special promotion that offers a free copy of the suite to anyone who buys Office v.X from January 6 until 30 days after the new edition is released. Three versions will be available: Standard, Student and Teacher, and Professional, which will include Virtual PC 7.