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Microsoft said Tuesday that Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 1 is now available for download, as promised last week.
The new service pack can be downloaded from Microsoft's Web site (http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads).
Microsoft promised "increased stability, security, and some new features to the suite—including improved Outlook syncing support—as well as some performance enhancements."
Specifically, SP1 will enable calendar synching between Outlook for Mac and Apple's Sync Services, which Microsoft said was much-requested.
"This will let you sync your Outlook calendar as well as contacts, notes and tasks with any service or device that supports Sync Services, including your iPhone and iPad," Microsoft said in a blog post (http://blog.officeformac.com/coming-soon-office-for-mac-2011-sp1/).
Microsoft stressed, however, that Apple's new version of MobileMe will not sync with MacOS Sync Services starting May 5; it's live now for people who have already moved to the new version of MobileMe calendar. "As a result, Outlook 2011 SP1 calendars that sync with Sync Services on the Mac, will NOT be synced with MobileMe calendars," the company said.
So, if you sync your iPhone or iPad calendar with Sync Services via iTunes over a cable, you can sync with Outlook 2011 SP1. But if you sync via MobileMe, it won't sync with Outlook 2011 SP1.
"Office for Mac SP1 is a big step forward," Microsoft said in the blog post. "But we know we have more work to do, specifically around better integration with additional services." However, the company did not share any information about future updates.
Other updates included in SP1, meanwhile, include: Outlook support for Exchange based server-side rules; Outlook Redirect button (you can redirect the message to the intended recipient and the replies will go to the original sender); Outlook Resend button; Outlook edit of existing messages; and Solver integration support in Excel.
Microsoft said future service packs will focus on better integration with other services, like contacts, calendars, tasks, and notes from Hotmail/Live, Google, and Yahoo.
The table below outlines the supported services in Outlook for Mac 2011 SP1:
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