Office 2007 SP1 arrives early

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 12 December 2007 01:15

Business IT - Technology

Microsoft has issued Service Pack 1 for its Office 2007 suite ahead of schedule.

SP1 was not originally expected until early 2008, but Microsoft Office product manager Reed Shaffner said "Our development team was able to deliver the enhancements and fixes earlier than we'd anticipated, so we wanted to get them in the hands of customers as soon as possible."

Office 2007 SP1 fixes the five most common crash-causing bugs in each application, delivers performance improvements (notably in Outlook and Access) and incorporates security fixes.

"SP1 addresses problems customers have experienced in Outlook 2007 when opening large mail files," said Shaffner. "It also delivers more accurate presence information in Microsoft Office Communicator to help improve collaboration and communication for customers."

The English spell-checker has been improved, as has compatibility with older versions of Office applications (eg, chart labels in Excel 2007 documents are not lost or moved when opened in Excel 2003).

SP1 also provides compatibility with Windows Server 2008.

"We’re optimistic that with the shipment of SP1 we’re removing any residual barriers that may have impeded deployment and that adoption will only accelerate," said Shaffner.

Most of the changes incorporated in SP1 have been previously released as hotfixes or updates.

Microsoft also released Visio 2007 Service Pack 1 and Project 2007 Service Pack 1.