Office for Mac Gets Trial

Microsoft today has added a free, 30-day trial version of its Office for Mac software to coincide with this year's Macworld Expo, taking place later this week in San Francisco. Now users can download the 600MB trial from Microsoft's Office site, which contains full versions of all its applications.

A Full version Trial

Since the release of Office for Mac 2011 in October of last year, the only way to give the product a spin was to visit a retailer with a copy installed, or to purchase it. When the trial expires, users can then upgrade to either the Home and Student, or Home and Business versions.

Selling at One Copy per Second

Microsoft has been less forthcoming about the successes of its Mac Office suite, saying only that it's running on about three-fourths of all Macs on the market. That's compared to the PC version, which is selling at one copy per second.

Office for Mac continues to be offered as a bundle of applications, unlike its PC counterpart, which has long been offered as individual applications that can be purchased and used without the others.