Microsoft lifted the NDA this week on its long-awaited Office 2008 for Mac, which will officially hit shelves of major retailers on Jan. 15, nearly a year after the Redmond-based behemoth first mentioned its intent to release the product at Macworld 2007.

Office 2008 for Mac will make its official debut on Jan. 14, the first day of Macworld 2008, when reps from MacBU will spend the whole day taking attendees through all of the suite's new and improved features.

The big deal here is Office 2008 for Mac is the first universal binary version of Office for Mac that works on both PCs and Intel-based Macs and will be compatible with XML-based Office file formats created in Office 2007 for Windows. This version is also hoping to amp up Mac's presence in the business world.

According to an older press release, "Office 2008 will include native support for the new .DOCX Word format and the .XLSX Excel format," and Office 2008 "will also ship a file converter for Mac OS X that will allow users of Office 2004 to translate between the old and new Office file formats."

PowerPoint 2008's improved compatibility with PowerPoint 2007 for Windows, particularly in regard to embedded images, tops the suite's list of achievements as well, and promises that users will finally be able to say bye-bye to the dreaded big red "X."

Microsoft is also heavily emphasizing the office suite's ease of use, the same approach Apple took with the marketing of its iWork '08 office productivity suite, released in late 2007.

Fellow eWEEK staffer Joe Wilcox writes an interesting blog post examining the brilliant marketing scheme executed by Microsoft's MacBU.

The new features include an Elements Gallery, where users have access to snazzy new shapes, symbols and so on that they can use to pretty up documents, presentations and spreadsheets.

A Publishing Layout View feature promises that even the inexperienced will now be able to create groovy flyers, brochures and reports, rich with graphics and three-dimensional effects.

The new SmartArt graphics feature breathes new life into charts, tables, maps and diagrams, and can transfer across platforms.

Meanwhile, Excel is being sold as "a beginner's best friend" and boasts improvements to the spreadsheet app's formulas and grids and introduces what it's calling Ledger Sheets, pre-formulated worksheets for managing budgets, investments and other financial matters.

To quote the original press release:

"Office 2008 for Mac shares a new graphics engine with Office for Windows®. Office Art 2.0 provides users with the ability to add professionally designed graphics with a simple click of a button. Like the 2007 Microsoft Office system and its new user interface (UI) with the Ribbon, Office 2008 has its own new UI that introduces Elements Gallery, a feature that emphasizes discoverability and gives users quick access to tools and Mac-specific features within applications in a visually appealing, simple way. Both features leverage Mac OS capabilities to retain a Mac-like look and feel users are familiar with while taking advantage of new technologies."

I'm still waiting for the code on this now that the NDA has been lifted so I can get to work checking out this new office suite.

I'll also be attending the day-long Macworld presentation on Office 200 for Mac and promise to generate a bunch of updates.