As part of a larger release of bug and security fixes for Windows issued on Tuesday, Microsoft also updated its flagship Mac product, Microsoft Office 2011. A security vulnerability that stems from the way that folder permissions are set “in certain Microsoft Office for Mac 14.2 installations” that could allow attackers privileged access has been resolved. Users are advised to update to version 14.2.3, which also features some general enhancements.
The update also features fixes for bugs affecting SkyDrive, Excel’s PivotTable, IMAP use and other issues in Outlook, and improves Full Screen view in Microsoft Word running under Lion. Users are required to update to version 14.1 if they haven’t already before they can apply the update to version 14.2.3.
The update resolves an issue where some SkyDrive folders were seen in the Microsoft Document Connection as empty files rather than folders, and improves connection reliability with SkyDrive. In Excel, stability has been improved when moving or dragging a PivotTable and fixes an issue where #REF is returned in a spreadsheet even when links are set to be ignored.
IMAP fixes in Outlook include a bug where users couldn’t create special folders or mailboxes, and also resolves an issue where the program would not show details for some contacts when Lync or Communicator was running. Also fixed was a longstanding bug that caused replied-to or forwarded messages hosted on an Exchange 2007 server to lose some of their information (usually the date of the message). To fix existing messages that suffer from this bug, users can right-click the folder with the messages in it and choose to empty the cache (under Folder Properties) once the 14.2.3 update installed, or simply delete and re-add the account in question to re-synchronize the mailbox.
The update also resolves issues with GMail IMAP synchronization, a false “too many simultaneous connections error” for IMAP servers, and a connectivity issue that occurs when Outlook connects through a proxy server that uses NTLM authentication.
The 14.2.3 update, like Microsoft Office 2011 generally, requires OS X 10.5.8 on either PowerPC- or Intel-based Macs. The file is 110.1MB in size and can be downloaded directly from Microsoft’s support website or through Office’s own auto-updating mechanism.
