TMOis Devilis Advocate, John Kheit, received notice from the Apple Store yesterday that his copy of Mac Office 2004 had shipped, and it did indeed arrive last night. TMO contacted Microsoft to verify that the product was shipping in wide release, and a spokesperson confirmed that the newest Mac Office was in stores. An announcement from Microsoft to this effect should be released in the near-future.

A sceen shot of John Kheitis shipping invoice:

Note that the price on the invoice is for the education version of Office 2004. The Microsoft spokesperson confirmed for TMO that the education (Student/Teacher) and Standard versions of Mac Office are shipping, as they all have the same code-base. Microsoft also said the Pro version of Mac Office 2004 would ship when Virtual PC ships later this year.

The spokesperson also confirmed that the education version ships with three licenses that gives the user "Rights to install on three computers in your household." Requirements for purchasing the education version are as follows:

Full or part-time students

Home-schooled students

Full or part-time faculty or staff of an accredited educational institution.

We also have a screen shot from the software that John Kheit took on his system that shows off some of the new features. Note that the screen shot was taken on a 17" PowerBook, and so is very large.

TMO will be offering an in-depth look at the shipping version of Mac Office 2004 in the near future.