Users of Apple's portable entertainment devices may be getting a less entertaining, more functional surprise as the world's largest software maker plans to port office documents to the iPod.

According to Microsoft's Mac Mojo blog, the Redmond, Wash.-based giant will release a version of Office 2008 that can export PowerPoint presentations on to any mobile Apple product that supports photos.

In the posting, the company explained that presentations can be converted into photos, which in-turn can be transferred to the mobile device through Apple's iTunes software.

Microsoft illustrated the software's new versatility with a fictional first person narrative in which sales were closed on an elevator without a laptop.

Not only do you see that I'm a person of refined taste for using my iPhone, but I just showed you my killer deal-closing slide with just a few flicks of my finger, the posting reads.

Users can also display presentations on television with proper accessories, Microsoft said.

Microsoft plans to ship the Mac version of its new Office productivity suite on January 15th.

The software is a version of the Windows-based Office 2007 rewritten for Apple computers. The suite includes Word 2008, Excel 2008, PowerPoint 2008, and Entourage 2008, which is a contact and scheduling application.

The full retail version of Mac Office 2008 is priced at $399.95, while the upgrade version for Mac Office

2004 users is $239.95. The Media Edition costs $499.95.

More on the web:

http://blogs.msdn.com/macmojo/

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