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Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.0.1 Update fixes a number of critical flaws, including bugs that might cause its applications to stop responding or quit unexpectedly.

It also fixes an issue first reported in January, so that the Office Installer no longer grants restricted

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users unauthorised access to Office 2008 for Mac program files. Microsoft notes that this issue affects only computers that have more than one local user account, and primarily affects environments, such as public computer labs and workplace networks, where access to program files is restricted.

Microsoft has also fixed unspecified vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of a Mac's memory with malicious code.

There are numerous fixes specific to the individual Office applications - Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage - generally concerned with reliability and stability. But perhaps the most important among them is a fix for Excel's Workday function so that it now calculates correctly. Previously this function would return incorrect results when calculated on a sheet that uses the 1904 date system, the default date system for new sheets in Excel.

All areas addressed by the update are listed in the release notes.