Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 1 released

[Osiris]

Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 1 has been finally released - sort of - and can be downloaded from the Microsoft download website. The links are already up and it is only a matter of time when the links do not point to a Ups sorry link not found message but the real download link of the Office 2007 Service Pack 1.
I'm not sure why Microsoft decided to create the links first and wait with the page creation that those links lead to but it surely is annoying. The only link that is currently working is the Office Update link on the left side of the download center which requires a genuine Office 2007. The download links are not working right now.
Lets see what Microsoft has to say about the Service Pack 1 and the benefits for home users and businesses found in the Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 1 Whitepaper.

• By deploying the 2007 Office system SP1, home users and businesses can quickly reap benefits in the following areas:
• Stability. Using data from the Dr. Watson bug-reporting system, Microsoft fixed, at minimum, the five software bugs that most frequently caused each application in the 2007 Office system to crash. The 2007 Office system SP1 also improves the stability of server components in the 2007 Office system and compatibility with Windows Server® 2008, so companies can more confidently move forward with upgrade plans.
• Performance. The 2007 Office system SP1 improves performance in applications that are pervasive in modern offices, most notably: Microsoft Office Excel® 2007, Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007, Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2007, and Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007.
• Security. By incorporating incremental advances in security and results from application testing, the 2007 Office system SP1 offers home and office users better protection against malicious software and potential threats to privacy .

Here are my top picks that I think really make it worth to install the Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Office:

• When inputting calculations that should result in numbers 65,534 through 65,536, Office Excel 2007 no longer returns the display error of 100,001
• Office Outlook 2007 no longer closes unexpectedly when the junk e-mail rule is set to null.
• Items moved from an offline folder file (.ost) to a personal folder file (.pst) now display properly in the preview pane.
• When users try to open a presentation in Office PowerPoint 2007 from a Web site using forms authentication, the presentation will now appear properly.
• With Office Word 2007, users can now open and edit embedded objects that contain other embedded objects.
• Office Word 2007 no longer prints an extra page when users choose a printer with the duplex option enabled.
• Improved performance in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 eliminates frustrating delays when opening large mailbox files and frees office workers to focus on important business tasks. The 2007 Office system SP1 makes it easier to open large offline folder files (.ost) and personal folder files (.pst) that are located directly on the user's machine.

Here are the direct links to the Service Pack 1 downloads, as mentioned above they are not active yet but will be later today.
Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 1
Visio 2007 Service Pack 1
Project 2007 Service Pack 1
Calendar Printing Assistant for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Microsoft Office InterConnect 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Microsoft Office Language Pack 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Microsoft Office Project Language Pack 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer Language Pack 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Microsoft Office Visio Language Pack 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Microsoft Office Visio Viewer 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
The 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 1 (SP1)
The 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Language Pack Service Pack 1 (SP1), 64-Bit Edition