In yet another move that makes Macs more Microsoft-friendly, the software giant announced that its Document Collaboration Companion for Mac will help improve SharePoint technology for Mac users.

At the MacWorld expo this week, Microsoft introduced the beta program which it said will be released to a small number of testers shortly. The company did not announce when the public version of the program would be released.

The program will be available to be used in SharePoint or Microsoft”s Office Live Workspace, a free web-based document archiving system.

In addition it was announced that Microsoft Entourage for Exchange Web Services (EWS) will be available as a free upgrade for Entourage 2008 for Mac users.

Entourage EWS is currently in private beta testing, but like Document Collaboration Companion for Mac it is expected to be released later this year.

"Entourage Exchange Web Services and the Document Collaboration Companion lets Mac Office users connect with counterparts on a PC," said Eric Wilfrid, general manager of Microsoft”s Mac business group. "These releases are the first step in harnessing the power of software plus services on the Mac."