Microsoft has announced that the next major release of Office for Macs will reunite users with Visual Basic for Applications.

Microsoft will return VBA to the next full upgrade to the Mac version of Office, the company said. While Office 2008, which was sharply criticized for omitting VBA, will receive bug-fix updates (such as Service Pack 1, also announced Tuesday), it will not be updated to add VBA support. "We know [VBA] is important to a section of our user base who needs cross platform compatibility," said Kurt Schmucker, Mac Business Unit group product manager and lead evangelist. "And we're bringing that back." VBA is a programming language used with Microsoft Office applications, making it relatively easy to add automation (macros) and customization (menus, dialogs, and so on) to Office documents.