Microsoft said on Tuesday that it has released its first update to Office 2008 for Mac, fixes that should boost stability and performance in some areas, while closing some security holes.

In an e-mail, Microsoft said that version 12.0.1 adds "suite-wide stability and performance improvements," along with the security fixes.

On its Web site, the company offered a little more detail, adding, "This update fixes critical issues in Office 2008, including issues that might cause Office 2008 applications to stop responding or quit unexpectedly."

After some delay, Microsoft released Office 2008 in January. The company has also delayed several times the availability of converter tools that allow its predecessor to read the XML file formats introduced with Office 2007 for Windows. As a result, Mac owners who need to read the new formats are faced with the choice of either upgrading or relying on the limited, beta converters that Microsoft has made available thus far.

Microsoft also issued an update Tuesday for the older Office 2004 for Mac product. "This update fixes a vulnerability that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code," Microsoft said on its Web site, referring to the Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.4.1 update.