Microsoft Office

At D7, Washington Post meets Huffington Post

CARLSBAD, Calif.--The Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth on Thursday tried to put the best face on the changes that have battered the newspaper industry.

"There is no doubt we have our challenges," Weymouth said, appearing on the D: All Things Digital stage along with Arianna Huffington. "We are going through this incredible seismic shift in the industry."

At the same time, she noted that 90 percent of The Washington Post's Internet traffic is outside he Washington Post, presenting the paper with an opportunity that didn't exist in print.

"We have to adapt,&… Read more

Microsoft hit with $200 million patent verdict

A federal jury in Tyler, Texas, on Wednesday ordered Microsoft to pay $200 million in a patent infringement case.

The jury ruled that the custom XML tagging features of Word 2003 and Word 2007 infringed on a patent from Toronto-based I4i.

A Microsoft representative said the company was "disappointed" by the verdict and would seek to have it reversed.

"We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the I4i patent is invalid," Microsoft spokesman David Bowermaster said in a statement. "We believe this award of damages is legally and factually … Read more

Office 2010 test version leaks onto Web

Public testing of Microsoft's Office 2010 suite wasn't supposed to start until July, but a leak on Friday of the software onto torrent sites has sped up that process.

I first heard about the leak Friday evening from this site, which also links to the torrent files themselves. (A word of caution, though--in addition to facing possible legal entanglements, those who downloaded the Windows 7 release candidate from unofficial sites recently found themselves unwittingly making their PCs part of a botnet.)

The leak included both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the Windows software.

For those who just … Read more

Microsoft patches critical PowerPoint hole

Microsoft on Tuesday released a patch aimed to fix a critical vulnerability in PowerPoint that had already led to exploits.

The vulnerability is listed as critical for Office 2000, but rated only as important for Office XP, Office 2003, and Office 2007. However, the hole had already formed the basis of targeted attacks, prompting Microsoft to issue a warning last month.

Although Microsoft says the hole is now patched in the Windows version of PowerPoint, the software maker said it is still working on fixes for the Mac version of Office as well as for Microsoft Works, the company's … Read more

Office 2010 preview program coming in July

Those attending Microsoft's TechEd event will not only get to hear about Office 2010, they will also be among the first to get to try it out.

Microsoft said Monday that it will launch an invitation-only Technical Preview Program of the new Office in July, and said that those at this week's Microsoft conference in Los Angeles will be among the first to get to kick the tires on the new version of Microsoft's flagship software.

Whereas Office 2007 introduced new file formats and a major overhaul of the user interface, Office 2010 is a more modest … Read more

Office 2007 adds Open Document support

Microsoft said on Tuesday that it is releasing the second service pack update for Office 2007. The collection of minor updates is available for download.

The service pack includes a collection of stability and performance updates as well as support for more file formats including Open Document Format (ODF) and Portable Document Format (PDF) files. Microsoft had said last May that it would add support for the additional file formats.

The company had said to expect the service pack to arrive sometime between February and April.

In addition to the performance and stability tweaks, Microsoft added a few minor feature … Read more

Microsoft taps EDS, others to sell online services

Microsoft on Monday said that Hewlett-Packard's EDS unit and other partners have agreed to help sell its collection of hosted online services.

EDS, Accenture, and others will help sell what Microsoft calls its Business Productivity Online Suite--a collection of products that Microsoft hosts in its data centers. The products include Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communications Server, and Live Meeting.

Microsoft launched the collection of services last November, but has been saying it also wants partners to help sell the services.

Dutch system integrator Wortell said it likes Microsoft's services because they offer both the opportunity for higher sales plus … Read more

Next Exchange features e-mail 'mute' button

The next version of Microsoft's corporate e-mail server will not only offer the ability to view e-mail by conversations, but also the option of "muting" any thread that a user would rather not take part in.

Conversation threading, a popular feature from Google's Gmail, and the mute option are several of the new features in Exchange 2010, the next version of the company's e-mail and calendar server. The software is entering public beta on Wednesday, with a final launch slated for the second half of this year.

Among the other features of the product, which … Read more

Broader Office 14 testing coming by fall

Microsoft said this week that it will start widespread testing of the next version of the Office suite sometime in the third quarter, in preparation for a final launch of the product in the first half of next year.

The product, which has been code-named Office 14, will be dubbed Office 2010 (as I predicted), with all of its related components also getting the 2010 moniker.

Microsoft offered only limited details on the testing. In an interview, Office executive Rajesh Jha, who leads the Exchange team, said technology previews are more limited than public betas and typically go to hundreds … Read more

Next Office will come in 32-bit, 64-bit versions

Microsoft on Tuesday confirmed that the next version of Office, code-named Office 14, will come in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

The 64-bit version is a first for both Office and for Microsoft's mainstream desktop applications, though a number of its server products, such as SQL Server, are already available in 64-bit versions.

Office 14, which is expected to be called Office 2010, is slated to ship next year. Among its other notable features is the fact that Microsoft will offer browser-based versions of Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and OneNote, in addition to the traditional Windows-based desktop programs.

By extending … Read more