Microsoft again delays Mac XML converters
Microsoft offered Mac fans both good news and bad news on Thursday, and it all depends on which version of Office for Mac one is using.
The software maker said that it plans on March 11 to deliver the first update to Office 2008 for Mac, delivering several key fixes. At the same time though, it has again pushed out the release of converters needed by users of Office 2004 to read documents saved in the new XML file formats used by Office 2007 for Windows.
"The team is mobilized to get Office 2008 updates out as soon as possible," Microsoft said in a blog posting. "As a result we are pushing back the release of the final Open XML File Format Converter Update to Office 2004 for Mac."
Microsoft said that it now expects to make the converter available by late June. Most recently the company had said final converters would be released six to eight weeks after Office 2008 was released in the U.S. However, that timeline was already delayed from Microsoft's original plan, which called for the tools to be available by late 2006 or early 2007.
By further delaying the converters as more documents are created in Office 2007's new file formats, the software maker is creating more headaches for Mac users, particularly those with older systems. Microsoft does have a beta version of its converter.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
Apple could be bothered to support Office's XML format _nearly a
year before Microsoft_ did on the Mac platform.
integrity? This is clearly a move to try and offset Apple gains by
using its Monopoly position with Office. I would blame the lack of
oversight on the Republican administration but it was Clinton's
who let them off the hook the first time and based on their
executive contributions to Obama's campaign we can't expect
much from it either. Oh well.......
integrity?"
But Bill Gates gives away zillions of his PERSONAL fortune to
charities! That atones for the MicroSoft sins :)
choice to an iMac even better. I've found Pages to be an excellent
word processing/publishing program and wish that I had not
wasted money buying Microsoft Office. I can definitely say that this
will be the last time that I upgrade a Microsoft product.
for you'. They won't get another penny out of me until the restore
VBA support in Excel
better Microsoft Office file format compatibility than Microsoft.
To wit, they still support VBAscript in their latest release, while
Microsoft does not. They'll probably also beat Microsoft to
supporting their own new file format, since Novell already has a
converter that's being integrated.
Don't bother buying from Microsoft anymore.
much because it doesn't currently support the OpenXML
document formats so you are still screwed if someone (in an act
of madness) sends you an OpenXML format document. There
appears to be limited support for OpenXML in OpenOffice for MS
Word but nothing much for the other applications.
This said, the converter software that Microsoft is making only
creates, in the case of Word, RTF files rather than standard Word
files. Apple's iWork 08 applications appear to offer the best
support for OpenXML outside of Office:mac 2008 but I almost
always encounter compatibility issues using the likes of Pages
and documents never look the same.
Personally, I'm still waiting for a good competitor on the Mac
that offers professional tools and runs natively. As good as the
iWork applications are (excepting Keynote, which is easily better
than PowerPoint), they just don't offer all the features that I
expect. Pages, for example, won't support a mixture of portrait
and landscape aspect pages in the same document and I often
need that.
Microsoft's proposed "open" standards?
They haven't even delivered my upgrade to Office 2008 yet, which
they originally promised to me by the end of January! Of course,
they told me they expected 10,000 people to take them up on their
Black Friday sale and got 50,000 takers instead. But how hard can
it be to print 40,000 more discs?
proprietary file formats? If Apple can do it in Pages and Numbers, why
can't MS?
This of course begs the real 800-lb gorilla question:
Why oh why oh why isn't there an open, established, enforced document
format for something as simple as spreadsheets, word processing
documents and the other business basics? 20 years from now we'll look
back at this period and laugh at how stupid things were.
Madness.
"IBM's OS/2 INCREASES MARKETSHARE IN BANKING SECTOR (the folks who control all of the cash...)"
Re: "OS/2 was designed for the mission-critical business environment, and has reliable protection and manageability built directly into the operating system. The level of satisfaction with OS/2 within the banking community is so strong that some of the world's largest banking organizations are furthering their commitment to OS/2..."
"The decision at financial institutions to standardize on OS/2 demonstrates the leadership of the OS/2 Warp family in this critical industry." Banks Look to OS/2 as Operating System of Choice..."
http://seds.org/~spider/os2/ibmpr.html
There are workarounds as people have listed. This does not appear to be news to anyone really.
- This isn't a problem
- by rcrusoe February 22, 2008 10:04 AM PST
- We've only received a small handful of documents in MS Open
- Reply to this comment
-
(12 Comments)XML since its introduction.
When one is received it is our policy to hit reply, send it back,
and tell them we only accept rtf, txt, and odf. Simple.
We still use MS Office 97 and 2000 because their hasn't been any
reason to upgrade. When we buy additional Wintel or Linux
computers they get OpenOffice. Most of our Macs use iWork, a
few have Office/Mac, and a couple prefer NeoOffice.
We still use MS products but they haven't been critical to our
operating for quite some time.