January 3, 2008 7:21 AM PST
Office 2003 update blocks older file formats
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Office 2003 Service Pack 3, which was made available in September, blocks a lengthy list of word-processing file formats, including Word 6.0 and Word 97 for Windows, and Word 2004 for Macintosh. It also blocks older versions of Excel, PowerPoint, Lotus Notes, Corel Quattro spreadsheet, and Corel Draw graphics package.
On releasing the service pack, Microsoft said one of its main benefits was that it would make it easier to interoperate with Microsoft's latest operating system, Vista, and its latest productivity suite, Office 2007. The older file formats that are now blocked are in decreasing day-to-day use, but the blocking of them will make retrieval of archived material more difficult.
The changes were revealed in a Microsoft support document, which was uploaded to its site in December. Users were given no warning of the effects when they downloaded SP3.
In the support document, Microsoft said SP3 blocked access to those formats because they were less secure than newer versions. "By default, these file formats are blocked because they are less secure. They may pose a risk to you," it said.
Microsoft released details of a work-around to restore access. The work-around requires changes to the registry, which could render a PC unusable if carried out incorrectly.
The work-around was branded by one critic on tech Web site Slashdot as "mind-bogglingly complex."
Other users responded negatively to the change. A system administrator at a U.K. university, who asked not to be named, called it "a money-making exercise," adding that it would cause a problem to the central IT resource not to have access to some older file formats but that the effect would be greater on other less "progressive" departments within the university.
Microsoft could offer no comment at the time of writing on why it had blocked access to the file formats.
Richard Thurston of ZDNet UK reported from London.
See more CNET content tagged:
Microsoft Office 2003,
service pack,
productivity suite,
Corel Corp.,
Microsoft PowerPoint

This is yet another example of MS needing to resort to sleazy tactics to force upgrades without looking at the big picture.
It is also a poignant reminder why open standards are necessary. Your data is held hostage at the whims of a giant corporation whose only means of making more money is to attempt to force upgrades.
Convert all your files, old and new to ODF and ditch the lock-in and forced upgrades, along with the massive amounts of security risk.
Man what a SCAM!
Now apparently I need to avoid service packs because some knucklehead wants to remove existing features. (Such as the ability to read my archived files ... which I do on a regular basis.)
I sincerely hope the next generation of products are better otherwise I'll be on XP for a LONG time. (Or switch to Linux or a Mac.)
If nothing else ... this had really shown me the value of open document formats.
Real reason...."If we build it, they no longer come, but if we break the old stuff they will buy the new stuff to maintain compatibility."
This is nothing more than a totally sick ploy to force people who use pre 2k3 to get 2k7...which is a piece of crap.
A chunk of malicious VB script in a .doc macro by itself is worthless and harmless when opened with an app that isn't MS Word (e.g. OpenOffice, TextEdit in Apple OSX, etc). That same chunk of VB scripted macro, when MS Office opens it? Well, that's a whole other story...
This is nothing more than a naked attempt to bolster sagging sales and force the upgrade treadmill to spin just a little faster.
IMHO, an business with even a teaspoon of sense would seriously consider converting their documentation (and spreadseets, etc) to an open-standard (for instance ODF) format, so they can at least open and edit those files 10 years from now without fearing obsolescence or periodically wasting time on mass conversion.
Ironically, MS Office 2003 has a plugin to convert documents to ODF format.
Of course, once you do this, you may just discover that you no longer need MS Office for much of anything, considering the free and highly capable alternatives already out there.
/P
As a public relations firm, my company has at least 20 years of material in various Word formats, that folks often review and tailor for new business needs. It will be a HUGE problem for our firm for my users to come in after an evening of automatic Windows Updates, and find they can no longer open historical documents. I will NOT go desktop to desktop to edit registry files.
I am trusting Windows Update to keep my desktops safe from possible outside attacks. I do not expect Windows Update to remove existing functionality, and certainly not without warning!!! I fully expect Microsoft to restore the older file compatibility with a new emergency Windows Update, to be release immediately!
What's all the fuss about?
document archival. It isn't the only problem with doing that,
either. For instance:
- Some versions of Word have in the past saved corrupted files
under some circumstances, which open in that version of Word,
but no later version.
- Often people link rather than embed objects, which means you
need to keep the other files too (often this doesn't happen, or
they're at a different path and so can't be located automatically).
For archival purposes, it's best to store things in PDF. You might
keep the original files too, but as this demonstrates, there's no
guarantee that you will be able to open them in future.
Is OO perfect? No. Its still a resource hog, slow to load. But it works, its free, and it gets the job done. Plus I don't have to worry about Microsoft doing something stupid every other week.
NWLB
***************
NWLBtech.com
how he can not open his old Word files
Oh no! Word 97 users are left in the dust! But... kind of like IE5 users, they must be getting used to things not displaying right ANYWAY.
What doesn't quite make sense (of all the really acient formats that should have been blocked... but maybe in 2007) is that Word 2004 for Mac format was blocked.
Here's a clue - SP3 was released 3 months ago. If your automatically updated users haven't been complaining about lost functionality by now, they're very unlikely to start showing up at your door tomorrow morning.
Training
10 to 15 years ago, it was a must to train each new hire in the proper use of MS Office. Now, you have folks coming out of college who are proficient in MS Office and Windows. As a result, a business' training costs are dramatically slashed.
Support
With more users and support staff knowledgable in MS Office, that creates a readily available pool of knowledge to help solve problems. Even if a new staffer can't get the helpdesk on the phone, their cubicle neighbor may know how to assist them in doing a mail merge. If a small business relies on outside consultants, there are larger pools of MS Office expertise available for hire, than there are for Open Office.
Compatibility
Businesses rely on not just MS Office, but a variety of plugins/macros/etc that are designed to work with MS Office to get the job done. It's almost as if MS Office becomes a platform in that regard for development. Going with a solution other than MS Office may break these applications. Bloomberg's news software has a plugin that works with Excel, for instance. Then, you can even have variations in how different programs read a complex formatted file. There is always some format issue when using one program to read another's file format. If a client sends a business a Word 2003 file, and the business edits it in Open Office, what happens if Open Office drops a special style bullet that the client chose in Word? Do you tell your client to find another style bullet compatible with your copy of Open Office? Not if you want to stay in business!
I'm not advocating for Microsoft. If I had my way, we would still be using Netware and Groupwise! Or maybe Linux. The point is that if you have thousands of clients (as we do) that you share files with, or many programs that depend on the presence of known standards, bucking the standard introduces compatibility issues for the business. Until Open Office reaches that critical mass, it will not replace MS Office as the business standard. In fact, I'd bet there are more copies of Corel WordPerfect (free with some PCs) in use than there are of Open Office.
For more complicated there might be justification for using an Office Suite but I don't know that it's work $800.
- WordPerfect an option?
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by bob donut
January 3, 2008 2:06 PM PST
- Is there any chance that word perfect/Corel Suite can be used to supplant office? It's the only commercially sustained product I know of that nears Office's level of features.
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