Beyond Binary

While most of the excitement around Windows and Office is around the next full versions of the products, Microsoft is also working on the next service pack updates for each product.

In a blog posting on Wednesday, Microsoft said that Office 2007 Service Pack 2 will come sometime between February and April of next year. It also listed many of the features in the update, which includes previously announced support for the Open Document Format.

The Windows team, on the other hand, is offering far less detail.

It will confirm that there is a Service Pack 2 for Vista, but that's about it.

"Microsoft is working on a second service pack for Windows Vista (Windows Vista SP2) and Windows Server 2008," Microsoft said in a statement. "Service packs are part of the traditional software lifecycle--they're something we create for all Microsoft products as part of our commitment to continuous improvement. And, as is standard, Microsoft is continuously having conversations with key stakeholders, prior to broadly distributing test builds. We will share more details in the coming months."

In an interview last week, Microsoft VP Brad Brooks said that the company had not, at that point, started outside beta testing of SP2.

However, ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley said that Microsoft has started to recruit testers for Vista SP2. Microsoft also posted a support document earlier this month that suggested a beta version exists.

Microsoft on Monday announced a series of moves that it says back up its February pledge to make it easy for others' software to interoperate with its own products.

The news is mostly incremental. Microsoft is making more documentation available on how its older binary Office formats work as well as a final version of the protocols used in Office 2007. What caught my eye, though, were two new projects.

The first involves Microsoft working with China's Beihang University to develop translators to allow Excel and PowerPoint to open and save files in China's UOF format. In the second, Microsoft is working to design a new translator that converts its Office 2007 documents into HTML to allow software makers to more easily create browser-based applications that can read Office 2007's Open XML Office format.

"Customers want the interoperability at the document level," Craig Shank, general manager of interoperability at Microsoft. "They would like to be able to use documents in different ways."

For those who have trouble finding their old commands in Office's new Ribbon interface, Microsoft has a new option: search for it.

On Monday, the company is releasing an Office add-on called Search Commands that lets users type the function they are looking to do. After months of testing it internally, Microsoft is ready to give the public a chance to try it out. But the new tool won't be found on Microsoft's main Web site.

Chris Pratley, who helped lead the development of Microsoft's OneNote, now leads the Office Labs effort.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Rather, it will be available via a new effort, dubbed Office Labs. Spearheaded by Microsoft veteran Chris Pratley, Office Labs is Microsoft's attempt to test out productivity ideas that may--or may not--be ready for prime time.

In an interview, Pratley said Office Labs is designed to try out anything from just a feature to an entire new product concept. The goal is to get feedback early on, before deciding where to put the big development dollars.

"It's kind of expensive to make an entire product and then put it out there and see if it's any good," he said. Pratley knows firsthand. He was among those who helped create the Office OneNote application earlier this decade after spending the 1990s working on Word and Excel.

Office Labs is not the first time Microsoft has tried to create a sandbox for new ideas. It already has its "Live Labs," which has served as an incubator for the online services business.

In contrast to the masses of developers who work on Office itself, Pratley leads a team of about 60 designers and developers. On Monday, Microsoft is going public with two of the group's projects--Search Commands and Community Clips, which is basically an attempt to create a YouTube for help videos.

A note on the Office Labs Web site warns that usage of the products downloaded from the site will be tracked.

(Credit: Microsoft )

Search Commands, also known by the code name "Scout," has been popular inside Redmond for some time. With Office Labs, Microsoft will get to see if the searching metaphor is a hit with average users.

Just because something seems like a good idea, doesn't mean users will jump on it. Pratley notes that in the 1990s, Microsoft experimented with--but never released--a Web browser-like approach to navigating for commands, offering hyperlinks to different dialog boxes.

In that approach, though, commands didn't have a fixed home, but instead could be accessed in any number of ways. That uncertainty didn't sit well with users.

"It was pretty clear people were uncomfortable not knowing where things were," Pratley said.

With Search Commands, though, the commands still have a home--the user just doesn't have to remember where that is. Microsoft is still weighing an option that lets users see where the command they are searching for "really lives" as well as a way to add it to their main toolbar for easy access.

Office Labs is working on about 10 or so ideas, Pratley said, but the remainder are either in the planning stages or only being tested internally.

For the ones that do see light of day, he said the goal is to get as much feedback as possible. In that vein, Microsoft tells users that it will be collecting information on how they use the Office Labs code. So those who don't like being tracked might want to forgo using their offerings.

"We're trying to be really upfront about the fact that we are doing that (tracking), and that (getting the feedback) is the only reason these things are available," Pratley said.

The goal, he said, is to figure out which ideas are actually worth pursuing.

"A lot of times that means that we won't end up coding them into a product because they weren't as good as we thought," he said.

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.

With the CompUSA liquidation in full swing, some of the deals at closing stores have started to get quite interesting.

A cage full of Vista and Office copies--all 40 percent off.

(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com)

The hardware was not necessarily much of a bargain. During a recent stroll through the downtown San Francisco store, I found desktops and notebooks discounted 20 percent, and in many cases there was only a well-used demo model for sale. There were also printers (some new in boxes and some demo machines), but I suspect one can get a PC or printer for a better price just by shopping the weekend circulars.

The real bargains were in the software area. While PCs and printers get used, scuffed, and outdated sitting on store shelves, software stays pretty much the same inside its nearly empty box.

Included among the Vista copies were several of the Bill Gates-signed limited edition Ultimate version.

(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com)

There were many varieties of Office 2007 as well as many flavors of Windows Vista--all for 40 percent off. There was even a stack of the special Bill Gates-signed limited edition version of Vista Ultimate. On the Office front, there was everything from Office Ultimate for the Home and Student to copies of individual programs such as Word and OneNote.

On the Mac side, there were only a couple of demo Macs--and those were just 15 percent off. However, there were copies of .Mac for 40 percent off the standard $99 price as well as the chance to get AppleCare extended warranties for half the usual price. For those who happen to need a MagSafe power adapter, there was a basket of those located several paces from the now-abandoned Apple Shop.

There wasn't a ton of pro software on either the Mac or PC side, though I did notice several copies of Final Cut Studio 2 in one of the cages.

There weren't many Apple accessories, but they did have a bunch of MagSafe power adapters.

(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com)

Speaking of cables, there was also a section that seemed like the dregs from the repair shop featuring a ton of power bricks, cords, and remote controls. It's not for everyone, but if you've been missing a cord and don't mind rummaging, there might be something up your alley.

It's worth noting that not all of the CompUSA stores are closing for good. Systemax acquired the CompUSA name and plans to keep open up to 16 of the stores, also rebranding some of its TigerDirect retail stores with the CompUSA name.

If the business of liquidating stores is a science, with its practitioners knowing just when to drop the discounts a little further, buying from such sales is an art. I'm sure there are plenty of artists out there. What was your best find?

Spurred by sales of Microsoft's Office 2007, the software market hit its highest level since 1999, according to a report released Wednesday by the NPD Group.

Overall, the U.S. non-game PC software market at retail stores totaled $3.3 billion in 2007, a 15 percent increase over the $2.9 billion generated in 2006. The rise is even more notable, as sales had been essentially flat from 2000 through 2006.

But, a whole lot of that is due to Microsoft, largely because of Office, but also because of Vista's debut. According to NPD's Chris Swenson, 80 percent of the total growth in the market can be attributed to the release of those two products. Also of note, security software sales increased 55 percent compared with the prior year, Swenson said.

Although boxed copy sales of Vista have been down over XP's first year, they were nonetheless up 40 percent from last year's Windows sales.

Sales of Office 2007 are doing even better, up 100 percent compared with sales of Office 2003 in its initial months. That led Office to account for 17 percent (by dollar volume) of all software sold at retail stores last year.

"It's a huge hit," Swenson said.

Swenson also noted that NPD is not seeing significant sales of boxed copies of Windows XP, suggesting to him that the downgrade phenomenon is overblown. "I don't think people can do it in droves, even if they want to," Swenson said, noting that fewer retailers are even carrying the older Windows XP these days.

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Because Microsoft often gets rapped for delivering products late, it seems worth noting that, on Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007, it delivered a product early.

The software maker issued the first service pack update to Office 2007, roughly a year after the product first became available to businesses.

The new update, which has gotten a whole lot less attention than Vista SP1, adds largely performance and stability improvements, along with making the server components of Office fully compatible with the forthcoming Windows Server 2008 update.

"These enhancements span the software applications and servers that home and office workers use each day and will make the 2007 Office system an even more robust and effective productivity tool," Office product manager Reed Shaffner said in a feature posted to Microsoft's Web site. "In essence, SP1 targets the issues that customers told us mattered to them most."

Microsoft said the download is available now and customers can also order a CD with the update. At some later date, Microsoft said it will make the service pack available through automatic update.

Shaffner said he hoped the release will remove any lingering doubts that the product is ready for prime time.

"We recently passed the 12 million mark in trial downloads of the 2007 release from Microsoft.com," he said. "We're optimistic that with the shipment of SP1 we're removing any residual barriers that may have impeded deployment and that adoption will only accelerate. In the meantime, we'll continue to listen intently to our customers and deliver on their changing needs."