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 changes.
"Users should notice the improved performance and stability of Outlook, better charting functionality in Excel, and more control over the appearance of SmartArt graphics," Microsoft group product manager Jane Liles said in an article posted on Microsoft's Web site.
The ODF Alliance, a collection of supporters of that file format, praised its inclusion in the Office update.
This action reflects the global market demand, particularly by governments, for open standards-based interoperability through ODF," ODF Alliance managing director Marino Marcich said in a statement. "This is a victory for ODF, as it signifies a reversal of course by Microsoft from their decision to shun the format during the initial launch of Office 2007."
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.
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