Microsoft Office 2007 for Windows and the impact on Macs
12/12/06 09:53 Filed in: News
Microsoft have released Microsoft Office 2007 for Windows (at least the enterprise version at this point - there are 8 versions!) with the retail version due early 2007. What does this mean for Mac users in mixed platform environments in the immediate future?
For a start, Word 2007 introduces (yet another) Microsoft proprietary file format that's not compatible with current deployed versions of Office for both Mac and PC (although 'Compatibility Packs' have been released for PC Office 2003 and other Windows releases). When Office 2008 Mac is released it'll be able to handle the new file format, and in the meantime Microsoft has promised to provide 'translators' for Office v.X and 2004 'around March/April 2007' so that current MS Office Mac users can work with the new document format.
Until that happens (don't hold your breath!) the suggested workaround for handling Word documents saved in the new XML format is to extract the text by means of basic third-party provided scripts so at least you can get get most of the content but without the formatting - which is marginally better than nothing at all. Excel and Powerpoint users will have to ask to have those documents re-saved back into the current format.
It's been reported that the free open-source Office alternatives, such as NeoOffice and OpenOffice are able to handle the new Office 2007 documents before Microsoft provides anything, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the Mac community rise up to the challenge as the need arises. It's also been reported that TextEdit in the forthcoming Mac OS X 10.5 will be able to read the text in Word documents - but again, no formatting.
For a start, Word 2007 introduces (yet another) Microsoft proprietary file format that's not compatible with current deployed versions of Office for both Mac and PC (although 'Compatibility Packs' have been released for PC Office 2003 and other Windows releases). When Office 2008 Mac is released it'll be able to handle the new file format, and in the meantime Microsoft has promised to provide 'translators' for Office v.X and 2004 'around March/April 2007' so that current MS Office Mac users can work with the new document format.
Until that happens (don't hold your breath!) the suggested workaround for handling Word documents saved in the new XML format is to extract the text by means of basic third-party provided scripts so at least you can get get most of the content but without the formatting - which is marginally better than nothing at all. Excel and Powerpoint users will have to ask to have those documents re-saved back into the current format.
It's been reported that the free open-source Office alternatives, such as NeoOffice and OpenOffice are able to handle the new Office 2007 documents before Microsoft provides anything, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the Mac community rise up to the challenge as the need arises. It's also been reported that TextEdit in the forthcoming Mac OS X 10.5 will be able to read the text in Word documents - but again, no formatting.
Last Updated: 3/07/08 7:33 AM