Microsoft “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,” Ina Fried blogs for CNET.
“‘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,'” Fried reports.
“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,” Fried reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft is really good at promising; delivering, not so much. Do you really need Microsoft Office? Give Apple’s free 30-day iWork ’08 trial a try and find out for yourself. Note: iWork ’08 already handles files in Microsoft’s “Office Open XML” format. [Thanks for the reminder, Matt.]
I have but one POS on my Mac and it’s called Office,
It’s their way of over promising and under delivering as usual.
scum bags
Why don’t you go ahead and hold onto that converter for me. I won’t be needing it now…
MDN:”Do you really need Microsoft Office? “
Yes, but Office 2008 is not it. I should have gotten additional copies of Office 2004 instead.
Ina (f/k/a Ian) Fried, who happens to be a transsexual, is cNet’s M$ mouthpiece. (S)he should get M$ to get going on those converters. That said, I know of no office that uses M$ Office 2007 for Windows. I hope someone comes up with a viable Office 2004/08 competitor. All I want is a Project Center that integrates e-mails, contacts, files, calendar events, and tasks. “Reveal Codes” would be icing on the cake. Are you hearing me Corel or IBM?
“”‘The team is mobilized to get Office 2008 updates out as soon as possible . . .”
Oh dang. I’ve been lusting over those XML converters for some time now! Not quite as hot as a postscript editor but still pretty HOT!!
I don’t even use office. Abiword does everything I need.
Darn. One more reason to not upgrade my Office suite. Not that I needed another reason.
Have any of you tried opening an Office 2007 document using Apple’s Pages or Numbers apps? These programs are very XML friendly, and do so immediately. The first time we tried it, we were blown away at how fast the docs opened.
But we’re talking about Apple here, so I should not be surprised. And if you haven’t given the latest versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote try, you should. They’re really quite impressive.
I would expect nothing less from Microsoft!
The MDN take should have mentioned/reminded people about how iWork has been able to read XML files for some time now.
Heck even TextEdit can read and write simple docx files.
They must be too busy overloading people with 30,000 pages of material in order to claim their “transparent”.
Coming through loud and clear MS.
Funny thing is that Microsoft is killing their gravy train. For this is one of the reasons the college I work for now requires all documents posted digitally by instructors to be in either RTF or PDF format.
@Wurf….
what does someone’s sexual orientation have to do with their ability or non ability to provide software updates? Please, enlighten me on how my knowing personal info about the person on CNET who speaks for MS helps me understand why these updates are not getting out promptly?
Apple can develop and release a significant MacOS update in less time than it takes for M$ to release a freakin’ XML converter for Office. Unbelievable and, yet, so believable…
http://www.neooffice.org/ – free and open-source OS X implementation of the OpenOffice.org suite.
It already includes convertors for the MS Office formats, including those annoying OOXML formats (it’s somewhat experimental, but it’s at least THERE).
Plus, there’s compatibility for VBA macros, which work under MS Office 2004 but not MS Office 2008.
Instead of “upgrading” to MS Office 2008 (which is analogous to “upgrading” to Vista from XP), switching to NeoOffice seems like the best move to me.
MW: results – as in, you get them from the open-source community, and not from a bloated old monopolist in its twilight years.
@Wurf
I like doing it missionary style. Does that affect how I write things?
Buster:
Obviously you stay on top of things. Good for you!
“Funny thing is that Microsoft is killing their gravy train.”
Dead gravy and upended boxcars everywhere.
Jim – TIV,
Wurf was pointing out that the blogger in question even crosses gender to get at the facts. Nothing stops this blogger.
The only problem is that the blogger in question can’t see that Microsoft’s delay tactics were designed to prevent Macs from being added to existing office networks.
Can’t translate Office 7 docs, can’t play on my network. Pay the Office 2008 tax or move on.
Apple showed how absurd the delay was by providing Office 7 XML translators in iWork 08 months ago.
So much for opening up Microsoft, you lying bastards.
@Big Al – I see your point, but I don’t think that’s what wurf was getting at.
“Ina (f/k/a Ian) Fried, who happens to be a transsexual, is cNet’s M$ mouthpiece. (S)he should get M$ to get going on those converters.” – this could just as easily have read…
“Ina Fried is cNet’s M$ mouthpiece. She should get M$ to get going on those converters.”
In my opinion it was about making a disparaging remark about someone’s sexuality. I don’t see how that information improves their perspective or not on motivating cNet to pressure MS to get going on these converters.
It was just a homophobic/gender rhetoric shot imho.
It also makes students buy the latest version. A friend’s daughter who is attending UNCG said her prof told them they HAD to use Office 2007, which confused the poor girl, who is a new MacBook owner. She had a copy of Office 2004, but no, that won’t do. I’ll tell her to use Pages and say nothing about it.
Much needed? By who? I don’t know anyone with Office 2007.