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.]
Wasn’t it just yesterday that Micro$oft said they wanted to play better with others?
I guess I am not surprised.
@Ampar,
In my capacity, I have a lot of people under me.
Have a nice weekend everyone
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Just because no one has mentioned it…
On Leopard, even the dicky little throw-away “TextEdit” program opens MS OOXML files.
If the free Apple equivalent of Windows WordPad can open them why can’t MS do it?
Does this mean someone actually uses the .docx format?
I use 3 Windows computers at work, and I’ve NEVER seen anyone use the .docx format. Like Vista, it’s a colossal failure. Who in his right mind would use the .docx format?
That being said, since this affects the Mac version of Microsoft Office, don’t you think Microsoft would make this announcement on their Office:Mac 2008 web site (aka Mactopia)? I just checked the “News and Press” section of Mactopia, and there’s not ONE news releases from this year (Office 2008 was released on 15 Januar 2008)!
And didn’t Microsoft just announce “more openness” at a press conference yesterday?
When pigs fly.
Again just who in the world really needs M$’s Word/Office in the first place?
There more and more ways of skinning that cat without paying through the noise for the honorer!
I’m currently running a business using iWorks and a selection of freeware and shareware… and doing so quite nicely at that!
Yes, you really need Office. I’ve been using Pages and it isn’t nearly as functional as Word, especially for writing long technical documents. Numbers is great, MUCH better than Excel for me, and Keynote is much MUCH better than Powerpoint, but Pages has a long way to go to catch Word unless you just need it for short, illustration-rich documents like newsletters and the like, where the page layout features shine.
Have you tried OminFocus? It works very well and it can do what you’re asking for. The Omni Group makes some very cool apps that are priced very reasonably.
Make that OmniFocus…damn fingers! Just got ’em last week…
How hard can it be for the world’s biggest software company to make one measly little file converter? This smells bad.
“How hard can it be . . .”
Because making shiny, new 3-D icons for Messenger:Mac is a higher priority.
This is just MSFT’s blatant “little” incentive to buy Office 2008 instead of tagging along with Office 2004. I’m glad I got iWork ’08 myself the same time I bought iLife ’08.
I thought Microsoft was a new open, compatible company, due to a huge change of heart announced in the last day or two. I guess it’s just all words as usual with them.
So much for what they said earlier about connectivity and openess. Reminds me of zuney’s “just you wait” idea, like the energizer battery except you just keep waiting and waiting and waiting.
Aren’t those translators available for windoze users? Hmmm
@ Wurf and others
Please tell us more of your wonderful insights about transsexuals. I’m simply riveted.
Oh, and BTW, why is it so bloody difficult to create an XML document in the first place? Why oh why can’t excel have a simple mechanism for creating an XML list that I can use for a SPRY web page? Maybe my hormone-addled mind can’t cope with the subtle intricacies of making a simple 6-column list into something that AJAX can deal with, but it seems like such an easy thing to ask for. Instead, I’ve been pointed to half a dozen third-party (and Windows-only) converters that are too cryptic to figure out without a class and all cost hundreds of dollars to use for long enough to figure them out.
W, as they say, TF?
Oh come on, no takers on a Saturday morning?
Never mind. It’s a gorgeous day for February in Seattle. I suggest we all go outside and play. The pigs will be on their way soon enough.
she isn’t just a drag queen? Maybe she’s not transsexual, just gay.
@C1,
Although I have some lesbian and gay friends, I have never met a transexual in person that I know of. I suspect their numbers are relatively few or if not, they are not obvious. Thus, no insights I’m afraid.
Maybe- just maybe, Bill, Monkeyboy and the rest are too busy dealing with:
http://www.news.com/Microsoft-pulls-Vista-SP1-update/2100-1016_3-6231299.html?tag=st.rn
@ Buster
I’d steer clear of that lot if I were you. Dangerous weirdos, if you ask me. Not to be trusted.
@c1….lol
…and don’t even get me STARTED on Canadians…