REVENGE Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 It is now widely known that Microsoft Office 2007 will introduce a new XML based file format (.docx/.xlsx/.pptx/.etcx) designed with a variety of improvements over the current file format in mind. In fact, it seems that Microsoft has even gone out of their way to ensure file format compatibility with folks who don't want to pay up to upgrade to Office 2007 by providing them with free "Microsoft Office Compatibility Packs" for users running at least Office 2000 SP3 on Windows 2000 SP4. But wait a minute... how come I don't see any Office:Mac editions on the "System Requirements" list? Actually, I've been searching for a compatibility pack for Office:Mac for weeks now with null results, until recently when I've finally discovered some negative news. Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit (or MacBU) had announced at WWDC that "free downloadable converters would be available" sometime after Office 2007 is released in January. Well as it turns out, that "sometime" means "6-8 weeks" at best for a beta compatibility pack and "6-8 months" for a final release due after the new Office:Mac is released. And according to Office for Mac team, this is "(Fairly) Fast". As a temporary solution, Office 2007 users will be forced to save their work in the old .doc/.xls/.ppt formats in order to maintain compatibility with Macs. Unfortunately, this could entail the loss of formatting fidelity or the ability to edit some document elements made in the new Office. Of course, not that I'm suggesting Office:Mac users are "screwed" or that a "lock-out" has begun (well, at least not permanently anyways); I'm simply irritated that Microsoft's Office team would leave compatibility with their Mac counterparts on the backburner while pushing out a file converter for older "Office:Win" editions before Office 2007 had even left the beta stage. Apparently, I'm supposed to be thankful that a converter is coming at all, and even free at that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin_4e Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 Hmmm, very interesting in my opinion. I'm trying to think back at how long MS agreed to keep making products for Apple. Atleast something's coming. Thanks for the news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CLiDE FTW!!1 Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 Good news. It's cool these days to hate on Microsoft, but theres no doubting that Office some of the nicest peices of software. I've used 2007, and it's great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OoOoOoO Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 simple solution - don't use mso 2007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scothiam Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 A hard choice must be made when choosing a platform(os and hardware). If you chose Apple/Mac, you are putting yourself in the bottom 10% of computer users that companies like M$ care about. You can't blame M$ for not putting the same effort behind their for-Mac products as their for-Win products for more than the obvious reasons. They are not going to spend the same $/time for 10 clients as they are for the other, windows loving, 90. Maybe it's 20 to 80, same deal... (not to mention that OSx is in even better position to compete with windows...even less enthusiasm on M$ part) I'll appologize for Steve Jobs here for leading you all to believe that the Apple/Mac/OSx platform was going to take over the world and that everyone would build UniBins for it ASAP, oh, and that stuff would "just work". In conclusion, I'd like everyone who has been holding their breath to please breath, and stop waiting for games and high-end appz to come UniBin wrapped and ready for the holiday season(oh wait, weren't we expecting Adobe UB appz by Jan06?). It's coming, I hope, but not as soon as we'd like. Don't be upset, this is the price of "cutting edge", or, going with the "under-dog", or something (not to mention the bugs, patches, firmware updates, recalls, lack of support, more bugs, system instability...) Cheers to all and have a good night!! (PS. maybe it's all FUD, but I'm not spending a nickel on the Mac OS or platform until they get their collective sh*t together. My PC works just fine. I'm looking at Apple for my next one, but they are not looking ready for prime time...yet) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomozj Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 Now if someone develops an unofficial converter for OSX when Office 2007 comes out for Windows, big bucks could be made. -tj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scothiam Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 Hmmm, very interesting in my opinion. I'm trying to think back at how long MS agreed to keep making products for Apple. Atleast something's coming. Thanks for the news. I think Roz said that M$ would be supporting the Mac platform for at least another five years, at the WWDC when the Intel switch was announced. btw, I apologize for my previous post, if it was a little negative, I should have waited until I'd had my coffee before posting. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rollcage Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 won't the next version of office for mac be out by the time that the compatability pack goes final? gee thanks MS...hopefully it will at least be a universal app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackShadowWolf Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 won't the next version of office for mac be out by the time that the compatability pack goes final? gee thanks MS...hopefully it will at least be a universal app Mac Office 2007/8 is supposed to be a universal binary, so Im assuming a compatibility pack will be universal as well, but who knows with Microsoft :-/. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REVENGE Posted December 8, 2006 Author Share Posted December 8, 2006 Mac Office 2007/8 is supposed to be a universal binary, so Im assuming a compatibility pack will be universal as well, but who knows with Microsoft :-/. Well what I think is retarded is the the compatibility pack is in fact scheduled for after the release of the new Office:Mac. Honestly, wouldn't it make more sense for them to release a compatibility pack before so as to accomodate the period of time between Office:Mac and Office:Win 2007's release? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackShadowWolf Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 Well what I think is retarded is the the compatibility pack is in fact scheduled for after the release of the new Office:Mac. Honestly, wouldn't it make more sense for them to release a compatibility pack before so as to accomodate the period of time between Office:Mac and Office:Win 2007's release? Its Microsoft, nothing can be that simple . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scothiam Posted December 9, 2006 Share Posted December 9, 2006 I've been using OpenOffice for a few years now and haven't even looked at MSOffice for a long while... is OpenOffice a resonable alternative yet, or is it still lacking to those who use MSOffice alot? It just seems that MS is treating their Mac market as an afterthough (at best! ...compatibility pack after the new verion...???) Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Takuro Posted December 9, 2006 Share Posted December 9, 2006 Think of it this way: would Microsoft rather: A ) Have people buy a uni-bin version of Office: Mac Or... B ) Have people to buy Office 2007 for Windows, buy a copy of XP, and use bootcamp Since the latest Macs use Intel CPUs, there isn't so much potential market share to be lost (if there ever was much in the first place) for Microsoft. They have much more potential money to make if they could entice Mac users to buy a copy of Windows. What better way to do this than to leave them in the cold by delaying crucial software for OS X? Microsoft is taking Mac users for a ride. Plain and simple. I know they should have more of an interest in the Windows side of things, but they are doing the absolute minimum to fulfill their contracts. Sure, they have a 5 year contract to keep making Office for Mac. But in those 5 years, we'll be lucky if they come out with two releases. Apple desperately needs to upgrade its Appleworks suite. Big time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
velayo Posted December 9, 2006 Share Posted December 9, 2006 Well, Novell is going to create a patch for Openoffice that will make it fully compatible with the new Microsoft Office format. I, for once, think this is going the best opportunity for programs like NeoOffice and Openoffice to get more market share. By the way, the new Office format for Microsoft is going to be open and standarized so any office suite outhere will be able to run it without problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REVENGE Posted December 9, 2006 Author Share Posted December 9, 2006 Well, Novell is going to create a patch for Openoffice that will make it fully compatible with the new Microsoft Office format. I, for once, think this is going the best opportunity for programs like NeoOffice and Openoffice to get more market share. By the way, the new Office format for Microsoft is going to be open and standarized so any office suite outhere will be able to run it without problems. That's great news. I look forward to using OpenOffice more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostgame Posted December 9, 2006 Share Posted December 9, 2006 ^ Agreed, that's great to hear, that MS is releasing an Open-Source format! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scothiam Posted December 9, 2006 Share Posted December 9, 2006 Well, Novell is going to create a patch for Openoffice that will make it fully compatible with the new Microsoft Office format. I, for once, think this is going the best opportunity for programs like NeoOffice and Openoffice to get more market share. By the way, the new Office format for Microsoft is going to be open and standarized so any office suite outhere will be able to run it without problems. Hopefully that whole M$ and Novell deal will indeed be good for open source developers. The big name/money app-makers for the Mac platform seem to have really dropped the ball. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aberracus Posted December 9, 2006 Share Posted December 9, 2006 Im using Neo office for everything for the last 4 months, and i dont miss MS office, and yeah i would love an apple office, compatible and COOL... Scothiam, at least i, am here with Mac for their Mac only software, go find Apple software on windows......FCP Studio is just the tip. The principal Big name software company working to support OSX is Apple, and thats the way to go when u are the underdog. And we know Apple does good and cool sofware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scothiam Posted December 9, 2006 Share Posted December 9, 2006 Scothiam, at least i, am here with Mac for their Mac only software, go find Apple software on windows......FCP Studio is just the tip. The principal Big name software company working to support OSX is Apple, and thats the way to go when u are the underdog. And we know Apple does good and cool sofware. Yeah, I agree. I think if you want an apple for anything other than what apple offers, you're wasting your money. If you want a computer to run a catalog of native appz, stick with windows... for now... I'll keep watching and waiting for this to change btw, all of the appz I use are available for Mac, although not yet universal. I'm also holding out on a new computer purchase for newer-better virtualization features. I'm really a 'multiple-OS' fanatic, if anything. If OpenOffice runs as good on a new macintel as it does on a wintel, I'll be happy with it. They do have native versions for PPC or Intel based macs (not a unibin). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REVENGE Posted December 9, 2006 Author Share Posted December 9, 2006 No need to worry folks. Leopard's TextEditor'll have ya covered! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scothiam Posted December 9, 2006 Share Posted December 9, 2006 No need to worry folks. Leopard's TextEditor'll have ya covered! there you go. Maybe Apple can start working on Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and Photoshop replacements too!! Then I'll have no excuse (cept for money of course) to get a Mac. Cheers to that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeeJM Posted December 10, 2006 Share Posted December 10, 2006 If you chose Apple/Mac, you are putting yourself in the bottom 10% of computer users that companies like M$ care about. You can't blame M$ for not putting the same effort behind their for-Mac products as their for-Win products for more than the obvious reasons. They are not going to spend the same $/time for 10 clients as they are for the other, windows loving, 90. Maybe it's 20 to 80, same deal... (not to mention that OSx is in even better position to compete with windows...even less enthusiasm on M$ part) Hang on - let's be consistent here. If MS = M$ , then OSX = O$X :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rollcage Posted December 10, 2006 Share Posted December 10, 2006 No need to worry folks. Leopard's TextEditor'll have ya covered! mhm. but isn't it sad that another company can come up with compatability for a format on a platform before even the maker of that format can. I'd like to see TextEdit's new feature added into the next version of Pages, I love that program, but I have a hard time being able to use it because no one else I know has a mac. I can't even get it to save my documents as an rtf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Bond Posted December 10, 2006 Share Posted December 10, 2006 Now, pardon my ignorance here, but what sort of improvements are we talking here over the old format? It seems like MS is just attempting to introduce yet another crazy standard, when the old one seems to work perfectly well. I can easily see an unofficial converter being made rather quickly...a simple AppleScript of sorts to strip out the essential text and formatting and dump it into a nice .doc. Of course, it really underscores the fact that MS is pretty much leaving Mac users in the cold again... =/ - Matthew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBK.Xscape Posted December 10, 2006 Share Posted December 10, 2006 two words UNIVERSAL BINARY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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