Filed under: Enterprise, Software
Windows Office 2007 files not compatible with Mac Office 2004
Delayed or not, the next version of Microsoft Office for Mac can't come soon enough for those who have little choice but to stick with Office in corporate environments. Although we have enjoyed reasonable (but still far from perfect) compatibility with our Windows Office brethren for some time now, that all changes with Office 2007 for Windows, which uses a file format incompatible with Mac Office by default. Out of the box, Office 2007 saves documents in "Microsoft Office Open XML." The saved file formats are docx for Word, xlsx for Excel and pptx for PowerPoint. The good news is that Novell has promised that it will release code for OpenOffice that will support the new file format, but it'll be at least another month or two before that's a viable option for end users, and there are still many corporate users who will be stuck since many of them don't have the option to use or install OpenOffice. Also, just because Novell releases the code to the open-source community, it doesn't mean it will actually get integrated into the OpenOffice suite, although it's a good bet.
Windows users with Office 2003 will, of course, be able to download a compatibility pack that will let them open Office 2007 files, but Mac users are being left in the cold, probably for months, while the Mac Business Unit at Microsoft takes their time in making a similar solution available to Mac users.
I know the comment section will now be flooded with comments about how Mac users should ditch Office completely and use OpenOffice, NeoOffice, ThinkFree, iWork or a host of other Office alternatives, and that's fine and dandy for many people. I encourage people who have the choice to explore other options on their personal or work computers that aren't completely locked down, to do so, with gusto. But the fact remains that the majority of corporate IT departments don't see it that way and since many of them still resent having to support Macs to begin with, these compatibility issues just make matters worse for Mac users in those environments and it makes it that much harder for them to do their jobs.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mingistech said 12:19PM on 12-05-2006
http://blogs.msdn.com/microsoft_office_word/archive/2006/09/27/774087.aspx#792656
MS is providing an update to both Office 2003 on PC and Office 2004 on MAC to convert and read the new format.
Also you could just save to the old format in Office 2007 just like you have been able to for years in the current versions of office.
Reply
henrrrik said 12:32PM on 12-05-2006
I wouldn't worry about this. I seriously doubt that any organization will standardize on this new format anytime soon (or, perhaps, ever...).
Reply
Stuart said 12:33PM on 12-05-2006
the new formats are just zip files that hold the old doc format and some xml. Not the easiest thing to do, but it's still possible to use the new format. Maybe somebody will make a quick convertor...
Reply
Michael said 12:43PM on 12-05-2006
Microsoft's Open XML is an open document standard. That's a good thing. I fully expect Apple to include it/ODF in its upcoming version of iWork.
Reply
Peter Kirn said 12:54PM on 12-05-2006
* Microsoft has promised a converter to Mac users. No ship date yet, but "probably months" may or may not be correct
* You'll likely see support in OpenOffice and the many *other* apps that support OpenOffice's file format (since it's open source code -- think ThinkFree, Zoho, Google Docs, and on the Mac, NeoOffice)
* Existing Office users will have to deal with the format issues, too -- and many won't be savvy enough to install the new format.
To be safe, just save in the old format. This seems like a non-issue, especially since I don't expect Office 2007 adoption will happen overnight. And the long-term rewards look positive.
Reply
Laurie said 12:57PM on 12-05-2006
@ mingistech - and it also says:
"I am unfortunately unable to discuss dates, but we definitely understand the importance of getting these converters out."
Not able to discuss dates means don't wait up for it. Will it happen? Of course it will. No one has said it will never happen. But when it will happen is what matters. And when = not any time soon.
Reply
emor8t said 12:59PM on 12-05-2006
minigtech for the win.
Reply
Jesse said 1:06PM on 12-05-2006
My question is, will iWork be able to open this new format?
Reply
Marco said 1:11PM on 12-05-2006
Ms Office? I never used it.
Go to openoffice.org, you will be delighted for free.
Reply
Shaaheen said 1:21PM on 12-05-2006
Microsoft Office for Mac, is not "Unicode".
Sounds like a joke, no?
Reply
iband said 1:25PM on 12-05-2006
Not to fear...it probably won't work in Vista either. They will release a few service packs that will fix it in Vista at the same time the Mac version comes out.
Reply
tim said 1:30PM on 12-05-2006
"Go to openoffice.org neooffice.org, you will be delighted for free."
we all know about neooffice right?
Reply
tim said 1:32PM on 12-05-2006
there is supposed to be a strike through openoffice.org above in my other post.
reason: its not os x native, neooffice is the native port of open office (doesnt require x11 and uses aqua)
Reply
Laurie said 1:50PM on 12-05-2006
@ Alex - you obviously don't support hundreds of enterprise Mac users and/or you don't work in a managed enterprise environment.
There's always a way - it just isn't always the right way.
Reply
Alex Wallace said 1:54PM on 12-05-2006
To open .docx files on your Mac, follow these handy instructions!
Easily open .docx on Mac:
http://www.eightysevenfour.com/?p=14
Reply
Tom said 2:22PM on 12-05-2006
I found this out several weeks ago while working on MBA school admissions essays on my work PC and then sending them to my home computer which is a Mac (i have a beta version of office). The trick is not saving the documents in the .docx format but as office 1997-2003 documents which is .doc. If you do this there are no problems.
Reply
Brett said 2:50PM on 12-05-2006
"I wouldn't worry about this. I seriously doubt that any organization will standardize on this new format anytime soon (or, perhaps, ever...)."
So quick to judge! Have you actually tried the new format? I have, and the file sizes are substantially smaller (probably thanks to the embedded zip compression). In addition, I think the xml translation potentially circumvents the corruption issues we've seen with binary xls files.
Those are two big advantages right there.
Reply
Ben C said 2:53PM on 12-05-2006
I'm sorry, but OpenOffice/Neooffice are just not comparable to MS Office in terms of features and just plain working. I'm in a mixed Linux/Windows environment at work and being on the Linux side, I've had to live with OO's shortcomings for years. When I switched to a MacBookPro earlier this year, my life became a whole lot easier when I bought MSOffice 2004.
Reply
Rory said 2:59PM on 12-05-2006
I see no one has mentioned Nisus Express yet, I ditched Word in favour of it earlier this year and I've not looked back. A very nice Cocoa wordprocessor which does all the useful stuff Word does without the slowness and feature bloat.
Reply
jason said 3:06PM on 12-05-2006
I am sure neooffice would be great, if their download was working...
Reply