Today not only marks the release of a new beta Remote Desktop client from Microsoft, but also a new beta Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 0.2 (Beta). What the heck is this? It converts Office files that use Microsoft's new Open XML file format (i.e. files created in Office 2007 for Windows) into a file format that Office 2004 for the Mac can read. This release promises improved conversion of files containing inline graphics, amongst other things.

Since this is a beta Microsoft warns that all files might not be converted correctly. They suggest you open the file and make sure it looks like it should.

Update: As was pointed out in the comments, this only converts Word and PowerPoint documents.

If you've been gnashing your teeth as more and more Office 2007 files come your way from your innocent, early-adopter Windows colleagues and friends, time to quit your gnashing. Microsoft's beta of the mellifluously named Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac can now be downloaded from the big M's website. This initial version of the standalone converter tool supports Word 2007 files and is one-way: the resulting RTF output can be resaved as Office 2004 .doc files, but not as Office 2007 .docx files. Support for the newfangled PowerPoint and Excel document formats will be coming later this summer.

As previously noted, the final integrated format conversion bundle that will live inside Office 2004 will not ship until after Mac Office 2008 hits the street. So it goes.

According to a post on Mac Mojo, the Mac BU's blog, Microsoft is committed to getting out a free file format converter so that Mac users can open Office 2007 Open XML formatted files with Office 2004 (Laurie posted about the problem earlier today). This converter is expected to be released late March/early April and will be free.

The next version of Office for the Mac will support the Open XML Format as its native format, and that is expected to ship 6 to 8 months from now.

Until then you can either use a hack, or ask your Windows using friends to save the documents they want to share with you as the older Word/Excel/PowerPoint 97-2003 Document (.doc, .xls, .ppt).

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.