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I have but one POS on my Mac and it's called Office,

Feb 22, 08 - 12:53 pm Comment from: Ampar

It's their way of over promising and under delivering as usual.

Feb 22, 08 - 12:54 pm Comment from: loganson

scum bags

Feb 22, 08 - 12:55 pm Comment from: mr_matalino

Why don't you go ahead and hold onto that converter for me. I won't be needing it now...

Feb 22, 08 - 12:58 pm Comment from: s

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?

Feb 22, 08 - 01:07 pm Comment from: Ampar

""'The team is mobilized to get Office 2008 updates out as soon as possible . . ."

What that really means.

Feb 22, 08 - 01:11 pm Comment from: HMCIV

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.

Feb 22, 08 - 01:16 pm Comment from: Rip Ragged

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!

Feb 22, 08 - 01:34 pm Comment from: The Other Steve

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.

Feb 22, 08 - 01:37 pm Comment from: Lurker_PC

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.

Feb 22, 08 - 01:39 pm Comment from: Jim - TIV

@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?

Feb 22, 08 - 01:41 pm Comment from: KingMel

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.

Feb 22, 08 - 01:58 pm Comment from: Buster

@Wurf
I like doing it missionary style. Does that affect how I write things?

Feb 22, 08 - 02:04 pm Comment from: Ampar

Buster:
Obviously you stay on top of things. Good for you!

Feb 22, 08 - 02:06 pm Comment from: Ampar

"Funny thing is that Microsoft is killing their gravy train."

Dead gravy and upended boxcars everywhere.

Feb 22, 08 - 02:36 pm Comment from: Big Al

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.

Feb 22, 08 - 02:42 pm Comment from: Jim - TIV

@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.

Feb 22, 08 - 02:52 pm Comment from: Uncle Al

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.

Feb 22, 08 - 02:53 pm Comment from: Tommy Boy

Much needed? By who? I don't know anyone with Office 2007.

Wasn't it just yesterday that Micro$oft said they wanted to play better with others?
I guess I am not surprised.

Feb 22, 08 - 03:18 pm Comment from: Buster

@Ampar,
In my capacity, I have a lot of people under me.

Have a nice weekend everyone

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?

Feb 22, 08 - 04:16 pm Comment from: DeltaNick

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!

Feb 22, 08 - 04:43 pm Comment from: Basil Ganglia

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.

Feb 22, 08 - 06:18 pm Comment from: Ampar

"How hard can it be . . ."

Because making shiny, new 3-D icons for Messenger:Mac is a higher priority.

Feb 22, 08 - 07:49 pm Comment from: MacSmiley

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.

Feb 22, 08 - 08:22 pm Comment from: GizmoDan

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

Feb 23, 08 - 01:09 pm Comment from: ChrissyOne

@ Wurf and others

Please tell us more of your wonderful insights about transsexuals. I'm simply riveted.

Feb 23, 08 - 01:18 pm Comment from: ChrissyOne

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?

Feb 23, 08 - 02:12 pm Comment from: ChrissyOne

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

Feb 23, 08 - 11:14 pm Comment from: ChrissyOne

@ Buster

I'd steer clear of that lot if I were you. Dangerous weirdos, if you ask me. Not to be trusted.

Feb 25, 08 - 01:36 pm Comment from: Buster

@c1....lol

Feb 25, 08 - 09:47 pm Comment from: ChrissyOne

...and don't even get me STARTED on Canadians...