Brief Hands-On Report--Microsoft updated Beta Open XML Converters for Mac to Version 0.2

--Adds PowerPoint Conversion

Microsoft created a monster problem when it released the Windows version of Office 2007 with the default file format set to its so-called "Open XML" format. That format is incompatible with previous Windows and Mac Office formats. Of course, Microsoft immediately issued converters for its older Windows versions of Office, actually even before Office 2007 was released to consumers. Mac converters await the release of Office 2008 for Mac this Fall but Microsoft recently released a beta converter for Word documents. This new beta adds PowerPoint files as well as improves the previous beta converter for Word.

According to Microsoft,

This version of the converter improves conversion of Word documents that contain XML content, inline graphics, hyperlinked graphics, WMF/EMF graphics, SmartArt graphics, tracked changes in the document header and footer, Unicode characters, and Japanese Rubi fields. In addition, this version succeeds when converting Word documents that contain bibliography fields, citation fields, and complex tables.

This version of the converter can convert the following Office Open XML file formats:

* Word Document (*.docx)
* Word Macro-Enabled Document (*.docm)
* PowerPoint Presentation (*.pptx)
* PowerPoint Show (*.ppsx)
* PowerPoint Template (*.potx)

The new Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 0.2 (Beta) is available for download via Microsoft AutoUpdate or from this Microsoft Web page.

We used the Microsoft AutoUpdate application to download and install 0.2 Beta. As before, the converter converts Word .docx files to .rtf files and not Word .doc files. 0.2 Beta converted our sample .docx files perfectly into .rtf files that opened with Mac Word 2004. It also converted several large .pptx files to .ppt files that worked fine with Mac PowerPoint 2004. [Bill Fox]