Microsoft again delays Office 2007 XML File Converters for Mac

Not really unexpectedly, Microsoft has delayed once again the release of complete Mac Office 2004 converters for it's Windows Office 2007 XML-formatted files. They had been delayed once already, i.e. from winter to the spring quarter, along with profuse explanations as to why it took several months after the January release of Windows Office 2007 to produce them when Windows Office 2003 to Windows Office 2007 converters had already been released in late 2006. Office 2004 for Mac and Windows Office 2003 use the same file format so we were still skeptical.

This additional delay until AFTER Mac Office 2008 is released was announced in the blog of the Microsoft Mac Business Unit Office Team, Mac Mojo. The reason announced for the delay is that the development team is too busy keeping Mac Office 2008 on schedule for release sometime between in July through December to complete the converters. Hmmm...it worked for Apple on Leopard's delay so why not....

The blog entry also noted that a Word 2007 XML file format converter would be issued in beta and it has--see next article. The converter just converts Word 2007 XML-formatted files, not Excel or PowerPoint, and only to RTF format, not to the former standard Word .doc format and only as read-only, i.e. it will not convert Mac files to XML format. It also has plenty of limitations.

This problem started when Microsoft created the so-called Open XML format and began pushing it as a standard format. This push led to Microsoft releasing Windows Office 2007 with Open XML format as the default format for Word, Excel and PowerPoint rather than the .doc, .xls and .ppt formats of previous Office applications. Of course, Microsoft released converters for its previous Office 2003 even before the official release of Office 2007 in January.

There are other XML format converters out there for the Mac which work to various degrees, including the latest version of MacLinkPlus Deluxe which includes read-only converters from Word 2007 and Excel 2007 XML formats. [Bill Fox via John Grubb]