Need MS Office 2007 compatibility on your Mac?

Apple's release of iWork '08 is "embarrassing," an analyst said Friday,
not for its maker, but for Apple's rival, Microsoft.

On Tuesday, Apple rolled out a refreshed iWork that added a spreadsheet,
dubbed Numbers, to the earlier mix of a word processor/page layout Pages
and presentation maker Keynote. But it was iWork's ability to handle the
Open XML file format - the new native format for Microsoft's own Office
2007 application suite - that Michael Gartenberg of JupiterResearch
talked about.

"This was the ultimate insult to injury," Gartenberg said. "Not only has
Microsoft not delivered the ability to read and write Open XML in its
Mac Office, but at the end of the day, Apple was the one who delivered."

Gartenberg referred to Microsoft's problems developing Office 2008 for
Mac, which the company recently announced would be delayed until
mid-January. Among the roadblocks, said Microsoft's Macintosh Business
Unit (MBU), is the shift to Open XML as Office 2008's native file
format. The company has also been slow in releasing conversion tools
that let earlier editions of its Mac suite work with Office 2007's Open
XML documents.

"This is embarrassing for MBU," Gartenberg said. "It has said that the
shift to Intel has caused its problems, and changes in development
tools, and the file format, too. But every other major vendor has pretty
much managed to get their apps over to Intel on the Mac. Microsoft is
one of the oldest Mac developers out there, so it's not like it doesn't
have experience on the platform."

IWork '08 applications can open the OpenXML formats churned out by their
Office 2007 counterparts - Pages with Word, Numbers with Excel, Keynote
with PowerPoint - but cannot save in those formats. Currently, Office
2004 and Office v. X users can both open Word and PowerPoint Open XML
files and save in those formats using beta converters MBU has issued. No
such converter has been released that handles Excel 2007's Open XML
files, however.

Ironically, one of those who praised iWork's handling of the Microsoft
file format was a program manager for Office 2007. "iWork '08 reads the
Office Open XML files with very high fidelity," said Brian Jones on his
company blog.

At the same time, Jones defended his fellow developers at Microsoft in
MBU. "The Mac Office folks have a ton of stuff they are working on for
the next version, so it's not surprising that you aren't seeing full
Open XML support until they reach that point," Jones said in response to
a question asking how Microsoft lost the race to Apple's iWork.

"Office for the Mac is just not a real priority for Microsoft," said
Gartenberg as he spelled out his take for Microsoft's tardiness creating
software on the Mac that can handle what are, after all, its own file
formats. "And that's not likely to change anytime soon."

Asked to explain why Microsoft hasn't been able to match Apple, MBU's
marketing manager, Amanda Lefebvre, ticked off the development issues
that have delayed Office 2008.

"The transition to the new file format is one of several reasons the
development cycle is longer with Office 2008," she said. "Office 2008
[for Mac] will run natively on Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs with a
Universal Binary [and] this transition necessitated a switch to a new
set of development tools as well. The combination of these two
technology shifts definitely impacted our schedule."

Not quite, Gartenberg said. "What this really shows is Microsoft's
inability to ship software on time these days," he said.

Apple, meanwhile, is doing the smart thing. "They're making sure that
they're not dependent on Microsoft for any of the important software for
the Mac," said Gartenberg.

That strategy, along with the £55 price of iWork and the window of
opportunity because of Office 2008's delay, puts Cupertino in the cat
bird seat. "It's going to be hard for Microsoft to get those people who
try and buy iWork back," he said. "Microsoft's let down its Mac
customers."

--
Support the troops: Bring them home ASAP.

In article <michelle->,
Michelle Steiner <> wrote:

> Apple's release of iWork '08 is "embarrassing," an analyst said Friday,
> not for its maker, but for Apple's rival, Microsoft.

I wouldn't be surprised if Office 2008 for Mac never comes out. It's
time for MS to shutdown the MBU. MS has never been too keen on
supporting competitors, and it's not like Apple actually *needs* MS any
longer.

Mike

In article <no->,
Mike <> wrote:

> I wouldn't be surprised if Office 2008 for Mac never comes out.
> It's time for MS to shutdown the MBU. MS has never been too keen
> on supporting competitors, and it's not like Apple actually *needs*
> MS any longer.

No, but a lot of Apple's customers believe that they need Microsoft
Office, and so long as they do, Apple needs MS Office too.

--
Support the troops: Bring them home ASAP.

In article < t.net>,
J.J. O'Shea <> wrote:

> I am, I repeat, a _two-decade_ MS user.

You make my point. Mac Office *has* to be seeing declining sales. At
some point MS will throw in the towel. It's probably too late in the
Office 2008 development cycle to kill it now, so Office 2008 could
easily be the last.

Mac users who need Office can run Windows and Office on their Intel
Macs, which is a better sale for MS than Mac Office alone. Strictly as
a business decision, it makes sense. Since this is indeed a "Windows
dominated world", MS should be concentrating on Windows.

Mike

In article <tph-B5DC02.09324014082007@localhost>,
Tom Harrington <> wrote:

> > Apple's release of iWork '08 is "embarrassing," an analyst said
> > Friday, not for its maker, but for Apple's rival, Microsoft.
>
> [...]
>
> Did you write this article? It seems to be posted online in various
> places under someone else's name. If you're going to post someone
> else's writing, you should at least give credit to the author instead
> of implicitly taking credit for it yourself.

I'm sorry; I usually include the URL of an article I forward. I missed
doing that this time. My bad.

--
Support the troops: Bring them home ASAP.

In article <I9->,
Dudley Henriques <> wrote:

> I . . . will eventually get rid of everything Microsoft on my
> Mac system and replace it with Apple software . . .
> Personally, I've had it with Microsoft and the way they do things. Steve
> Jobs has my unqualified support in anything he does to give all of us a
> viable alternative to the Microsoft domination we have had to deal with
> for so long.
>
> and somebody else (I'm confused by the sequencing) wrote:
> >
> > I have been a MS Word user since version 1.05. I have been an Excel user
> > since it was MultiPlan and Chart. (That's 1985 for Word and 1984 for
> > MultiPlan and Chart.) It is quite possible that I never buy Office 2008.
> > . . . So long as Excel 2004 continues to work when I need to do
> > something that Numbers doesn't do (yet), I don't _care_ if Office 2004
> > never sees the light of day.

I'd just add that for some time now I've been explicitly refusing to
join any volunteer organizations, serve on committees, take on volunteer
assignments (and in semi-retirement I'm doing a lot of those things)
without an explicit understanding that I'll not receive any .doc, .xls,
or .ppt files, and that emails with attachments of those types may be
deleted unread. PDF, standard image formats, or plain text only, please.

Changing the world, one organization at a time . . .

Dudley Henriques wrote:
> I'm a very basic user compared to you more "serious" types out here, but
> I can attest from my own experience that even at my lower level of use,
> MS should be getting into a whole new world of hurt as Apple advances
> into making itself more compatible with existing and projected add on
> software.
> If my own experience is any indication; I won the Microsoft MVP award
> for 2007 for my work with their flight simulator program (the flying
> end, not the computer end). I've always been a PC user since the
> simulator requires that hardware base to function.
> Between issues with the simulator itself, Vista, DirectX 10, and the
> driver issues involved with all this, I finally severed my relationship
> with Microsoft and switched to an IMac for all my online use.
> Since I still have to communicate daily with people in aviation who use
> PC's, I naturally need software compatible with their systems. So I
> bought the Microsoft Office for Mac simply to get Word. I could have
> saved the money. Even Text Edit will cough up a .doc file :-)
> I do keep Powerpoint on board simply to open .pps files but don't really
> need even that and will eventually get rid of everything Microsoft on my
> Mac system and replace it with Apple software as what I need or don't
> have becomes available.
> Personally, I've had it with Microsoft and the way they do things. Steve
> Jobs has my unqualified support in anything he does to give all of us a
> viable alternative to the Microsoft domination we have had to deal with
> for so long.
> Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth :-))
> Dudley Henriques
>
> J.J. O'Shea wrote:
>> On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 19:31:42 -0400, Mike wrote
>> (in article <no->):
>>
>>> In article <michelle->,
>>> Michelle Steiner <> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Apple's release of iWork '08 is "embarrassing," an analyst said
>>>> Friday, not for its maker, but for Apple's rival, Microsoft.
>>> I wouldn't be surprised if Office 2008 for Mac never comes out.
>>> It's time for MS to shutdown the MBU. MS has never been too keen
>>> on supporting competitors, and it's not like Apple actually *needs*
>>> MS any longer.
>>>
>>> Mike
>>
>> I have been a MS Word user since version 1.05. I have been an Excel
>> user since it was MultiPlan and Chart. (That's 1985 for Word and 1984
>> for MultiPlan and Chart.) It is quite possible that I never buy Office
>> 2008. My main use of Office 2004 since Pages first came out has been
>> Excel (now large moot, thanks to Numbers) and reading .DOC files sent
>> to me by others, and sending .DOC files to those who need them.
>> Earlier versions of Pages had issues converting .DOC files which were
>> sufficiently annoying that I kept Word around. I just discovered
>> entirely by accident that several of those issues, primarily the
>> 'imported .DOC file is named "Untitled" issue' no longer exist. I also
>> discovered that Pages does a much better job of exporting .DOC files
>> than it used to. My two major reasons for using Word have evaporated.
>> So long as Excel 2004 continues to work when I need to do something
>> that Numbers doesn't do (yet), I don't _care_ if Office 2004 never
>> sees the light of day.
>>
>> I am, I repeat, a _two-decade_ MS user.
>>


Hi Dudley,

just in case you haven't come across the open source options like
NeoOffice, AbiWord...:

http://www.opensourcemac.org/

regards

Chris

Chris Brown wrote:
> just in case you haven't come across the open source options like
> NeoOffice, AbiWord...:

I will admit that I didn't try very hard,
but I did try them. They're just not
competition for M$ Office yet.


--
Wes Groleau

What kind of smiley is C:\ ?

In article <2007081507465216807-christophercampbell@hotmailcom>,
C J Campbell <> wrote:

> Frankly, iWork is a lightweight suite of applications that allows
> some basic functions, but it in no way is comparable to a
> full-fledged office suite.

And is sufficient for many people. Office is way overkill for me, and
therefore is not worth the price. It's not even worth the $145 for the
student edition for me.

iWork does everything I need its components to do--it does more than I
need, for that matter, but I can't find anything less expensive that
meets my needs. (My needs include ease of use in addition to
functionality of the product.)

--
Support the troops: Bring them home ASAP.

Wes Groleau wrote:
> Chris Brown wrote:
>> just in case you haven't come across the open source options like
>> NeoOffice, AbiWord...:
>
> I will admit that I didn't try very hard,
> but I did try them. They're just not
> competition for M$ Office yet.
>
>


Hi Wes,

I found NeoOffice embedding grahics handling wasn't quite where I needed
it to be, but the releases in the last 2 months otherwise have otherwise
cut the mustard for what I need.


regards

Chris