DOCX. XLSX. PPTX. XPS. Microsoft Office 2007 has ended the freeze on file formats it has maintain since Office 97 and introduced these new XML-based ones. The first three are the new file extensions for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint respectively. XPS is a new Microsoft attempt to compete with Adobe Acrobat PDF (the result, according to industry gossip, of a dispute between the two companies over licensing terms for PDF in Microsoft programs.
You and I haven’t been demanding XML-based file formats, but the IT community has. XML is a formatting language that can be used interchangeably for documents and web pages. Plus it also is the format for the RSS news feeds that are spreading like wildfires. Putting information in XML allows for wide distribution options. Plus the new Microsoft file formats are zip-compressed, substantially reducing their size.
The open source world already is on board with XML via the OpenDoc file format used in OpenOffice. But Microsoft, as it always does, wanted its own standard, which it calls Open XML. I have little or no interest in getting into the tedious debate raging between supporters of the two standards.
From a practical, real world perspective the key issue is this: virtually everyone uses some flavor of Microsoft Office or uses the existing Office file formats – and no version of Office except 2007 can read the new format natively. Furthermore, the new formats are turned on by default in Office 2007, which means that sooner or later someone with a new PC will send you one of the X Files.
Microsoft has released a conversion package ( HYPERLINK "http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en" http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en) that will allow users of older version of Office to hand the new files. You probably ought to install it now. Mac users, though, will have to wait a couple of months because converters for OfficeMac won’t be released until March or April.
As for conversion between Microsoft Office and OpenDoc, Microsoft has started an open source (!) project – HYPERLINK "http://sourceforge.net/projects/odf-converter" http://sourceforge.net/projects/odf-converter – that so far has yielded only a converter for Word 2007. However, this is a dramatic reversal for Redmond, which previously vowed it would never support OpenDoc.
XPS, though, I wouldn’t worry about much yet. Only a PC with both Windows Vista and Office 2007 (and then only if the Office 2007 user installs an add-on) will be fully capable of creating or viewing such documents. The software to work with other versions is not yet released.
You and I haven’t been demanding XML-based file formats, but the IT community has. XML is a formatting language that can be used interchangeably for documents and web pages. Plus it also is the format for the RSS news feeds that are spreading like wildfires. Putting information in XML allows for wide distribution options. Plus the new Microsoft file formats are zip-compressed, substantially reducing their size.
The open source world already is on board with XML via the OpenDoc file format used in OpenOffice. But Microsoft, as it always does, wanted its own standard, which it calls Open XML. I have little or no interest in getting into the tedious debate raging between supporters of the two standards.
From a practical, real world perspective the key issue is this: virtually everyone uses some flavor of Microsoft Office or uses the existing Office file formats – and no version of Office except 2007 can read the new format natively. Furthermore, the new formats are turned on by default in Office 2007, which means that sooner or later someone with a new PC will send you one of the X Files.
Microsoft has released a conversion package ( HYPERLINK "http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en" http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en) that will allow users of older version of Office to hand the new files. You probably ought to install it now. Mac users, though, will have to wait a couple of months because converters for OfficeMac won’t be released until March or April.
As for conversion between Microsoft Office and OpenDoc, Microsoft has started an open source (!) project – HYPERLINK "http://sourceforge.net/projects/odf-converter" http://sourceforge.net/projects/odf-converter – that so far has yielded only a converter for Word 2007. However, this is a dramatic reversal for Redmond, which previously vowed it would never support OpenDoc.
XPS, though, I wouldn’t worry about much yet. Only a PC with both Windows Vista and Office 2007 (and then only if the Office 2007 user installs an add-on) will be fully capable of creating or viewing such documents. The software to work with other versions is not yet released.
