Microsoft Bans Mac Users from Office 2007

Microsoft Bans Mac Users from Office 2007

Microsoft has further banned Mac users from accessing the new file formats integrated into the 2007 Office System. In the context of building Office 2008 for Mac, Microsoft has traded-off the file converters for Office 2004. According to the Redmond Company, delaying the Open XML support for Office 2004 for Mac was a necessary step designed to ensure that the upcoming version of the Microsoft productivity suite for the Mac platform will ship according to plans. In the meantime, Office 2004 users will have to exercise their patience when it comes to managing Open XML on a
Mac.

Microsoft has failed to provide the actual date when it plans to make available the final release of the Open XML converters for Mac. The company only pointed to a six to eight weeks period following the initial availability of Office 2008 for Mac. And as for Office 2008, the productivity suite is also planned for release in an ambiguous second half of 2007.

Microsoft's perspective in this case is simple. Office 2008 is a bigger fish to fry, and as such, it will receive all the focus, while the converters have been thrown into the background. Microsoft did reveal that a beta standalone converter will be delivered with limited functionality. The converter program is designed to enable Office Mac users to convert Word 2007's .docx files in the Rich Text Format, or RTF. As RTF is a format supported by both Mac OS X and Windows versions of Office, users will be able to access their documents across platforms.

The intermediary solution provided by the Redmond Company comes to replace the actual converters that Microsoft promised for the spring of 2007. And since the intermediary converter works only with Word, Microsoft plans to make available similar solutions for Excel and PowerPoint by summer. "We had to make some choices," explained Amanda Lefebvre, Marketing Manager in Microsoft's Mac business unit. "We are continuing to focus our development on the completion of Office 2008."

SOURCE

nyways Mac users(as shown by Arya n Nepcker) hate MS software so they wouldn't dare use it

btw , if Mac users talk bout usability , Office 2007 is the best example

microsof thasnt banned any1 ... well its pretty simple u own a mac get uself vista run boot camp and voila u have ful office 2k7

^^ Exactly why people call microsoft monopolistic..

kalpik said:
^^ Exactly why people call microsoft monopolistic..

and why does Apple put TPM in Mac OS X so that it doesn't run on any hardware other than it's own , despite the fact that it can if allowed to.

Isn't this monopoly ?

and it's not Like MS will not make convertor , it's only that they will be released separately after the initial launch of Office 2008 for Mac

Zeeshan Quireshi said:
and why does Apple put TPM in Mac OS X so that it doesn't run on any hardware other than it's own , despite the fact that it can if allowed to.

Isn't this monopoly ?

it is not monopoly for th OSC because they use a unix based OS

Zeeshan Quireshi said:
and why does Apple put TPM in Mac OS X so that it doesn't run on any hardware other than it's own , despite the fact that it can if allowed to.

Isn't this monopoly ?

and it's not Like MS will not make convertor , it's only that they will be released separately after the initial launch of Office 2008 for Mac

But you are not forced to buy a MAC! But you ARE forced to use office..

iMav said:
it is monopoly for th OSC because they use a unix based OS

Be mature and quit calling people names.. I didnt lable you.. I expect the same from you..

^^ i wonder what happened to openoffice?

naems which names?

nyways Mac users(as shown by Arya n Nepcker) hate MS software so they wouldn't dare use it

No, I think MS Office is the best office suite, at least when it comes down to features.

But since .docx files are not so common, this shouldn't be such a big problem.

Word is certainly better than Pages, IMHO. goobimama would beg to differ though and his point makes a lot of sense too.

But Keynote is light years ahead of Powerpoint. No powerpoint present can ever exude as much class as Keynote presentations can.

But Keynote is light years ahead of Powerpoint. No powerpoint present can ever exude as much class as Keynote presentations can.

I find PowerPoint presentations to be boring. Keynote's the best.

El Jobso's keynotes are shining examples.

Al Gore's presentations are great too (Seen the movie "An Inconvenient Truth"?). On the movie, Gore is seen using Keynote on a PowerBook.

Yeah, I have the movie and I've seen it. Great movie and awesome slideshow. Some of those effects just blew me away.

kalpik said:
But you are not forced to buy a MAC! But you ARE forced to use office..

lolz , then what all is OpenOffice about , as linux does not have interoperatibility with Binaries same way , i think OS users can do just fine with OpenOffice , they're not forced to buy MS Office

I think people should switch to Google Docs and Spreadsheets now. To me, it seems like a much better solution than Microsoft Office and its clones. It works fine even on the measly 256 Kbps broadband connections and AFAIK, it is laden with features.

but i doubt on the security of the documents

aryayush said:
I think people should switch to Google Docs and Spreadsheets now. To me, it seems like a much better solution than Microsoft Office and its clones. It works fine even on the measly 256 Kbps broadband connections and AFAIK, it is laden with features.

Yes..Really true

..i was thrilled by the interface and Features..B/w Latest feature additions in Google Docs is...U can save ur documents as .TXT

rakeshishere said:
Yes..Really true..i was thrilled by the interface and Features..B/w Latest feature additions in Google Docs is...U can save ur documents as .TXT

lolz

nyways Microsoft Office is The Best n no one can challenge that , do anything they can :lol:

Zeeshan Quireshi said:
lolz

Mhh...No LOL for that coz that is indeed a good feature

aryayush said:
I think people should switch to Google Docs and Spreadsheets now. To me, it seems like a much better solution than Microsoft Office and its clones. It works fine even on the measly 256 Kbps broadband connections and AFAIK, it is laden with features.

Wha??? NO ways ! Google Docs is so basic !! Office 07 is the one good app thats Microsoft has released ..

aryayush said:
I think people should switch to Google Docs and Spreadsheets now. To me, it seems like a much better solution than Microsoft Office and its clones. It works fine even on the measly 256 Kbps broadband connections and AFAIK, it is laden with features.

You must be using it on your Mac too....but despite of that, how stupid can u get

Maverick340 said:
Wha??? NO ways ! Google Docs is so basic !! Office 07 is the one good app thats Microsoft has released ..

Of course, but most of the time times, you do not need all those features. And Google Docs has all the basic stuff you need to write stuff. Nothing beats the convenience of everything being stored on Google's servers and sharing being as easy as giving someone a link to your document. Of course, nothing beats the price as well.

This does not mean it can rival MS Office in terms of features, but it certainly does what it is designed to do rather well.

aryayush said:
Of course, but most of the time times, you do not need all those features. And Google Docs has all the basic stuff you need to write stuff. Nothing beats the convenience of everything being stored on Google's servers and sharing being as easy as giving someone a link to your document. Of course, nothing beats the price as well.

This does not mean it can rival MS Office in terms of features, but it certainly does what it is designed to do rather well.

but yaar biggest prob with google docs is that it's Online , so nyone without net access can't use it .

i rarely do use ny office suite , that too to read attachments , etc . most of my work is done with Notepad++

An office without internet access? Well ..

QwertyManiac said:
An office without internet access? Well ..

might be for home use too , or for just simple letter making , etc .

Basically anyone who would use a program like Google Docs will have Internet access. Isn't that quite obvious?

aryayush said:
Basically anyone who would use a program like Google Docs will have Internet access. Isn't that quite obvious?

and those who don't have Internet access , how can they use Google docs ?

and that's the point !

Well, it is not for them. It is for those offices where people have to share documents and all. Or for individuals who have to share their documents across continents.

Of course, nothing beats Microsoft Office on a single user desktop.

aryayush said:
Well, it is not for them. It is for those offices where people have to share documents and all. Or for individuals who have to share their documents across continents.

Of course, nothing beats Microsoft Office on a single user desktop.

I hope you know about the Multiple user collaboration features available in MS Office since Office XP. Make anywhere, distribute anywhere.....shared usage all over