Mac Office Open XML Converters on Track

Contrary to what Microsoft calls "alarmist news stories," the company is continuing to work towards providing Open XML format converters within the Mac version of Office, although their release is not expected until Spring 2007.

Microsoft first announced that it would be providing the converters at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference this year. It said that the delay mainly had to do with a need to wait for the finished Office 2007 product, as well as the completion of the file format itself.

While the next version of Office for Mac with built-in support for Open XML is not due until late summer or early fall of next year, Microsoft will provide the converters in beta form as a service to Office 2004 users.

A final release will come about six to eight weeks after the new version of Office for Mac is completed, Mac BU group marketing manager Sheridan Jones wrote in a Web log post Tuesday.

"Now that Office for Windows has been released, we are working on completing compatibility with the released formats, while also completing other major work such as moving our codebase to the Intel platform," Jones said.

Work on the converters so far has revolved around the XML parser, code to understand the new package structure, and early work on reading and writing versions of the file format. Jones said the unit realizes that the delay between the consumer availability of Win Office and converters for Mac is an inconvenience, but there is not much they can do.

"For now, we recommend that Mac users advise their friends and colleagues using Office 2007 to save their documents as a "Word/Excel/PowerPoint 97-2003 Document" (.doc, .xls, .ppt) to ensure the documents can be shared across platforms," she advised.

The news is no doubt problematic for dual-platform businesses, who would not be able to take advantage of the new formats -- or for that matter upgrade -- until the converters are released.