As the release of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac approaches, few people are aware that a new version of the OOXML file format converter is available. Remember, this is Microsoft’s little utility that allows Office 2004 to read files created on Windows by Word (*.docx, *.docm) and PowerPoint 2007 (*.pptx, *.ppsx, *.potx).
If you need the converter, be sure to download the new version (0.2.1) as it pushes back its expiration date from the end of 2007 to December 31, 2008. And yes, that appears to be the only change.
Personally, I hadn’t needed to deal with those kinds of files until a few weeks ago, but it wasn’t Microsoft’s solution that came to my rescue; it was Apple’s. Pages ‘08 opened the .docx files by default, without hiccups. The funniest part is that my Windows friend who didn’t have Office 2007 couldn’t read them. Classic.
[via iTWire]
Of course your friend (who didn't have Office 2007 installed) could not read the files. Office XP, for instance, did not understand xml files. Did the original Pages? Gee, is it maybe because those file formats weren't in use when those earlier programs were made?
That's okay, maybe your 'audience' won't get the patently unfair suggestion in your post.
Now that's (Mac) classic.
What in heavens name is *.potx?
It's interesting that this *still* doesn't convert the new Excel formats. I went to a seminar about two months ago where an Excel spreadsheet was distributed in 2007 format. I was the only one there who could open it....because I had Numbers.