[MacTUG] Office 2004 users to get beta Office 2007 XML converters next month

[Glenn Anderson]

http://apcmag.com/5849/ 
office_2004_users_to_get_beta_office_2007_xml_converters_next_month



Office 2004 users to get beta Office 2007 XML converters next month


16th April 2007 David Flynn Mac


EXCLUSIVE | If you're a Mac user struggling to open XML-based  
documents, spreadsheets and presentations sent by someone running  
Office 2007 for Windows, we've got good news and bad news. No, make  
that good news and terrible news.

The good news is that Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) is  
on track for next month's release of a beta set of converters which  
will translate Office 2007's native ‘Open XML' file format to the  
traditional Office for Mac binary equivalents.

In an interview with apcmag.com, MacBU marketing manager Amanda  
Lefebvre confirmed the current timetable to ship "beta converters  
later this spring". With the US spring ending in May, this will  
deliver Mac users a solution sometime next month.

These will be "based on the conversion engine within Office 2008 for  
the Mac" says Lefebvre. But a rock-solid solution is much further  
away: sometime early 2008, as best we can figure.

According to Lefebvre, "the final converters (for Office 2004) will  
be shipped 6-8 weeks after the launch of Office 2008".

We were curious why such a delay was necessary, given that Office  
2004 will use the Office 2008 file conversion engine and that Office  
2008 would likely have its code locked down at the RTM (release to  
manufacture stage) which typically precedes the actual launch by at  
least one month.

Microsoft says this period is necessary to "incorporate and test" the  
file conversion code being lifted from Office 2008.

"We'll be using code from the final bits which are in Office 2008"  
Lefebvre explains. "It's about delivering the best possible file  
format fidelity, and a lot of that comes from making sure that we're  
getting full learning from the beta and also the final code, (taking)  
those two sources and updating the beta converters for Office 2004."

(We'd like to think that the Office 2008 XML conversions would be  
pretty thoroughly tested before reaching customers, certainly to the  
point where there'd be no ‘learnings', also known as ‘things to fix').

Based on that timeline, this means we won't expect to see the final  
set of XML converters available for Office 2004 until early 2008.  
That's not Microsoft's official timeline, mind you, but here's how we  
figure it.

Office 2008 for Mac gingerly stepped out of alpha into beta in March.  
This means we can expect a solid Beta 1 release in May or perhaps June.

A Beta 2 release would usually follow in three months, which brings  
us to August or September.

Even if Microsoft skips Beta 3 and rapidly moves to Release  
Candidate, a further three months is realistic (if not optimistic)  
for the whole process from Beta 2 to RTM. Now we're talking November  
or December for RTM, and suddenly is looks like the product's ‘2008'  
moniker was well chosen indeed.

If our estimates are out by about a month then Microsoft could well  
get Office 2008 out the door just in time for Christmas, but we feel  
it's more likely to be launched in January, which almost certainly  
means a walk-on during the Jobs keynote at Macworld 2008.

If we take Microsoft at their word, then this would see the Office  
2008 XML file converters tweaked, tuned and tossed out for Office  
2004 users in -- wait for it -- March 2008.