The Pointless Converter Debate

Joe Wilcox Scathing blogs today about Mac Office and Office 2007 file incompatibility deserve rational response, assuming, of course, there's anything rational about file formats.

What's all the fuss? OK, so the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit (Mac BU) hasn't yet released a compatibility fix for Office 2007 file formats. APC Magazine, CrunchGear and Macworld UK were among the blogs or news sites swinging two-by-fours at Mac BU today.

Wicked headlines like, "Use MS Office On A Mac? You're About To Get Screwed," set the tone for seething attacks. Again, I ask, "Why?"

Analysts know what Microsoft knows: Most consumers don't use Office for Windows. If they do, it's either an older version or Student and Teacher Edition. For those consumers that might want Office 2007, Microsoft doesn't plan to release it until late January. I pick on consumers because they're the predominate Mac market. They might need that file format conversion. All two of them. Seriously, how many consumers are going to really need file compatibility with Office 2007's Open XML formats in early 2007?

The business market makes even less sense for real trouble. I'm sure there are some enterprises that run Mac Office 2004. How many of them run Office 2007, though? Microsoft just released the software last week, and buzz from IT managers and analysts is slow deployment. Customers will test first, probably through early 2007, at the least.

Those businesses deploying Office 2007 are probably going to have some smart IT staffers. Otherwise, how could they deploy Office 2007 ahead of the crowd? They're smart. And if they're smart, they won't let anyone in the organization save to the Open XML formats. There is just too much risk of creating documents that employees using Office XP or 2000 can't access. Heaven forbid if the organization sent out one of those .docx files to an important partner or customer. Someday the early adopter organization may standardize on Open XML, but not in the period of early deployment.

If there is a company feeling the file incompatibility pain, it's Microsoft! The company is the largest Mac developer, and there has got to be plenty of folks working at Mac BU in position to exchange files with colleagues using Office 2007. I would expect Microsoft already is generating plenty of documents in Open XML formats.

Sheridan Jones said as much today on Microsoft's Mac Mojo blog: "Trust me, we know--90% of Microsoft has been dogfooding Office 2007 for many months, and we in the MacBU are well used to asking for down-revved versions ourselves."

Jones also said that beta file converters are "expected late March/early April." Mac BU will make final "converters available six to eight weeks after we launch our next version of Office for Mac."

Two months or less between Office 2007's general availability and those beta Mac converters is just fine. This is one of those something-made-out-of-nothing situations.

Now, if Mac Office users want something really worth whining about, ask why the next version of the software won't ship for six to eight months after Office 2007 is generally available. Six-to-eight months puts the next Mac Office version out somewhere between July and October. If Mac users want to feel like Microsoft second-class (OK, no-class) citizens, Office 2004's late-coming successor is reason enough.

Microsoft's approach to the new file formats is worthy of a couple two-by-fours, too, if whiners want to swing them. Office 2007's default setting is to save to the new formats, rather than the old ones. Documents opened in the older--and, frankly, current for most folks--file formats are designated as "compatibility mode." Microsoft's approach lacks subtlety and ignores the realistic scenario where many businesses use the older formats for some time.

Oh, I do expect there will be plenty of file conversion problems, but more likely because people unknowingly save to the newer formats and can't share files with their co-workers. Office 2007's default settings and treatment of older Microsoft file formats is worth raising some ruckus.

Create, Communicate, Collaborate with IT Professionals at Ziff Davis Enterprise IT Link.