Alexander’s Blog

According to Microsoft “Some 2007 Office programs that run on Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 use Microsoft Application Error Reporting (DW 2.0) to report problems to Microsoft. If an unsafe COM control is detected, these programs may unintentionally send problem reports to Microsoft without first verifying that you have granted permission for the reporting operation. The problem reports that may be sent to Microsoft do not contain personal information.”

I strongly recommend that you do not enable Error Reporting to Microsoft on any computer under any condition. The information is sent to Microsoft unencrypted and according to Microsoft’s own security experts, error reporting should be disabled. You should keep a close eye on each Microsoft operating system and application because even if you have error reporting disabled, Microsoft may enable it at some point without notifying you, either with an update or service pack. Sometimes it may be intentional, while other times it may bee accidental, as explained in the KB article 932080. The title of the article should have been “Application errors may be sent to Microsoft without notifying you” but it only says “Description of the update for the 2007 Office programs: April 9, 2007.”

You can either download the patch from Microsoft Download Center or install it as part of Windows Update.

Novell has announced that it will support Microsoft’s Office Open XML format in its OpenOffice.org suite. This will improve interoperability between Novell’s OpenOffice and Microsoft’s Office 2007. Novell has said that it will create bidirectional open-source translators, which will be offered as plug-ins, for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations between OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office. They will begin with the word processing translator, which should be released in late January 2007.

If you recall, Microsoft and Novell didn’t want anything to do with any interoperability between their products. Finally, they both realized that for their customers’ sake they better start offering software and services that allow their products to co-exist. This is just another step in that direction.

OpenOffice.org supposedly has about 100 million users and it supports the XML-based OpenDocument Format (ODF) available as part of Novell’s SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and Open Workgroup Suite offerings.

Microsoft posted Windows Vista for MSDN subscribers late last night. Office Professional 2007 was already posted on November 12, along with Visio, Project, InfoPath, Groove, and OneNote 2007.

Office Professional includes the following products.

1. Microsoft Office Word 2007
2. Microsoft Office Excel 2007
3. Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
4. Microsoft Office Publisher 2007
5. Microsoft Office Access 2007
6. Microsoft Office Outlook with Business Contact Manager 2007

If you are curious about what’s included in 2007 Microsoft Office system suites, here’s a graphic from Microsoft that breaks down all the products included in various versions of Office.

1 Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 is scheduled for release in the second quarter of 2007. International versions of Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 are scheduled for release in the second half of 2007

I have installed the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats on several computers. On one of the computers I wasn’t able to open the new Word 2007 files (.DOCX format). I started to look into the issue with the compatibility pack and discovered the following.

There are at least a couple of versions of compatibility pack out there, may be more. When I downloaded the version 12.0.4518.1014 on November 12, 2006, as shown below, it wasn’t listed as Beta, even though I downloaded it from this URL that states clearly that it was a Beta.

When I wasn’t able to open the new .DOCX file, I got a pop-up message that said the following:

This message indicates that I am trying to open a released version of Office file, which was not the case. I was opening a file that was created in Office Beta 2. I clicked OK to download the newest version of the compatibility pack. The new version was available here. The new version 12.0.4407.1001 was published on November 6 and I just downloaded it today (November 14, 2006). The size of the file (O2007Cnv.exe) in Explorer was 27,319KB. The file version listed in the properties of the file is 12.0.4407.1001. However, the Add or Remove Program shows the verison to be different (12.0.4407.1005). Obviously, one of them is incorrect.

It makes no sense that a version 12.0.4518.1014 that was posted on November 12 wasn’t a beta, yet a version 12.0.4407.1001 (which may actually be 12.0.4407.1005) available today is suddenly a beta. It could be that Microsoft has posted an older version today and accidentally, or intentionally, removed the newer version from their Web site.

Just out of curiosity, I tried to download a version from this Beta site once again today and it turns out that today this is the same version 12.0.4407.1001. So what happened to the version 12.0.4518.1014 that was not a beta? I don’t have a clue. Suddenly all the posted versions are now beta, which they weren’t a couple of days ago.

I have tried every possible combination you can imagine to get the converter to work. I have removed them one by one and even tried installing both versions at the same time; tried the Repair option shown in the screen shot above and rebooted the computer. No matter what I do I am still not able to get the converter to work on one of my Windows XP computer. I have the Beta version installed on other computers and it opens all files (pre-release and RTM). Again, this doesn’t explain why it is opening files on one computer and complaining that the exact same converter can’t open files on another computer.

Bottom line……..expect similar problems while the product is new. Hopefully the dust will settle and eventually the converter will work like a charm. If you have experienced any issues with the converter, please let me know. I will gather all the data and report to Microsoft so they can fix any potential problems.

Microsoft has added new file formats to the 2007 versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to reduce file size, improve reliability, and enhance integration with external sources. To help ensure that you can exchange documents between Microsoft Office releases, Microsoft has developed a Compatibility Pack for the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats. By installing the Compatibility Pack (Beta 2 Technical Refresh) along side of Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003, you will be able open, edit, save, and create files using the robust file formats new to the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

After installing this pack, you will be able to use your existing version of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to open, edit, save, and create the file formats new to the 2007 versions of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. For example:

-You can open 2007 versions of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files by double-clicking them just as you do with your existing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files.

- You can save 2007 versions of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files by clicking the Save button in your version of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.

-You can create 2007 versions of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files by opening a blank file and using the Save As command in your version of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.

You can download the compatibility pack here.