so it finally happened -- someone sent me a .docx file which I cannot open.
Fortunately, MS now have the
Office Open XML File Format Converter which made it reletively painless, but I'm mighty annoyed for the following reasons:
1) The Office Open XML File Format Converter is 0.1 beta. Now, if MS are going to introduce a new format that is incompatible with previous versions, it would seem logical that they should make damn sure this converting software was ready to go before launch.
2) It is
25 MEGABYTES! How is it that
Panergy Software can create a converter that is only 3.6MB, yet Microsoft's own is 25? it doesn't make sense and makes me suspicious o.0
3) MS's converter comes with an installer. What is MS's obsession with installers? If ever there was a time they could create a drag-and-drop install app like every other utility on Mac OS X -- this was it!
4) The installer took a few minutes to install (almost 9000 files). that's almost as long as it took to install the entire office suite.
5) the name "Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac " is just stupid. Talk about marketing speak.
I can understand MS wanting to upgrade their file format to bring office to the next level, but they could not done this with more disregard for their customers.
In other news, OpenOffice.org has released it's alpha version of
OpenOffice for Mac that is Intel native and does not require X11.
::MS Office icon slides across the dock, one notch closer to the trash::