# MS .docx format: need to vent my anger



## Thank The Cheese (Jun 9, 2007)

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::


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## Sunnz (Jun 9, 2007)

Why not just reject the file from whoever send you it? Heck I have been reject all .doc files from last year.


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## Lt Major Burns (Jun 9, 2007)

(Office X and Office 2004 are both drag'n'drop install)


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## DeltaMac (Jun 9, 2007)

Not having Office on my Mac, the first .docx attachment that I received, I could open directlywith Neooffice! 
None of my friends (all using Windows, BTW) had the capability to open that .docx file from older versions of Office, or with Winpad, or others. I was the only one that could open it immediately - on my Mac!
Neooffice is good...  and free! (and not MS  )


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## fryke (Jun 9, 2007)

On the other hand, MS has used the same .doc file standard for a long time. Who are we to tell them they should stick to the things we called trash when they started dominating the world with them? Seeing how Microsoft _won't_ just disappear from the face of the Earth, I'd rather see them move on and innovate on some fronts. While I'm not entirely sure whether the .docx format will actually bring much benefit to people who use Office for work, I'd say it's really easy to solve the problem:

Send the file back and demand .doc or .rtf OR
use the - albeit complicated, big and unfinished - converter or OpenOffice.org.


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## PGTips (Jun 10, 2007)

.docx is awesome. Its about time they abandoned the old .doc format and switched to a XML based format.


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## fryke (Jun 10, 2007)

What makes it awesome? I'm really interested. Always looking forward to progress in the area.  Is it clean?


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## Sunnz (Jun 10, 2007)

fryke said:


> What makes it awesome? I'm really interested. Always looking forward to progress in the area.  Is it clean?


For one thing the format is very well documented with very, very fine details: http://blog.janik.cz//images/OOXMLSpec.png

All 6'000 pages of it...


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## PGTips (Jun 10, 2007)

And because it's XML which is basically plain text, it's nearly impossible to corrupt. I've worked with far too many Word documents that were corrupt and that resulted in the whole file being lost. No such problem here with XML, which I think is a huge huge benefit.


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## kirktalon (Sep 14, 2007)

NeoOffice another natively running OpenOffice off shoot opens .docx documents. It is free. I have noticed that neither OpenOffice nor NeoOffice do well with very graphically complex .doc files.


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## fryke (Sep 14, 2007)

Pages 3 opens *.docx as well, of course.


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