Microsoft Office beta coming in November

[peat moss]

Has the battle over document file formats forced Microsoft to blink?

Microsoft has been gradually opening its Office formats for years, adding support for options such as Rich Text Format and HTML. But the pressure on Redmond to open things up further has continued, most recently with the state of Massachusetts issuing a mandate that its software purchases support a rival format, OpenDocument. This week, Microsoft announced that, with the next version of Office, it will support saving files to Adobe's Portable Document Format, or PDF.

In an interview with CNET News.com, Microsoft Senior Vice President Steven Sinofsky said the company gets 120,000 requests a month from people who want to save their Office documents in PDF format, making it one of the most requested features.

:source: Source: http://news.com.com/Microsoft+says+Office+beta+coming+in+November/2008-1082_3-5887813.html

[S!X]

Whats the latest version of office atm? I have 2003 pro.

[peat moss]

I'm not sure is it Office xp ? Its what I have and to be honest use it rarely . ;)

[Barbarossa]

Saving to PDF format is a great idea, currently you have to download an add-in or something to do that...

[twisterX]

2003 is the leatest and greatest

[Virtualbody1234]

Saving to PDF may sound nice but again it demonstrates that Microsoft hasn't learned from the legal case about monopolistic practices.

This time they're after Adobe.

[Barbarossa]

Saving to PDF may sound nice but again it demonstrates that Microsoft hasn't learned from the legal case about monopolistic practices.

This time they're after Adobe.

I know what you're saying, but as a consumer I like the idea of being able to save docs from word into PDF format.

Adobe holds the patents to the PDF document format, one can assume that if Microsoft are allowed to develop software that creates files in that format, then a deal mustl have been done... :unsure:

EDIT:


With adding the ability to save Office documents as PDF, it seems like once again Microsoft is going after one of Adobe's cash cows. We've seen a lot of products that seem to be targeting one thing or another that Adobe does. How do you guys view the relationship with Adobe?

Sinofsky: I would certainly not agree with the premise of your question. Adobe publishes the PDF specification as an open standard and encourages developers to implement the output as PDF. They've gone out of their way to tell people, "Please support this format." We're just supporting the format, which is the message that they've given to us. We appreciate the work that they have done to publish the standard just like we have done to publish our Open XML standard...I wouldn't think of this at all as going after Adobe. In fact, it is doing precisely what they have been telling the public, and evangelizing to (other software makers) to do.

...and if not, then they're only doing what Adobe themselves are encouraging anyway, so they don't really have ay cause for complaint.. :lookaroun