[proton]

The Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter that is used to open .docx files from Office 2007 on Mac OS X has expired early.

Microsoft say that the beta will expire on 31st December, 2007, however it has started displaying the following dialog box:


As an added bonus, you can't actually click on the OK button in the dialog box so you can't perform the conversion. The only solution is to manually set your clock back to 13th June, 2007, but this isn't an option for non-administrators.

Unfortunately, Microsoft also don't provide any way to provide feedback or bug reports on the Office Open XML File Format Converter, so hopefully this post will get back to Microsoft and they issue an updated version of the converter.

- proton

[rickey939]

Wow.

[Notes2Self]

Thanks - I have forwarded it to the Mac and Office teams

Regards ... Stephen

[analogika]

You know, I have often wondered why Microsoft so stubbornly insist on making life as difficult as humanly possible for people who WANT to continue using their products.

For example, it is way, WAY easier to migrate stuff from Outlook into Apple's Address Book and Mail.app than into Microsoft's own Entourage.

Is it that people are just completely boneheaded, or don't actually USE their own products, or is it just some bizarre ploy to drive people away from their software so they can drop Mac support entirely, on claims of dwindling usage numbers?

[rharriss]

We did receive a few reports of this today, and I also saw it got posted on the MacMojo Blog - thanks for posting here. Our dev team is currently working on an update that will fix the issue, and we will provide a full, corrected converter via Mactopia (if you have Microsoft Auto Update enabled, your converter will get updated automatically.) I expect it will be posted either late tonight or early tomorrow (before noon PST.)

In the meantime, you can keep using the Word converter by resetting your system clock to any date prior to today.

Thanks,
The Macintosh Business Unit

[rickey939]

rharriss:

Any more news on Office 2008? Do you expect any major changes with the recent GM change at the MacBU?

[Notes2Self]

There's a fix available from Microsoft here

"This release includes a fix for an issue with beta expiration functionality. The issue causes the converter application to become unusable well ahead of its intended expiration date.

This update is highly recommended for all users of the Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 0.1."

Regards Stephen.

[Schwieb]

Originally Posted by rickey939 

Any more news on Office 2008? Do you expect any major changes with the recent GM change at the MacBU?

Office 2008 has been feature-complete for a while now, so the GM change won't affect it much. At this point in the cycle, we're just getting the product ready to ship. Office 2008 will be released in the 2nd half of calendar year 2007.

Schwieb
MacBU Dev Lead
http://www.schwieb.com/blog/