This article as well as additional information pertaining to Office 2007 can be found in

SMB Newsletter Issue 25

Microsoft is expected to release the Vista operating system and Microsoft Office 2007 (2007 Office or Office 12) to large corporate customers before the end of this year and to the general public early next year. As the release date for 2007 Office approaches, businesses which use these productivity tools need to know what to expect. At this writing Office 2007 is only available in Beta release and comments are based on this version as well as published Microsoft documentation.

What do I need to know?

First, you don’t need to replace all of your Office XP or Office 2003 programs immediately. More about this later.

Second, this is a fairly large portfolio of products and services that will take time to be fully deployed by Microsoft and more time to be fully understood. These products and services are organized by Microsoft into 3 categories: Programs, Servers, and Services.

Programs are the core desktop productivity tools of the Office system and this is where we will focus our comments. The Programs are designed to run on both Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later and Windows Vista operating systems. If you are still using a Windows 2000 or earlier Operating System in your production environment expect to upgrade soon. 

Ultimately, 14 Programs are planned to be offered in as many as 8 suites. Some of the Programs require server elements to function and some will only be sold as part of a suite. Here is a chart taken from the  Microsoft office website and shows likely Office Suite contents.

More information about Office 2007 is available at http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/default.mspx

What has changed?

The User Interface (UI) and File Formats have changed significantly. We expect the most immediate impact will result from the File Format change because the UI change only affects those who use the programs. We think most Microsoft Office products are bought because purchasers want or need to exchange documents with others who also use this suite of personal productivity tools. Whether you buy Office 2007 or not, if you share files with those who do use Office 2007, you will need to worry about File Formats. 

The Facts, Mam… just the Facts 

Office 2007 uses new file formats based on a Microsoft technology – Open XML. See our side bars for more details. These file formats will be Office 2007's standard (i.e. default) format for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Unfortunately, the new formats are not compatible with the Office file formats in current use and we expect this incompatibility to present challenges for users and businesses. However, you can take steps to be prepared for this situation.

Why? Why? Why!?! 

No doubt many who use Office will wonder why Microsoft is “fixing what ain’t broke”.

The proprietary binary file formats in use currently (.doc, .xls, and .ppt) were designed in 1994 (12 years ago!) and introduced with the release of Microsoft Office 97 — before the common use of the Internet for work collaboration and before the widespread exchange of documents and data routinely experienced today. The increasing use of the Internet and Web-based technologies to support collaborative work and broad sharing of information (particularly in large organizations) make use of the old file formats increasingly impractical. We think the new file formats represent Microsoft’s response to customer requests and competitive pressure from the Open Source community.  

Microsoft explains that the new formats are to permit people to work across boundaries: organizations will have a common public “language” for exchanging information, documents can be programmatically scanned for revisions, elements of files can be isolated making management, revision and recovery from file corruption possible. 

People who do not share documents or collaborate with others to create documents will not see the need for this change. 

Regardless of your view on the need for a new file format – If you share documents with those who use 2007 Office,  dealing with the new file formats will be a fact of life once 2007 Office is released.

What to do?

First, If you use Office 2000 SP3, Office XP SP3 or Office 2003 SP1, Microsoft plans to offer software (Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack; currently in Beta release) that will let these versions of Office open and save Open XML files. There will also be Operating System requirements to install/use this compatibility pack. 

Second, 2007 Office programs can open as well as save files in the “old” binary formats – but you probably need to ask whoever is providing the file to you to save it in your format.   

Third, the default file format for 2007 Office programs can be configured individually to save to the old binary formats. However, organizations outside of your company may not what to do this. 

Last, if your business depends on a third party (non-Microsoft) program  that uses an Office component (to generate a form letter for example), we suggest first discussing using Office 2007 with your vendor before migrating. 

We believe the Office 2007 File Format change will prove to be the most immediate concern for Small Businesses who need to exchange files with people/companies who use Office 2007. The good news is that users have some flexibility in handling the change and will not need to immediately upgrade.