Apple Briefs

Today Microsoft released Microsoft Office 2004 version 11.5.0. Aside from the usual bug fixes, this version brings with it the ability to read and write the Open XML Office formats (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx, etc) as long as the Open XML File Format Converter is installed. After installing the update, Word now has a Word 2008 Document option in the Save As dialog box. So it seems that you can now create Open XML files as well as edit existing ones. I would do more testing, but I can’t seem to locate any .docx files at the moment. Working directly within Office will certainly make dealing with Open XML files much friendlier. Using the converter was a less than stellar experience (particularly for those who are not computer savvy).