Microsoft Expands List of Formats Supported in Microsoft Office

Microsoft Corp. is offering customers greater choice and more flexibility among document formats, as well as creating additional opportunities for developer and competitors, by expanding the range of document formats supported in its flagship Office productivity suite.

The 2007 Microsoft Office system already provides support for 20 different document formats within Microsoft Office Word, Office Excel and Office PowerPoint. With the release of Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) scheduled for the first half of 2009, the list will grow to include support for XML Paper Specification (XPS), Portable Document Format (PDF) 1.5, PDF/A and Open Document Format (ODF) v1.1.

When using SP2, customers will be able to open, edit and save documents using ODF and save documents into the XPS and PDF fixed formats from directly within the application without having to install any other code. It will also allow customers to set ODF as the default file format for Office 2007. To also provide ODF support for users of earlier versions of Microsoft Office (Office XP and Office 2003), Microsoft will continue to collaborate with the open source community in the ongoing development of the Open XML-ODF translator project on SourceForge.net.

In addition, Microsoft has defined a road map for its implementation of the newly ratified International Standard ISO/IEC 29500 (Office Open XML). IS29500, which was approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in March, is already substantially supported in Office 2007, and the company plans to update that support in the next major version release of the Microsoft Office system, code-named “Office 14.”

Consistent with its interoperability principles, in which the company committed to work with others toward robust, consistent and interoperable implementations across a broad range of widely deployed products, the company has also announced it will be an active participant in the future evolution of ODF, Open XML, XPS and PDF standards.

Microsoft will join the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) technical committee working on the next version of ODF and will take part in the ISO/IEC working group being formed to work on ODF maintenance. Microsoft employees will also take part in the ISO/IEC working group that is being formed to maintain Open XML and the ISO/IEC working group that is being formed to improve interoperability between these and other ISO/IEC-recognized document formats. The company will also be an active participant in the ongoing standardization and maintenance activities for XPS and PDF. It will also continue to work with the IT community to promote interoperability between document file formats, including Open XML and ODF, as well as Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY XML), the foundation of the globally accepted DAISY standard for reading and publishing navigable multimedia content.

Microsoft is also committed to providing Office customers with the ability to open, edit and save documents in the Chinese national document file format standard, Uniform Office Format (UOF). The company does so today by supporting the continued development of the UOF-Open XML translator project on SourceForge.net, and will take additional steps to promote the distribution and ease of use of the translator. As UOF develops and achieves market adoption in China, Microsoft will distribute support for this format with Office to its customers in China.

“We are committed to providing Office users with greater choice among document formats and enhanced interoperability between those formats and the applications that implement them,” said Chris Capossela, senior vice president for the Microsoft Business Division. “By increasing the openness of our products and participating actively in the development and maintenance of document format standards, we believe we can help create opportunities for developers and competitors, including members of the open source communities, to innovate and deliver new value for customers.”

Microsoft recognizes that customers care most about real-world interoperability in the marketplace, so the company is committed to continuing to engage the IT community to achieve that goal when it comes to document format standards. It will work with the Interoperability Executive Customer Council and other customers to identify the areas where document format interoperability matters most, and then collaborate with other vendors to achieve interoperability between their implementations of the formats that customers are using today. This work will continue to be carried out in the Interop Vendor Alliance (http://www.interopvendoralliance.org), the Document Interoperability Initiative (http://www.microsoft.com/interop), and a range of other interoperability labs and collaborative venues.

“Microsoft’s support for ODF in Office is a great step that enables customers to work with the document format that best meets their needs, and it enables interoperability in the marketplace,” said Roger Levy, senior vice president and general manager of Open Platform Solutions for Novell Inc. “Novell is proud to be an industry leader in cross-platform document interoperability through our work in the Document Interoperability Initiative, the Interop Vendor Alliance and with our direct collaboration with Microsoft in our Interoperability Lab. We look forward to continuing this work for the benefit of customers across the IT spectrum.”

“The demand for a document format that everyone can use is something I hear from our customers on a regular basis,” said John D. Head, framework manager at PSC Group LLC, a Chicago headquartered information-technology and professional services consulting firm. “I am very pleased that Microsoft is enabling Microsoft Office to support ODF directly from the software. This will allow us to develop solutions that create documents that can be edited by any user, regardless of what software or operating system they use. In a world where software companies want people to select one software package for their entire user base, the reality is that different user groups and types need options. Microsoft is now enabling users to make that choice. This is a very smart move by Microsoft, and one that lets the most important person — the customer — be the winner.”

This work on document formats is only one aspect of how Microsoft is delivering choice, interoperability and innovative solutions to the marketplace. Microsoft will continue to work with its customers and partners and the rest of the industry to continue advancing in the area. More information can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/interop.

Pin Your Most Frequently Used Office Documents for Quick Access

When you open documents inside any of the Microsoft Office programs (like Word, Excel, PowerPoint), links to all these recently accessed files are added to the File menu.
It’s like a FIFO (first-in, first-out) queue - as you access new files, the older links get pushed down and eventually disappear as more documents get added to the list.
Now say you have an Excel Timesheet or a Word Status Report or some other document that you work on regularly.
Rather than hunting for such frequently used files on the computer, you can just pin them up permanently to the Recent Documents list and access the documents very quickly.
To pin documents, just click the grey pin icon next to the document. The color of the pin will change to green indicating that the document will always stay in your Recent Documents list until you un-pin it. The trick work only with Microsoft Office 2007.

Microsoft Insists XP Dead Date Firm Despite Ballmer.

Microsoft says Windows XP sales will end June 30 despite comments by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Microsoft says it's listening, but petition author Galen Gruman says Microsoft counts a Windows Vista sale even with an option to downgrade to Windows XP. Galen's petition has more than 170,000 names asking Microsoft to save Windows XP.
Despite CEO Steve Ballmer's comments, Microsoft has no plans to continue selling Windows XP after June 30, the company said. It added, "Our plan for Windows XP availability is unchanged. We're confident that's the right thing to do based on the feedback we've heard from our customers and partners."
Ballmer started a wave of speculation at a press conference in Belgium when he suggested that the June 30 deadline could be changed. "If customer feedback varies we can always wake up smarter, but right now we have a plan for end-of-life for new XP shipments," he said, according to Reuters.

The Dates are Right:

A spokesperson from Microsoft's public-relations firm, Waggoner Edstrom, told PC World that the company's research had led it to conclude that "the dates are right." Microsoft believes "we've made the right accommodations for customers in certain segments who may need more time to transition to Windows Vista," she said. "But as Steve noted, we maintain a constant stance of listening to our customers and our partners. That's what is guiding our plan, and will continue to guide us going forward."
More than 170,000 people have signed an online petition spearheaded by InfoWorld magazine to "Save XP." The petition calls for Microsoft to keep XP around "indefinitely. Not just for another six months or a year but indefinitely." And enterprise adoption of Windows Vista has so far been tepid.
"Ballmer's cryptic comments suggest that although they say they listen to customers, they're hard of hearing," said Galen Gruman, the InfoWorld editor who launched the petition, in an e-mail. "On one hand, Ballmer's comments acknowledge a demand for XP beyond June 30, but then he indicated that demand is trivial. I believe he's wrong."

Google and Salesforce Join to Fight Microsoft

Google and Salesforce.com, two of Microsoft’s most conspicuous rivals, are expanding a 10 month old collaboration in an effort to accelerate their sales of customer management and office software to businesses.
On Monday, the two companies will announce that they have integrated Salesforce’s customer relationship management software and Google’s suite of office productivity applications, which includes e-mail, word processing and spreadsheets programs, into a single software package.
Like most of the software the two companies create, the package will not require a download or installation, it will be online on the web.
The offering will compete with Microsoft’s customer relationship management software, which is integrated with the its Office suite. The alliance could help Google, whose productivity programs are used largely by individuals, where it is seeking to challenge Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar Office franchise.
Already customers of Google’s and Salesforce’s programs can use them side by side. But Dave Girouard, Google’s vice president and general manager, said the integrated offering would bring users new functions.
For example, users would able to keep track of e-mail sent to a customer right on that customer’s sales record, and a group of people collaborating on a sales account would be able to communicate by instant message with one another, he said.
“In the history of hosted software to date, applications could be like islands,” Mr. Girouard said. “They don’t really work together seamlessly. This is a first of its kind.”
Microsoft, which dominates the productivity software market but is a smaller player in customer relationship management software, or C.R.M., brushed aside concerns about competition from the Google-Salesforce alliance.
“Salesforce has belatedly recognized that it is important to link C.R.M. apps to productivity tools,” said Brad Wilson, general manager for Microsoft’s C.R.M. unit. “It has been core to our product since we launched five years ago. It validates our strategy.”
Google and Salesforce, two of the most important proponents of the idea of delivering software as a service over the Web, have grown increasingly close over the last several months. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend, so that makes Google my best friend,” said Marc Benioff, chief executive of Salesforce.com.
When Google introduced its package of productivity applications in February 2007, Salesforce was one of the few large companies committed to using the software. In June, the two companies began integrating Google’s AdWords advertising technology into Salesforce, and in November, Salesforce joined OpenSocial, an alliance of companies then led by Google that was establishing standards for creating applications for social networks.
Salesforce for Google Apps, as the integrated product is called, will be available to Salesforce customers at no additional cost starting Monday

Yahoo-Microsoft Battle Bolsters Google

Microsoft Corp.'s attempt to take over Yahoo Inc. has become so tortured it may help Internet search and advertising leader Google Inc. grow stronger, undermining Microsoft's main reason for pursing the deal in the first place.

"We find this to be a very advantageous situation for Google," Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Derek Brown said Thursday. "The longer this gets dragged out, the better for Google."

Yahoo signaled it is bracing for a protracted battle late Wednesday when an announcement and a media leak provided a glimpse at its labyrinthine search for alternatives to Microsoft's bid of more than $40 billion.

The options included an experimental advertising alliance with Google that could lead to a broader partnership and, according to published reports, a combination with the online operations of Time Warner Inc.'s AOL. Google also owns a 5 percent stake in AOL.

As part of the AOL deal, Time Warner would get a roughly 20 percent stake in the merged entity in return for a substantial sum of cash that would help Yahoo buy back some of its stock at a price well above Microsoft's offer, which was initially valued at $31 per share.

"This is the first time that we have seen real feasible alternatives that could derail the Microsoft deal," said analyst Jeffrey Lindsay of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

Other analysts doubt Yahoo will succeed in thwarting Microsoft but believe it could force the world's largest software maker to raise its offer as high as $35 per share, or about $50 billion.

But Microsoft made that threat before the details about Yahoo's alternatives with Google and AOL emerged.

Although Microsoft has plenty of money to up the ante on its own, the Redmond, Wash.-based company may draw upon another deep pocket - Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Under this reported scenario, News Corp. would contribute the Internet's top social network, MySpace.com, and some cash in a Yahoo takeover. The proposed deal would put three of the Web's most popular sites - Yahoo, MySpace and Microsoft's MSN - under the same umbrella.

In another ironic twist, Google could benefit if Microsoft and News Corp. buy Yahoo because it already has a long-term contract to show ads on MySpace.

Microsoft, Time Warner and News Corp. all declined to comment Thursday. A Yahoo representative didn't respond to inquiries about the AOL deal. Google and Yahoo announced their advertising test Wednesday.

Yahoo directors are expected to meet Friday to discuss the company's options.

Investors seemed to welcome the latest developments. Yahoo shares rose 82 cents to $28.59 while Microsoft shares gained 22 cents to close at $29.11. The stocks of Google and Time Warner also moved up, while News Corp.'s Class A shares dipped 5 cents to $18.89.

The reported negotiations to bring together some of the world's largest Web sites underscores the Internet's maturation as a business sector. As consumers spend more time online, the smart money is following them - and now there's a mad scramble to latch on to the prime properties in this promised land of future profit.

"The most likely outcome here is that a few players will become more and more dominant on the Internet," said James Owers, a Georgia State University professor specializing in media and corporate finance.

The stakes are so high that News Corp. and AOL might decide to join forces if their latest negotiations with Microsoft and Yahoo don't pan out, Citigroup analyst Jason Bazinet wrote in a Thursday note to investors.

Google has emerged as the Internet's most profitable company so far, primarily by showing relevant text-based ad links alongside the billions of search results that it churns out each month.

Propelled by its success in search, Google built up a vast computer network that hosts a wide range of free services - many of which threaten to make Microsoft's software less vital to consumers and businesses.

Microsoft believes Yahoo's franchise will give it more weapons to retaliate against Google and reverse the losses that have plagued its online division.

But it's looking less likely that Microsoft will be able to realize its goal of completing the Yahoo deal by the end of this year.

If Yahoo continues to resist, Microsoft probably will have to take its bid directly to shareholders - an acrimonious process that is typically settled at the target company's annual meeting. Yahoo doesn't have to hold its annual meeting until July 12.

And a deal done that late in the year isn't likely to emerge from antitrust regulators' purview until 2009, according to experts.

Yahoo may be able to rally support from its shareholders by pointing to the possibility of a long-term partnership with Google, which some analysts believe could boost Yahoo's cash flow by 25 percent to 35 percent.

Google, too, could make more money from the alliance. But Lindsay doubts that's the search leader's main incentive for the tests.

"Anything that Google can do to keep Yahoo from going to Microsoft is good for Google," Lindsay said.

If Yahoo turned over all its search-driven advertising to Google, it would face intense regulatory scrutiny that would be difficult to overcome, analysts predicted. Google controls 59 percent of the U.S. search market followed by Yahoo at 22 percent and Microsoft at 10 percent, according to comScore Media Metrix.

For now, Yahoo is allowing Google to show advertising links alongside no more than 3 percent of its U.S. search results and only for two weeks.

Microsoft already has signaled that it will strenuously object to antitrust regulators if Google sells search ads for Yahoo on a full-time basis. But a regulatory review might hurt Microsoft more than Google, Lindsay said, because it could mean waiting even longer to own Yahoo.

If Microsoft is able to pull off the Yahoo takeover, melding the two organizations will be difficult, especially if the deal is hostile or includes a third party like News Corp.

"The more complicated a deal gets, the more difficult it becomes to satisfy all parties," Brown said. "And the more complicated the (post-deal) integration gets, the more it favors Google

Yahoo says Microsoft bid review may take time

For those wondering how long Yahoo takes to respond to Microsoft's unsolicited $44.6 billion takeover bid, Yahoo says don't hold your breath.
Yahoo said its process "will include evaluating all of the Company's strategic alternatives--including maintaining Yahoo as an independent company."
That could include pursuing bids from other companies, Yahoo said. "That process will take some time, but the Board will ultimately pursue the option that it believes can best maximize value for our shareholders," Yahoo said.
The FAQ marks the company's most substantive comment thus far on the bid. The company issued a brief statement on Friday morning, but said only that it was reviewing Microsoft's offer and the company declined all further comment.
Of course, it's unclear how much of Yahoo's statement is reality and how much is bravado. The Wall Street Journal noted that while Yahoo may seek other bidders, none immediately emerged. Some say Microsoft's big wallet and determination may deter others from pursuing Yahoo.
Silicon Alley Insider blogger Henry Blodget on Friday wrote that at least one New York-based private equity firm was said to have been preparing an offer for Yahoo when Microsoft announced its bid. And on Saturday TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrignton cited rumors that News Corp., which had considered merging its MySpace social-networking site with Yahoo, was trying to assemble a group of investors to challenge Microsoft's offer.

Convert Trail to Full Office 2007

follow these steps to Convert Trail to Full Microsoft Office 2007

start -> run .. type regedit ->HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> software -> microsoft -> office -> 12.0 ->

registration -> (clik on the first number series) -> now select (DigitalProductID,LicenseType,TrialType)

and press 'del' key to delete them and then exit registry....


now open C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Office12\Office Setup Controller\Proof.en ...
now open the Proof file(XML Document) in it with NOTEPAD ....
now under the last line u wil find ....
now replace "" with "neverinstalled" ...(including the inverted commas

too)....


pls be careful while editing them...

OR

==> Just use this Key

vv6dk-v8pb2-rhbyv-m6y6w-xjk38