Microsoft != Backwards Compatibility

[peewee_RotA]

Well it looks like Microsoft has done it again.

Office 2007, specifically word, saves in a new format by default that is not able to be read by older versions of Word as well as open office. There is some kind of ridiculous compatibility package that can be downloaded from microsoft update but as far as I can tell it is not a mandatory update. I've never heard of any issues (since the 2002 to 2003 format change that MADE YOU PAY FOR BUG FIXES) that warrants a change in the saving format.

If there is, is it enough to cause all of your older users to go through an annoying update process just to view a file? Wouldn't it just be reasonable to leave the old save format by default?


Maybe I'm just making this a bigger issue than it really is but every few months I get a reminder why I purposely choose to use Open Office and Google Docs.

[Whirlingdervish]

I'd bet that they were trying to cripple the people using openoffice if anything, and in doing so they shit on those people who actually use software till it stops working instead of updating every time a new version of the same old shit comes out with a new year in the name.

I had to patch all of the office 03 setups around here at work for this very reason, when there's no reason at all that they'd change the .doc format. I'm looking at 20 paid seats of office 03 that they effectively broke for the average dummy user with a stupid design decision on a newer product that I won't be buying.

It's not like word processing changed drastically in the last 7 years, and definitely not enough to warrant me buying another score of copies of a multiple hundred dollar software package.

There's no reason that they couldn't have left .doc alone and just set their newfangled .docx format to the default.

I dunno about you but I just can't wait for office 2010 to break more shit.

[QwazyWabbit]

Nope, it was to prevent embedded code in the docs from exploiting some flaws in the earlier versions of Word and Excel. The reason for the new format is to automatically strip those potential exploits from the documents. IIRC, you can download the compatibility tools from the Office update site and it makes the older formats available in the Save As dialog.

[Whirlingdervish]

Ah!

I'd run into the problem with word, but first it was excel and I never did connect it to the ol macros and such that allowed code execution..

Good lookin out.