IWork '08 applications can open the OpenXML formats churned out by their Office 2007 counterparts - Pages with Word, Numbers with Excel, Keynote with PowerPoint - but cannot save in those formats. Currently, Office 2004 and Office v. X users can both open Word and PowerPoint Open XML files and save in those formats using beta converters MBU has issued. No such converter has been released that handles Excel 2007's Open XML files, however.
Ironically, one of those who praised iWork's handling of the Microsoft file format was a program manager for Office 2007. "iWork '08 reads the Office Open XML files with very high fidelity," said Brian Jones on his company blog.
At the same time, Jones defended his fellow developers at Microsoft in MBU. "The Mac Office folks have a ton of stuff they are working on for the next version, so it's not surprising that you aren't seeing full Open XML support until they reach that point," Jones said in response to a question asking how Microsoft lost the race to Apple's iWork.
"Office for the Mac is just not a real priority for Microsoft," said Gartenberg as he spelled out his take for Microsoft's tardiness creating software on the Mac that can handle what are, after all, its own file formats. "And that's not likely to change anytime soon."
Asked to explain why Microsoft hasn't been able to match Apple, MBU's marketing manager, Amanda Lefebvre, ticked off the development issues that have delayed Office 2008.
"The transition to the new file format is one of several reasons the development cycle is longer with Office 2008," she said. "Office 2008 [for Mac] will run natively on Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs with a Universal Binary [and] this transition necessitated a switch to a new set of development tools as well. The combination of these two technology shifts definitely impacted our schedule."
Not quite, Gartenberg said. "What this really shows is Microsoft's inability to ship software on time these days," he said.
Apple, meanwhile, is doing the smart thing. "They're making sure that they're not dependent on Microsoft for any of the important software for the Mac," said Gartenberg.
