Microsoft Updates Productivity Suite for Macs: Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.1
Redmond-based software giant Microsoft has updated its Office 2008 productivity suite, but not the Windows-specific version, the Mac OS X version. The update, which carries the official tag of Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.1, is meant to address an issue experience by Mac users: the inability to open XML-based files in PowerPoint for Mac and Excel for Mac.
Some Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard users who has Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.0 running on their machine, were greeted with this message when they attempted to open XML-based documents: “Microsoft Excel cannot open the file. You may have to download the latest updates for Office for Mac. Do you want to visit the Microsoft Web site for more information?” Just in case you don’t know what XML-based files are, here’s a crash course: Word Document (.docx), Excel Workbook (.xlsx), PowerPoint Presentation (.pptx), andPowerPoint Show (.ppsx).
This problem, as it turns out, is Microsoft’s fault. User Experience Researcher in the Macintosh Business Unit at Microsoft, Nadyne Mielke, explains: “This issue was accidentally introduced when we introduced stronger checking of our new XML-based file formats. In short, we were looking for a particular XML tag, and some files were either missing this tag or didn't have it in the form that we were expecting. When we got the first reports of this issue, we were quickly able to figure out that it was this XML tag that had gone missing or wasn't in the expected format.”
The Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.1 update applies to the following: * Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition
Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac
Microsoft Excel 2008 for Mac
Microsoft PowerPoint 2008 for Mac
Microsoft Word 2008 for Mac
If you would like to get the Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.1 update, you can grab it straight from Microsoft here.
You should also check out this Knowledge Base article if you do not know how to apply the update.
Some Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard users who has Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.0 running on their machine, were greeted with this message when they attempted to open XML-based documents: “Microsoft Excel cannot open the file. You may have to download the latest updates for Office for Mac. Do you want to visit the Microsoft Web site for more information?” Just in case you don’t know what XML-based files are, here’s a crash course: Word Document (.docx), Excel Workbook (.xlsx), PowerPoint Presentation (.pptx), andPowerPoint Show (.ppsx).
This problem, as it turns out, is Microsoft’s fault. User Experience Researcher in the Macintosh Business Unit at Microsoft, Nadyne Mielke, explains: “This issue was accidentally introduced when we introduced stronger checking of our new XML-based file formats. In short, we were looking for a particular XML tag, and some files were either missing this tag or didn't have it in the form that we were expecting. When we got the first reports of this issue, we were quickly able to figure out that it was this XML tag that had gone missing or wasn't in the expected format.”
The Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.1 update applies to the following: * Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition
Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac
Microsoft Excel 2008 for Mac
Microsoft PowerPoint 2008 for Mac
Microsoft Word 2008 for Mac
If you would like to get the Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.1 update, you can grab it straight from Microsoft here.
You should also check out this Knowledge Base article if you do not know how to apply the update.
