OK, I usually don’t rant on my blog, and don’t approve of blogs that rant all the time – but in this case, I can’t resist.
Lately, I’ve had people send me Word documents that ended in .docx and have had a LOT of trouble opening them and have had to send them back and forth trying to get them to save in different formats and whatnot so that I could view them thinking they were using some archaic version of Word – harking back to the old days when Mac and PC files were not compatible when today they are perfectly compatible. Well, this week I upgraded to Office for Mac 2008 and discover the problem is STUPID MICROSOFT and these friends of mine were not using some old outdated version but the latest stupidity of the so-called cutting edge computer company. I went to save a document and the default is this lame .docx which means that if I need to send the file to anyone who hasn’t upgraded they won’t be able to open it. HOW DUMB IS THAT? So now every time I save a document I have to manually ask to save it as a .doc so the rest of the world can read the file and not the few who have the latest version of Office or someone will think I’m using some old outdated version of Word when I send them this mysterious .docx file.
Fine, upgrade Office, it was long overdue – but WHY change the file extension? That is just plain stupid if not cruel and unusual punishment. Stupidity like that was why I switched to Mac from the PC world. Too bad when it comes to word processing I still have to live in that backwards thinking universe.
OK, rant is over. Ix willx justx havex tox getx usedx tox havingx anx xx addedx tox thex endx ofx everythingx I guessx.
(I think Microsoft was just jealous of the Mac’s OS “X”)
I wish you would tell us how you really feel? Don’t bottle up these emotions…
I am meeting with a friend for dinner next week. He is a microsoft escalation engineer. I will ask him about this. :)
Good post, Karl. X marks the spot! I have gotten a few of those posts with .docx on the extention, which I could not open. I just concluded that they were running some old system. I had no idea it was a Microsoftx upgradex problemox. Now I know the “x” rated does not mean “large,” but it means “closed, keep out.” Dah!
“Hell, I’m a Mac.”
“And I’m a PC… “
…I meant “Hello” oops!
Karl, I hope you recover from this (I’m actually laughing at you a little, even though I know I shouldn’t be)
I have the 2007 version of Microsoft, and it has some really cool features, however, there is the .docx extension issue that is problematic. They said there is an some sort of an extension that 2003 users have to download in order to open the documents from the later version (you only have to do it once I think). But it still sounds like a hassle to me, so I must be driving all of my receipients crazy when I send them stuff….
Hey, Jamie, maybe it was a “freudian slip?”
While I do share your contempt of Micro$oft, I am surprised that you were not aware of the change in format for the new Office documents. MS issued a converter for that format a month after they released that new format for both PCs and Macs.
What’s funny for me is that Apple does this sort of thing all the time… and even with hardware! When’s the last time you saw a Mac with an RGB out? The difference is that Apple can get away with doing stuff like that and MS can’t. Why? My answer is because Macs are sexier and sexier can do whatever it wants :) PCs are just losers :)
See Official Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack which includes ability to open the newer formats like .docx
Also, an official online service: docx2doc.com
This took you a while to find out. I make all my friends with office 2007 (or 2008 for mac) save all their documents as .doc’s which is very easy to do.
Personalty I think everyone should boycott Microsoft and go download open office. Openoffice.org.
I have often been on the other end of the deal sending documents others can’t open up. I kwow it’s easy to convert it but I haven’t gotten into the habit yet. 1 more step!
Karl, do we need an intervention here?
Xcellent post. couldn’t agree more.
Perhaps they are trying to be more relevant. Someone in project development thought .doc has a hug (o) but no kiss (x).
The link above from steve was for PC only, here is the link for MACS.