Microsoft patches Office 2008 Service Pack 2
Assuming all goes well with this particular patch, the second in about three weeks, cross platform Open XML compatibility will once again be available to users. If I were an Office 2008 user, I’m pretty sure I’d wait to see how this update affects others before applying it myself.
Back on July 20, Microsoft released the Office 2008 Service Pack 2, which addressed a long list of long standing performance and compatibility issues. Unfortunately, SP2 also introduced a problem with Open XML files whereby documents, spreadsheets and presentations created on a PC running Office 2007 wouldn’t open on a Mac running Office 2008 SP2 — a major problem with a marquis feature.
Today, Redmond’s Macintosh Business Unit has announced the release of Office 2008 12.2.1 Update, which is said to address the issues created by SP2. Thereupon, you’ll need to download this latest patch (24MB) and apply it to a fully patched version, including SP2, of Office 2008.
If you’ve applied Office 2008 12.2.1 Update, let the rest of us know how it turned out. Sharing a little info about your configuration and how SP2 affected will be helpful if you got the time.
In related news, Microsoft has also released Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.1.1, a utility that allows the user to convert Open XML files were created in Office 2008 for Mac or Office 2007 for Windows so they can be opened, edited and saved in earlier versions of Office for Mac.
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