Office 2007 PDF, XPS Plug-in Released

By Nate Mook | Published September 7, 2006, 12:35 PM

Microsoft on Thursday released a plug-in for Office 2007 that will allow users to save their documents in both PDF and XPS formats. The company previously planned to build in such capability, but bowed to pressure from Adobe, which developed PDF, to force customers to download it.

The add-on is compatible with 8 Office 2007 applications, including Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, InfoPath, OneNote, Publisher, and Visio. Customers can also use the plug-in to quickly send documents as e-mail attachments in both PDF and XPS. XPS is Microsoft's new fixed-layout document format that's based on XML.

Comments

View comments by with a score of at least

it doesnt matter as long as theres free saving to pdf, while there are free pdf programs out there, most people dont have the time or intelligence to go find it themselves, this way microsoft makes it easy. now the idea of xps thats just stupid

Score: 0

|

Now what will Dell name it's high end desktops?

Score: 0

|

I hear PDF will be available soon. ;)

Score: 0

|

XPS is - as many other "revolutionary standards" from Microsoft - a useless format that will never become a standard. To become one, it has to be open source, or its license should be less restrictive.

Presented as a PDF killer, XPS will never replace PDF, who's truely available on all platforms, wide spread, well known and loved by all kind of users (from printers and DTP workers to businessmen and students.)

This add-in itself isn't very needed since there are several PDF generators that give the possibility to generate PDFs from almost any print capable application. Among these PDF generators is PDFCreator, an open source PDF printer of great quality.

Even MSOffice isn't a "must have" (for the common user) as there are several free replacements, from google's Writely to OpenOffice and Abiword.

The times when Microsoft was creating standards when it wanted and how it wanted are gone.
Doc format is dead (its death is called "OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument), an XML-based open standard that spreads fast among applications and platforms. ).

So will die XPS.

Amen... :)

Score: 0

|

XPS??

Score: 0

|

So what was the point? Now it's a plug-in, that's free? What did Adobe get out of this?

Score: 0

|

the knowledge that no one will ever find the plugin.

hopefully they stick it in windows update and give adobe the finger.

Score: 0

|

the same arguement that Real player use that people will never able to find real player when wmp is installed on the computer.

Score: 0

|

Comcast deal for NBC Universal is about content, not broadband

Although Comcast is certainly America's largest broadband provider, at least for PCs, in most regards, today's deal with GE may not impact the Internet at all.

Mark Russinovich on MinWin, the new core of Windows

The next version of Windows three years hence will likely build onto a significant architectural change implemented in Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2.

Fee or free? Murdoch, Huffington square off over the cost of Internet news

Participants in an FTC workshop yesterday witnessed the two extremes of the Web news publishing debate, still centered on the issue of long-term profitability.

Security firm: Windows patches not responsible for 'Black Screen of Death'

On second thought, maybe that access control list thingie with the lockdown something-or-rather didn't trigger an alleged, perhaps non-existent, pandemic.

Online advertising evolves away from display, toward interactive software

Marketing departments and agencies are increasingly establishing positions for "creative technologists" who can steer designers and developers toward platforms that enable direct connections with consumers.

Google begrudgingly adjusts news crawling for paid publishers

If publishers want to make readers pay for news content, and thereby drive down its popularity and Google ranking, the company says, they can just go right on ahead.

Apple settles with Psystar except for 'circumvention devices'

The fracas with the Florida clone computer maker might have ended today had Apple not have muddled the issue over a cheap piece of Psystar software.

Microsoft denies latest 'Black Screen of Death' claims

After an anti-malware producer announced a fix to what it says is a swarm of recent KSoD problems, evidence of the swarm itself has yet to turn up.

Latest Firefox 3.6 beta fixes 133 bugs, promises faster page load times

A once-sluggish beta testing process has kicked into overdrive, with astonishing success at finding serious bugs. Will Mozilla be able to fix all the others in time?

Confirmed: Office 2010 to ship in June

Two weeks after Microsoft had been expected to draw a clearer roadmap for its principal applications suite, it's finally ready to commit to the end of H1.

New EU antitrust commissioner will oversee Microsoft, Oracle+Sun, Intel issues

As one of Europe's most prominent politicians shifts positions in January, her replacement remains a question mark over technology's biggest issues.