Microsoft's document gambit moves ahead
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Standards vote could boost its Office document format in high-stakes race for desktop prominence.
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New versions of Office, Exchange, too. But are businesses ready to buy?
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In another carefully timed move to garner support for its document format still under consideration for an international standard, Microsoft today altered the terms under which use of its Office Open XML format by developers is permitted.
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Microsoft Corp. last week released a preview version of its new Internet search engine. It will be available in its final form early next year.
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Trying to authenticate documents or uncover forgeries is an increasingly technical pursuit.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft released documents on Wednesday that detail changes it will make to its desktop search and indexing feature in Windows Vista that will be included as part of the Vista SP1 (Service Pack 1) update. The changes are a response toÂ charges from rival Google that Microsoft built the feature in such a way that it slowed down competitive offerings from rivals. Microsoft agreed to make the changes as part of its ongoing antitrust proceedings with U.S. and state officials, and they were detailed as part of a status report filed in the case in June. To provide more information to the general public, the company posted documents online Wednesday that detail how third parties can help modify desktop search applications to work with the changes being made in SP1. Microsoft has said it will release SP1, a roll-up of updates to the Vista OS, in the first quarter of 2008. Microsoft said it made the changes so that a customer who uses a third-party desktop search product instead of Vista's built-in feature can have "easy and direct access" to those offerings through the Windows user interface. "That means that in addition to the numerous ways a user could access a third-party search solution in Windows Vista, they can now get to their preferred search results from additional entry points in the Start Menu and Explorer Windows in Windows Vista SP1," the company said. These features were at the heart of Google's claims, which appeared in a white paper to U.S. and state antitrust officials in April. Google said the desktop search feature in Vista discouraged users from installing third-party products because Vista's search boxes and bars -- available in several places in the OS, including the Start menu and in the Windows Explorer file manager -- work only with Microsoft's search and indexing tool. The company also said it is nearly impossible to turn off Vista's indexing, which means a competitor must add a second indexer that slows down a PC. To let their products use Vista options they don't have access to now, third-party vendors can register their search applications using the new search protocol in Windows Vista SP1, which is detailed online. An article explaining the search changes can be found in Microsoft's Knowledge Base.
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A Microsoft  document format  that may be adopted as an international standard this weekend  is a ploy to lock in customers, who could lose control over  their own data in a worst-case scenario, critics say.
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A poll of more than 50 corporate IT managers shows there&#8217;s little private-sector interest in the Open Document Format, one of the technologies that could free users from Microsoft&#8217;s proprietary format.
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A translation tool released by Microsoft will make it easier for users to move and share text files in open formats.
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Renegotiation may provide glimpse into Microsoft's search plans.
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Microsoft seems to be on track to release the next version of Windows on schedule.
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Final version is expected this month; software will compete with Outlook express.
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The document format sagas continue as ODF gets competition from the W3C's Compound Document Formats.
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There are new movements in the ongoing war over document formats this week, with Microsoft facing new challenges and Sun Microsystems possibly facing new opportunities.
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Microsoft Corp.&#039;s best-known business software is for creating spreadsheets, documents and presentations, but the company is hoping to convince corporations that it also can be the one-stop shop for sophisticated communications technology.
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Today, the Redmond company is unveiling the first widespread preview of its new MSN Search technology, a key part of its effort to regain ground in a critical area where Microsoft concedes that it has fallen behind.
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New security, collaboration, and organization features; Microsoft Office 2003 compatibility; Professional version allows Acrobat Reader users to annotate PDF documents.