A 30-day trial of Apple's iWork 08 is available for download, an application suite that "Works with Office". Pages professes compatibility with Microsoft Word, Numbers with Excel, and Keynote with PowerPoint. This includes read-only support for the Microsoft-sponsored Open XML file formats introduced with Office 2007 for Windows.
Note that Office Open XML (OOXML) is not the same as OpenDocument format (ODF), an alternative XML-based open-source ISO standard as used in OpenOffice.
iWork 08 promises to import and export to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
The iWork apps had no problems opening even quite complicated Word and PowerPoint documents I had made using Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac. It opened my basic Excel spreadsheets too, continuing to automatically sum the columns as I adjusted my figures. As for the newer file formats, you can download "deliberately simple" Open XML sample documents here, including .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx files. The ZIP archive usefully contains screen captures of the file contents as they should appear in Office 2007.
Here were the results when I attempted to open them:
Pages thinks the .docx file isn't in Word format
Numbers thinks the .xlsx file is invalid
Keynote appears to open the .pptx file but fails to display actual content
Has anyone had success in using OOXML files with iWork 08? iWork otherwise looks very capable, and during my brief exploration I haven't found it lacking compared to my real world use of Office 2004 for Mac.
iPhone also supports OOXML.
Update: Even the Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 0.2 (Beta) failed to open Microsoft's own sample files on OpenXML Developer. I can only assume this means the sample files don't reflect the final Ecma-approved Open XML standard. The sample files here, part of the OpenXML/ODF Translator Add-in for Office project, did work in all 3 iWork applications. Each app warns you to review potential issues when the conversion may have caused problems:
iWork helps you check for errors when opening OOXML files
Curious to compare how Apple's Pages fairs against Microsoft's Office Open XML Converter? Let the pictures do the talking:
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An OOXML Word file in Pages
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The same OOXML Word file in Word 2004 for Mac, via Office Open XML Converter
![[Photo of Bruce McKenzie]](data:image/jpeg;base64,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)
I'm tremendously confused as to Apple's iWork strategy. Microsoft has delayed (yet again!) the ship date on their Office 2008. Apple clearly beat MS to the punch on DocX (OOXML) support -- but read-only!
If I had full read-write OOXML, I could play easily with my PC-user Office 2008 officemates, and wipe Office 2004's sluggish ass clear off my Macbook. Why doesn't Apple want this to happen?
I guess read/write is something that could be introduced in an update, optimus. Fully supporting OOXML is realistically the only way Apple can compete in an Office-dominated market. It's odd, however, that they don't include support for ODF. Afterall, that is the ISO standard and I gather is favoured by some governments... since Office ignores it, you'd think this would be one area where Apple could take the initiative and score a point over Microsoft.
Bruce the problem is due to the fact that the files you found on the OpenXML developer web site were from mid 2006 and were created in a pre-release version of Word 2007. The file format changed to reflect the changes made by Ecma TC45.
I've flagged this to Doug Mahugh who posted the files, and I've blogged about it here.
So, our bad for not updating the files, and not Apple's fault at all. I did a few tests and iWork reads OpenXML files fine. You can find a few .docx and .pptx files here.
Regards
Stephen
Stephen, thanks for picking up on that. It's a good idea for your collegue at Microsoft to update the sample files, since Google will likely lead others to them who are keen to put iWork's OOXML compatibility to the test.
As I noted in my update above, however, I did find samples on the OpenXML/ODF Translator Add-in for Office project which opened fine—iWork did a better job than your Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 0.2. Granted it's a beta, but I wasn't expecting it to do such an inferior job. I got variable results using the Converter and iWork to open the sample files on Doug's page. The Converter was less prone to recognize some files than iWork, but iWork was prone to crashing on a number of them.
I get the impression OOXML isn't quite ready for prime time.
Which files are causing iWork to crash Bruce? I opened quite a few of them without any problems (.docx and .pptx) on a Mac Pro.
Regarding your point about Microsoft's beta converters ... I guess that this demonstrates why OpenXML is a good thing - if the MacOffice guys don't do a good job they'll see their market move to competitive products like iWork.
Stephen, try opening the .docx files in the "04-WordprocessingML" folder. For me Pages quits unexpectedly almost every time. Numbers choked on a couple of files in "07A-SpreadsheetML". Keynotes says "Minimal (empty).pptx" in the "08-PresentationML" set is not valid (Office Converter didn't like this either).
Bruce, you're exactly right when you say "I can only assume this means the sample files don't reflect the final Ecma-approved Open XML standard." Those sample files were uploaded on March 19, 2006 (a few days before the OpenXMLDeveloper site went live, actually), and as it says on that page they were created with Office 2007 Beta 1 Tech Refresh.
I've posted updated versions of those files here.
I left the old files on that other page as well, for anyone who's interested in looking closely at the differences. If you take a look at the parts inside the old versions and the new ones with a ZIP tool, you'll see many differences.
For example, the WordprocessingML namespace in the old samples was http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/2/main -- that 2006/2 indicates it was the February 2006 working version of that schema. Namespaces and many other details changed during those final months of the Ecma process. Another example I just happened to notice: in the shared-strings part (in the spreadsheet sample), the "sstItem" element is renamed to "si" in the latest version.
One other thing you might be interested to know is that Office always supported at least one prior version as it went through the various beta releases, which made it possible for people to migrate their content forward as changes occurred in the Ecma process. But since those samples were multiple versions ago, the RTM version of Office doesn't open them any longer.
Doug
Thanks Doug for updating the sample files. iWork 08 was able to open these without complaint—although they're so simple it's difficult to get a feel for how well iWork is doing, v the Office Converter. It might also be a good idea to include screen caputres in the download showing what the original in Office 2007 looks like, as a basis for comparison (this would make even more sense if you included more complex sample files). As I note above iWork seems to do a superior job in rendering complex documents (compare the screen captures when you click the thumbnails above).