Topic: MS Office 14 to have "ballot" to allow you to choose your default file format

[Nemesis]

Link to full article

On top of that, Microsoft Office 2010 will include a mandatory dialog for both OEMs and home users that allows the user to select the default file format for Microsoft Office applications. "Beginning with the release of Office 14, end users that purchase Microsoft's Primary PC Productivity Applications in the EEA in both the OEM and retail channel will be prompted in an unbiased way to select default file format (from options that include ODF) for those applications upon the first boot of any one of them."

Why just not make it easy to change your default to what you want?  Why only allow it at installation time?

Quite interesting are the promises regarding Microsoft Office. For instance, Microsoft will make available all necessary interoperability information for not only the file formats in Office 2007, but also the legacy binary formats used in Office 2003 and earlier.

Assuming they mean freely available or  with only a nominal charge and no patent/licensing restrictions this is good.

[toasty0]

The compatability pack for Office 2003 users to read Office 2007 files is free.

http://tinyurl.com/y4eeye