Skip to main content

Microsoft Bows to Adobe: Removes PDF from Office 2007

Reacting to the warning from Adobe, Microsoft has decided to remove native PDF printing support from Office 12 which is due in January 2007 with Windows Vista. However, Microsoft will provide a free plug-in (or Office 2007 SP1) that will allow Office users to export files in PDF or XPS format from Word, PowerPoint or Excel programs.

Now since Adobe is also concerned about XPS (PDF Rival) support in Windows Vista, Microsoft will leave it at the hands of PC vendors to decide whether they ship Vista Computers with or without XPS. Clearly, XPS has hit a big stumbling block even before it is realeased to the public and this decision to decouple native XPS support from Windows Vista may drastically hit the XPS adoption rate.

Adobe has generally been keeping mum on the whole episode. They did send an e-mail to The Associated Press explaining their situation
As our CEO Bruce Chizen has stated numerous times in the past, Microsoft has a monopoly and we are always concerned about the possibility that they might abuse that monopoly.
That brings one interesting thought in mind - Why is Microsoft so afraid of facing an antitrust suite from Adobe when it has experience of fighting case with US DOJ, EU and Real Networks. The Microsoft thinking looks valid enough. Any lawsuit concerning Windows Vista or Office 12 would mean further delays in the launch which can be more disastrous for Microsoft than not support PDF in Office.

And in this case, Microsoft know that Adobe has a more strong point. Therefore, they are willing to modify and ship stuff based on the terms laid down by Adobe - "We're saying to Adobe, if you have any concerns about Microsoft shipping XPS software in Windows, we will ship anything comparable you want"

More commentary by Joe Wilcox, Ina Fried, Mary Jo Foley, , ,

Popular posts from this blog

How to Download Contacts from Facebook To Outlook Address Book

Facebook users are not too pleased with the "walled garden" approach of Facebook. The reason is simple - while you can easily import your Outlook address book and GMail contacts into Facebook, the reverse path is closed. There's no "official" way to export your Facebook friends email addresses or contact phone numbers out as a CSV file so that you can sync the contacts data with Outlook, GMail or your BlackBerry. Some third-party Facebook hacks like "Facebook Sync" (for Mac) and "Facebook Downloader" (for Windows) did allow you to download your Facebook friends' names, emails, mobile phone number and profile photo to the desktop but they were quickly removed for violation of Facebook Terms of Use. How to Download Contacts from Facebook There are still some options to take Friends data outside the walls of Facebook wall. Facebook offers the Takeout option allowing you to download all Facebook data locally to the disk (include
Read more

Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts for Power Users

All features in Mozilla Firefox browser are accessible through the use of the keyboard. You can use shortcut keys to view and save Web pages, search the web, open new webpages, work with bookmarks, or find text on the current webpage. Some of the most common keyboard shortcuts in Mozilla Firefox are Ctrl+N (to open a new Firefox window), Ctrl+T (to open a new tab), Ctrl+F4 (to close the current tab) and Ctrl+S to save the current webpage. Mozilla Firefox supports many more powerful keyboard shortcuts. For instance, by pressing a simple key combination, you can manually delete autocomplete entries from the Firefox location bar or Web forms. I am sharing a list of my favorite Mozilla Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts that make web browsing with Firefox even more fun . And you also save your precious time as navigating through several layers of Firefox Toolbar menus is no longer necessary. 1. Web Search Ctrl+K moves the cursor to the Search Bar. You can then type in the terms you wish to fin
Read more

Digital Inspiration

Digital Inspiration is a popular tech blog by  Amit Agarwal . Our popular Google Scripts include  Gmail Mail Merge  (send personalized emails with Gmail ),  Document Studio (generate PDFs from Google Forms ) and   File Upload Forms ( receive files  in Google Drive). Also see  Reverse Image Mobile Search , Online Speech Recognition and Website Screenshots , the most useful websites on the Internet.
Read more