Court allows Microsoft to keep selling Word during appeal
Microsoft's request to an appeals court that the company be able to sell its popular software Word during an ongoing appeal was granted this week.
The U.S Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a ruling Thursday that granted a stay to Microsoft on an injunction from August that banned the software maker from selling word.
"Without prejudicing the ultimate determination of this case by the merits panel, the court determines based on the motion papers submitted that Microsoft has met its burden to obtain a stay of the injunction," the ruling from the office of Clerk of Court Jan Horbaly said.
Last month, after Judge Leonard Davis in the U.S. District Court in Eastern Texas sided with the plaintiff, i4i Inc., in a patent dispute, Microsoft appealed the judge's decision to place an injunction on the sale of Word, part of the company's Office suite available for both PC and Mac. The ruling would have gone into effect 60 days after it was signed, had the U.S. Court of Appeals not overturned the judge's decision during the appeal process.
The patent case stems from the ability of Word to open .XML, .DOCX and .DOCM files, which are based on custom XML. i4i, in its suit against Microsoft, has alleged that it owns patents related to the reading of XML files, and asserts that the Redmond, Wash., software giant is in violation of those patents.
The original ruling applied to all versions of Word that can read XML, including Word 2003, Word 2007, and presumably the upcoming Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition, due to launch Sept. 15. Apple's rival to the north also intends to launch Office 2010 for Mac late next year.
In the ongoing suit, filed in 2007, Microsoft has been ordered to pay more than $290 million in damages to i4i, according to PC World. Both parties are scheduled to take part in a court hearing on Sept. 23.
The U.S Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a ruling Thursday that granted a stay to Microsoft on an injunction from August that banned the software maker from selling word.
"Without prejudicing the ultimate determination of this case by the merits panel, the court determines based on the motion papers submitted that Microsoft has met its burden to obtain a stay of the injunction," the ruling from the office of Clerk of Court Jan Horbaly said.
Last month, after Judge Leonard Davis in the U.S. District Court in Eastern Texas sided with the plaintiff, i4i Inc., in a patent dispute, Microsoft appealed the judge's decision to place an injunction on the sale of Word, part of the company's Office suite available for both PC and Mac. The ruling would have gone into effect 60 days after it was signed, had the U.S. Court of Appeals not overturned the judge's decision during the appeal process.
The patent case stems from the ability of Word to open .XML, .DOCX and .DOCM files, which are based on custom XML. i4i, in its suit against Microsoft, has alleged that it owns patents related to the reading of XML files, and asserts that the Redmond, Wash., software giant is in violation of those patents.
The original ruling applied to all versions of Word that can read XML, including Word 2003, Word 2007, and presumably the upcoming Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition, due to launch Sept. 15. Apple's rival to the north also intends to launch Office 2010 for Mac late next year.
In the ongoing suit, filed in 2007, Microsoft has been ordered to pay more than $290 million in damages to i4i, according to PC World. Both parties are scheduled to take part in a court hearing on Sept. 23.
Comments
So, Apple, on the "to do" list, please bump up "promote iWork as viable alternative to Office".
Your loyal convert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_7Kp_TapA4
...up!
iWork is not an alternative to Office; OpenOffice.org is an alternative to Office. iWork is useful for several specific tasks but is not a general purpose word processing software.
>> So, Apple, on the "to do" list, please bump up "promote iWork as viable alternative to Office".
iWork is not an alternative to Office; OpenOffice.org is an alternative to Office. iWork is useful for several specific tasks but is not a general purpose word processing software.
Actually, Pages certainly is useful for general purposes. It also does page layout. There are, however, a few specific functions in Word that people seem to need, or at least think they need.
but is not a general purpose word processing software
Huh? Pages does everything I've ever done in Word plus things I had to use Publisher for. A few specific examples of how it is not "general purpose word processing software" would be helpful. THe only thing I haven't been able to do is use pre-packaged mailing labels, but there might even be an app for that I haven't found yet.
These is no unique idea or thought behind writing software that reads a particular file format and interrupting it so it can be display, this is done all the time. It not like no one with a programing back ground could not figure this out, it is one the very first thing you learn as a programmer is read a file of data and translate so it can be displayed in a meaningful way.
>> So, Apple, on the "to do" list, please bump up "promote iWork as viable alternative to Office".
iWork is not an alternative to Office; OpenOffice.org is an alternative to Office. iWork is useful for several specific tasks but is not a general purpose word processing software.
sadly they all suck and openoffice is the worst among them. what a pos that java monster is.
My niece is about to purchase a MBP for school, and our first reaction was that she'll need Office for her reports and presentations. I know iWork can open and save Office files, but I couldn't find the answers to a few specific questions on Apple's site.
- Can you set Pages and Keynote to automatically save as Word and PPT every time so she doesn't have to remember to do it?
- Can iWork work with the Reviewing features of Office? She may need to submit a paper in Word format, and the professor may use MS's Reviewing toolbar to add comments/corrections when grading papers, or a friend may use it when proof-reading her paper for her. Can Pages view and add those annotations and corrections in Word files?
Has anyone here used iWork in a college setting, and how has it worked out? I'd like to set her up with iWork to avoid the bloat and expense of Office, but Office is tolerable if it avoids potential problems.
Apple needs to do a much better job at promoting iWork. As a recent switcher, I thought I absolutely must have Office, even if the Office for Mac version. What crap both Office for Windoze and Office for Mac are! Luckily I was smart enough when ordering my Macbook to have iWork preinstalled, since I like to experiment with software anyway. I know this is preaching to the choir, but I am totally impressed with iWork. No compatibility issues at all, much less clutter, better use of panels (rather than the uber annoying "ribbons) and Pages doesn't have the mind numbing formatting/spacing problems of Word and you can open two fully separate windows with difference Keynote presentations, something that can't be done with Powerpuke.
So, Apple, on the "to do" list, please bump up "promote iWork as viable alternative to Office".
Your loyal convert.
Huh? Pages does everything I've ever done in Word plus things I had to use Publisher for. A few specific examples of how it is not "general purpose word processing software" would be helpful. THe only thing I haven't been able to do is use pre-packaged mailing labels, but there might even be an app for that I haven't found yet.
Second that.
While writing my PhD dissertation, I had a hard time dealing with Word poor handling of figures and text boxes (quite understandably because of lack of page layout feature). So I tried Pages and boy, what a joy Pages was. What a butter smooth handling of text boxes and figures. Yes there were few quirks like putting references in endnotes (even that is sorted out with the current version) and few things which Word is very robust at, but you know what, most of us don't need it or could sacrifice in terms of ease of use.
In a collaborative environment, we have to use Word while writing grants and papers. Believe me, even using publisher lay out format in Word 2008 for Mac does not help. I miss Pages (using pages and exporting as doc format does not help, btw).
>> So, Apple, on the "to do" list, please bump up "promote iWork as viable alternative to Office".
iWork is not an alternative to Office; OpenOffice.org is an alternative to Office. iWork is useful for several specific tasks but is not a general purpose word processing software.
I am using NeoOffice (because Apple discontinued the free Appleworks), which converted OpenOffice for Mac's before OpenOffice.org did, but now it seems both parties are essentially doing the same thing, so I guess I'm going to have to switch to OpenOffice, good thing the files are compatible.
Office type software is so common today, the files easily converted, unless one needs something very powerful or specialized, it really doesn't make any sense to pay a lot for it. They all basically work the same, they all use a GUI and once you learn one, you can use either one with little trouble.
Open Office is great for students, why buy when you can learn and use for free? (donations of course). Let the company you go work for (if there are any jobs) pay for the expensive Office from Microsloth. Office software has a short learning curve anyway. Now Photoshop is a different story, the more experience one has on that the better, so perhaps it's best to buy that early.
Also I rather save the money and buy the new "It's only rock and roll" iPods coming out very shortly.
I'm already saving money not paying $80 a month for lousy AT&T service for a 2 year iPhone contract, enough to buy me a nice new 15" MATTE screen MacBook Pro. Thank You Steve Jobs.
Open Office pictures and features.
http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/3.0/
A bit off topic, but as far as Office vs iWork goes...
My niece is about to purchase a MBP for school, and our first reaction was that she'll need Office for her reports and presentations. I know iWork can open and save Office files, but I couldn't find the answers to a few specific questions on Apple's site.
- Can you set Pages and Keynote to automatically save as Word and PPT every time so she doesn't have to remember to do it?
- Can iWork work with the Reviewing features of Office? She may need to submit a paper in Word format, and the professor may use MS's Reviewing toolbar to add comments/corrections when grading papers, or a friend may use it when proof-reading her paper for her. Can Pages view and add those annotations and corrections in Word files?
Has anyone here used iWork in a college setting, and how has it worked out? I'd like to set her up with iWork to avoid the bloat and expense of Office, but Office is tolerable if it avoids potential problems.
I work as a consultant extensively with word for windows documents on the Mac, Mac version does not have VB macros and sometimes crashes.
Formatting is a bit different, and the handling of the revisions too.
But maybe in a college environment that's not a problem.
It seems you could not default Pages to save word documents.
My suggestion: try first with iWork, if necessary, buy also Office. iWork is less powerful (I use also numbers) but iwork apps are "more beautiful".
just my 2c
ps:my believe is that KeyNote is "far better" from PPT, but I just use PPT on my Mac ...
HT
Apple needs to do a much better job at promoting iWork. As a recent switcher, I thought I absolutely must have Office, even if the Office for Mac version. What crap both Office for Windoze and Office for Mac are! Luckily I was smart enough when ordering my Macbook to have iWork preinstalled, since I like to experiment with software anyway. I know this is preaching to the choir, but I am totally impressed with iWork. No compatibility issues at all, much less clutter, better use of panels (rather than the uber annoying "ribbons) and Pages doesn't have the mind numbing formatting/spacing problems of Word and you can open two fully separate windows with difference Keynote presentations, something that can't be done with Powerpuke.
So, Apple, on the "to do" list, please bump up "promote iWork as viable alternative to Office".
Your loyal convert.
I don't know... I don't feel Apple is really dedicated to their iWork software. Last time I checked, you couldn't do mail merging with the numbers spreadsheet. It would be nice to have a program like a watered down File Maker Pro or Access built in for little personal databases too.
I primarily use iWork (Pages) for creating concert programs and promotional posters/postcards, but there are a lot of things that it cannot do. I can't think of them all, but typing on a curve or in a circle would be nice.
Something is up with the PDF export too... I always lose the shadows when printing and sometimes when I fill a shape with an image, the wrong image shows up in the shape.
- Can you set Pages and Keynote to automatically save as Word and PPT every time so she doesn't have to remember to do it?
No, but then no other application does this (with the exception of the Office clones), so I wonder why anyone expects Pages or Keynote to behave this way. The different file formats represent different sets of features.
- Can iWork work with the Reviewing features of Office? She may need to submit a paper in Word format, and the professor may use MS's Reviewing toolbar to add comments/corrections when grading papers, or a friend may use it when proof-reading her paper for her. Can Pages view and add those annotations and corrections in Word files?
If you are referring to Track Changes, then the answer is yes.
Something is up with the PDF export too... I always lose the shadows when printing and sometimes when I fill a shape with an image, the wrong image shows up in the shape.
On the shadow printing, I think the culprit must be your printer driver -- especially if it happens all the time.
Court allows Microsoft to keep selling Word during appeal
Money always wins.
Money always wins.
This kind of injunction rarely stands, and is probably not meant to. It's really a message from the judge to Microsoft to get serious about settling.
Money always wins.
If MS lose the case, aren't they going to get hit with having to pay out to i4i based, partly, on the volume of sales of MS Word? if so it's in i4i's interest to have MS selling MS Word anyway... and if i4i were to lose maybe they'd get sued by MS for lost sales, so again it's in i4i's interest to allow MS Word to carry on awaiting an outcome; isn't it?
Actually, Pages certainly is useful for general purposes. It also does page layout. There are, however, a few specific functions in Word that people seem to need, or at least think they need.
I REALLY wanted iWork to become my office software as my intention was to keep a pure-Apple laptop. After Pages and Numbers had spectacularly failed to open or print or allow me to modify seamlessly documents that people send me or I must send to others, I tried OpenOffice. OpenOffice was a definite improvement over iWork but still fails too often. When we are talking about OpenOffice mangling my CV just before I need to print it or iWork mangling my invoices before I need to show them to the tax man, I end up back with Microsoft.
I'm super-happy with my Mac's stability, performance, security and backup. Just great and such a relief after Windows, but where I used to waste time and money on those (critical) things, I now waste them on document compatibility.