Version 1.0 of the OpenXML document translator launched this past Friday. This initiative translates native document formats into OpenOffice and Microsoft Office. The translator will work between Microsoft's OpenXML, and OpenOffice's OpenDocument formats. The project took eight months to complete and ensure it met a high quality and standards level. So far, over 8,000 copies of the translator have been downloaded on SourceForge. Although the translator is not being shipped within Office products, Microsoft said that it has tested it with Office 2007-2003, and Office XP. The next version of OpenOffice will carry the translator, which is currently available on SourceForge. The decision for Microsoft to be involved with the translator has stemmed from customer demand. Support for both Excel and PowerPoint documents are scheduled for November 2007.

Microsoft is entering the world of free software. Who would have thought? Today, Microsoft released Office Accounting Express 2007 for free. The software is an updated version of the previous Office Small Business Accounting 2006 that was sold for $179 US. A higher end version of the application will be for sale early next year. Microsoft has integrated eBay and Paypal into the system which I think are great features that a lot of people will jump at the opportunity to use. It does supposedly have great connection abilities with Outlook 2007, and a strong set of accounting tools that support up to five currencies.

Unfortunately I can't seem to download a copy to try out, the site looks like its down, however, I have some screenshots of the application in progress after the jump.

UPDATE: As "joshj" in the comments writes, you must open the link in IE in order to gain access to download the application. The application file size is 369.35 MB.

What feature do you wish Office 2007 had? Is there something that you think Microsoft should have included, or something they shouldn't have left out? If you could have one thing in Office that it doesn't have, what would it be? I often think of many things that I really wish a developer would include in their products, and it seems that in comments, a lot of you feel the same way. So, what would you include in Office if it was your sole executive decision? An easy button? Let 'er rip, maybe the minions of Redmond will read this and hear us, and implement our ideas. Sure, it could happen.

Microsoft is great at catering to the enterprise. Their new Office system (2007) will follow this trend and deliver value to enterprise customers, I have no doubt. Microsoft is also catering to small businesses with Office 2007 as well. Microsoft realizes that small business owners also want the same kind of collaboration tools that enterprises have, but can't or don't want to have to pony up the costs for a server, so they are grooming Office Live to help with that idea. Small business owners will be able to collaborate using Microsoft-hosted share-point servers, and other features. Office Live today gives small businesses a website and project management tools to help them manage their business and online presence with less hassle then in previous years. This hybrid idea between Office Live and Office 2007 will be hard to beat.

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 takes advantage of new hardware virtualization technologies present in Intel and AMD systems. The idea is to use Virtual PC 2007 to run legacy applications, including operating systems in it, as it has always been with Virtual PC. This release has one slight difference, Vista now runs as either host or guest operating system in this latest version. The beta is available via the Microsoft connect website. So if you don't really want to ruin your pristine machine by putting Vista on it, now you can run Vista inside a virtual machine, and all you need is good enough hardware. If you have a connect account (free) go directly to the details page for Virtual PC 2007 beta, then click downloads on the side of the page. Both the 32-bit and 64-bit editions are available.

Apple, Barclays Capital, BP, The British Library, Essilor, Intel, Microsoft, NextPage, Novell, Statoil, Toshiba and the The United States Library of Congress have all approved the Office Open XML (OOXML) specification to be sent to the ECMA (a European standardization association). This is the next step in Microsoft's spec being accepted across many systems, platforms and applications. This is also the format that is the new hotness in the 2007 version of Office, at a beta-tester's workstation near you. I have to say that I have been very happy with Microsoft's 2007 Office system, and especially the XML format. It seems to make documents save and open a little bit faster, not to mention the endless interoperability features I haven't had a chance to test out yet. I think Microsoft is really on the right track here, and it shows, even in the beta. Hopefully this standard will be as versatile and flexible as we all think it will, but right now it is looking good.