2007 Office System Service Pack Boosts Interoperability

Service Pack 2 (SP2) for the 2007 Microsoft Office system includes major performance enhancements for Office applications, most notably Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. One big benefit is SP2’s boost to interoperability, in particular for additional built-in file formats such as PDF and ODF.

Users should notice the improved performance and stability of Outlook, better charting functionality in Excel, and more control over the appearance of SmartArt graphics.

On the server side, IT professionals will notice several enhancements to the security and performance of SharePoint Server 2007, including support for read-only content databases, improvements to forms-based authentication, and an STSADM command-line utility that enables administrators to scan sites that use the variations feature for errors. SharePoint Server will also feature better support for newer versions of the Firefox browser.

ISVs who support Office System as a platform are able to support various docuement formats and collaborative with the rest of the industry to create interoperable products. ISVs and developer can make any third-party document format a first-class citizen in Office. This means Office will support most government-preferred formats, and can easily be made to support any others that come along.

For more information, see Service Pack 2 for the 2007 Microsoft Office System due to ship April 28th. For a comprehensive list of features included in SP2, see Office 2007 Service Pack 2 Kiosk.

You can download SP2 today. SP2 will be available through Microsoft Update’s automatic update mechanism about three months from now.