Hi, everyone! If you use Office for Mac 2008, you probably know that you have the same new file formats as in Office 2007 for Windows ... the same document themes functionality ... same incredibly cool SmartArt graphics ... in fact, lots of the same great new functionality and formatting capabilities.
If you know that, you may also know that these new file formats are the Office Open XML Formats ... document formats based on the Open XML international document standard. And, there's a large array of Open XML learning resources for developers out there - not to mention the complete documentation of literally every bit of the structure that's under the hood of these babies.
But, this post is not about developer resources (mostly) and it's not about document standards. It's about what you, as advanced (or even just adventurous) users of Office for Mac 2008, can do with your documents.
If you're not a developer, it's possible that just about every learning resource you see about Open XML refers to Office 2007. But, if you're feeling like a forgotten stepchild, go ahead and wipe that pout off your face ... almost any resource that helps you learn about the Office Open XML Formats applies every bit as much to your Office 2008 documents as it does to Office 2007, whether or not it says so.
So, in this post, I'd like to give you three things:
- Information on what you need to do differently when working on the Mac OS rather than Windows, when you read instructions about accessing the XML behind your documents.
- A list of resources that are freely available online and can help you get started with learning Open XML basics. They'll also help you go further with tasks such as formatting Office graphics and themes.
- A few resources for those with developer experience or who already know some basics and would like to delve further into what you can do with Open XML.
How can you edit the XML behind your Office documents when working on Mac OS?
Every Office Open XML document is a compressed set of files and folders ... that is, it's a ZIP package. When working on Windows, you can change the file extension to .zip, extract all files, and then compress them gain. But, on Mac OS - if you use the built-in Archive utility to extract and then compress the package - you'll break your document with the hidden files that the OS adds into a compressed package (and Mac OS does not offer you a way to access those files.)
Instead - use a utility that enables you to extract, edit, and replace files in the ZIP package without expanding and compressing it - so no files get added into the package. There are at least a few of these for Mac ... one that I like is Better Zip.
Additionally - just as many resources for Office 2007 indicate that you can edit the XML parts in a document package using just Windows Notepad - you can do the same using the TextEdit utility in the Mac OS. To see the XML with structure (just a viewer, not an editor), you can also open document parts in a Web browser (Office 2007 resources often recommend opening those parts in a browser, such as Internet Explorer, for a structured view, if editing the file in an unstructured text editor). However - not all browsers work for this purpose. Safari doesn't, for example. However,when you just need to see the XML markup for the body of a document part, Firefox does ...open the part from File, Open File in Firefox to view the structured Open XML markup.
Okay ... that should give you enough info to work around differences in instructions when reading the Open XML learning resources in this list. If I've missed anything ... please use the Click to Contact link below and let me know!
Open XML Resources for Office 2008 users
You can use all of the resources in this list ... even if they explicitly refer to Office 2007 without mentioning Office 2008.
Open XML I: Exploring the Office Open XML Formats
Open XML II: Editing documents in the XML
You can take these free, Office Online Trainig courses from your browser in Mac OS. You may not get the audio - but all of the audio text is written on each screen, so you won't lose any of the value. The only thing you can't do is the in-course practice sessions. HOWEVER, the folks at Office Online Training have generously allowed me to post all of the practice files with instructions for using them with Office 2008, so that you can get 100% of the benefits of those courses. [Since these are courses that I wrote, I'll post the practice files on my Tutorials page alongside the course links. I'll get the practice files posted by about 6/15.]
Using Office Open XML to Customize Document Formatting in the 2007 Office System
Using Office Open XML to Save Time Without Writing Code
The two preceding links are for articles on MSDN that I wrote specifically for advanced Office users. Even where Office 2007 is mentioned in the title, you'll see an "applies to" list in the article introduction that indicates that the Open XML content in these articles also applies to Office 2008. (Note: the article on customizing document formatting focuses on graphics formatting including tips for using Open XML to customize SmartArt as well.)
Getting More from Document Themes in the 2007 Office System with Office Open XML
Creating Document Themes with the Office Open XML Formats
Again, ignore the reference to Office 2007 in the title - these are for you, too. For these links on document themes, if you're quite new to themes and how they relate to Open XML - start with the first. For those who are comfortable jumping into the how-to, go straight to the second. Note that the second assumes at least some knowledge of basic Open XML.
Also for themes, in the last article above, you'll learn about the Open XML Theme Builder - a tool created by folks on the Win Office team that essentially provides an interface for creating custom theme effects without having to write the XML. Well, that tool is currently a beta and publicly avaliable ... but you do need access to a Windows-based machine (or virtual machine) to run it. Available from the Help menu in that tool is a document called the Document Themes SDK that I wrote along with a Theme Creation Guide that's from the Win PowerPoint team. Although some of the content in those documents refers to the Theme Builder specifically, much of the content gives you best practices and a deep-dive into the details of what makes up a theme. So, you may find those documents very beneficial even if you don't use the Open XML Theme Builder (though, if you've got access to Windows, I recommend it -- it can be a huge timesaver and everything you can do in that tool is 100% compatible with themes you create for Office for Mac 2008). Click here to access the beta site, where you can download the Theme Builder tool with its included documentation.
A few Open XML developer resources
OpenXMLDeveloper.org - all things Open XML, including access to the complete specification documents (of which there are several thousand pages ... so you won't run out of reading anytime soon :)
The Open XML Formats Resource Center on the MSDN Office Developer Center. This site is a huge wealth of resources, including lots of developer learning tools, the Open XML Format SDK (which is for developers), access to some really great blogs and additional sites, and more... [Note that although a lot of the downloads are Windows-based tools, you won't quickly run out of resources that you can use to learn more for working with Open XML in Mac Office as well.]
Experienced Open XML developers who want access to the specification documents with some guidance from the experts might want to check out the Document Interop Initiative Web site where you can find the standards documentation with implementer notes. Learn more about that here.
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That's all for today. Happy Monday everybody!
