Microsoft released a couple of Mac applications yesterday, most notably the Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 0.2 (Beta). Sheesh, what a mouthful.

Office Open XML File Format Converter

Here’s the backstory. Back in December 2006, Microsoft released Office 2007 for Windows which uses a new default file format (.docx, .xlsx, etc) that is incompatible with Office for Mac 2004. Then in May, Microsoft released a band-aid fix for this problem with the Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) file converter. The newly released beta of the Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac works to convert more file formats until Office 2007 for Mac is released later this year. Take note: at the moment this new file converter only converts Word and PowerPoint documents. Download it here.

Remote Desktop Connection Client

The 2nd app that Microsoft released is the Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 (Beta). The Remote Desktop Connection Client lets you connect to a Microsoft Windows-based computer and work with programs and files on that computer from your Macintosh computer. Among this version’s new tricks are that it is now a Universal Binary and works with Vista. So if you’ve got that Dell hiding in the corner of your room hooked up to your network, the RDC is a pretty useful tool to have. Download it here.