Description of 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2 (SP2) and of Microsoft Office Language Pack 2007 SP2

2007 Microsoft Office suite Service Pack 2 (SP2) gives customers the latest updates for the 2007 Office suite. This service pack includes two main categories of fixes:

• Previously unreleased fixes that were made specifically for this service pack.
  • In addition to general product fixes, these fixes include improvements in stability, in performance, and in security.
• All the public updates, security updates, cumulative updates, and hotfixes that were released through February 2009.

Because Office service packs are cumulative, you do not have to install Service Pack 1 before you install Service Pack 2. Service Pack 2 includes all of the fixes that were included in Service Pack 1.

How to obtain and install the service packs

This service pack update is available on the Microsoft Download Center. To download the service pack, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

• 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B444BF18-79EA-46C6-8A81-9DB49B4AB6E5

  (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B444BF18-79EA-46C6-8A81-9DB49B4AB6E5)
• Microsoft Office Language Pack 2007 Service Pack 2
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=E1203DB2-1CC9-4809-9B6E-3F232CB8899F

  (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=E1203DB2-1CC9-4809-9B6E-3F232CB8899F)

For a complete list of all released SP2 packages, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Overview of Service Pack 2 (SP2) improvements

Description of some big areas of improvement that are included in SP2.

Microsoft Office Access

• Lets you export reports to Microsoft Office Excel.
• Supports memo fields in the mailing label wizard for addresses.
• Fixes issues that occur in the import data wizards, in report printing and previewing, in macros, in Excel integration, and in date filters.
• Includes updates to Access Developer Extensions.

Microsoft Office Excel

• Improves the charting mechanism in Excel 2007. This includes better parity with Office 2003, improved robustness, and targeted performance improvements.
• Adds a chart object model to Word and to PowerPoint.
• Improves shapes that are surfaced in Excel. This includes better parity with Office 2003 and targeted performance improvements.
• Improves the method by which Excel prints graphical content, especially when it prints to PCL printers.
• Adds conversion rates to the Excel Euro Currency Tools add-in for the Maltese lira and for the Cypriot pound.

Microsoft Office Groove

• Improves Groove 2007 form tools. In particular, international users in certain locales will benefit from correct interpretation of spaces for digit grouping in currency values.
• Limits the number of file-sharing workspaces to 64 to make sure that all workspaces can be synchronized. This limit applies only to adding new file-sharing workspaces. If you already have more than 64 file-sharing workspaces, you can continue to use them.
• Optimizes synchronization reliability.

Microsoft Office InfoPath

• Fixes for overall security and stability in InfoPath 2007
• Provides improved compatibility between InfoPath forms and other Microsoft products, such as Groove and Outlook.

Microsoft Office OneNote

• Improves SharePoint sync functionality. This helps reduce the load on SharePoint servers, and it helps produce fewer sync errors.
• If the OneNote tray notification icon was previously dismissed, the icon will now appear in the notification area. Additionally, this icon can now be dismissed only in the Options dialog box in OneNote.
• Adds support for Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for the Japanese language.

Microsoft Office Outlook

• Performance improvements that apply to the following general responsiveness areas:
  • Startup
    Removes lengthy operations from initial startup.
  • Shutdown
    Makes Outlook exit predictably despite pending activities.
  • Folder View and Switch
    Improves view rendering and folder switching.
• Calendar improvements
  Improves underlying data structures and the general reliability of calendar updates.
• Data file checks
  Greatly reduces the number of scenarios in which you receive the following error message when you start Outlook:
  The data file 'file name' was not closed properly. This file is being checked for problems.
• Search reliability
  Improves search reliability when you use SP2 with Windows Desktop Search 4
  (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/choose/windowssearch4.mspx)
  .
• Improvements to Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
  There are now fewer duplicated items.
• Object Model improvements
  Now contains many customer-driven fixes.

For more information about these improvements and details about other Outlook fixes, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft Office PowerPoint

• Improves the control of shape editing while you are zoomed in.
• Provides faster file resaves.
• Improves image quality after files are saved in the .jpeg, .png, and .gif formats.
• Provides better text representation when the representation is saved in earlier PowerPoint formats.
• Fixes several printer-specific problems.
• Provides better compatibility with Explorer preview in Windows Vista.
• Provides fuller integration of the Microsoft Office Excel Chart Object Model.

Microsoft Office Publisher

• Improves the printing of double-sided postcards and small booklets.
• Fixes issues in print preview, in HTML layout of grouped objects in Internet Explorer 8, in tab-stop, in e-mail, in content library, and in Design Checker.

Microsoft Office Word

• Improves the fidelity of .pdf and .xps output.
• Improves Outlook performance.
• Provides fuller integration of the Office Excel Chart Object Model.

Changes that affect multiple products

File formats

• OpenDocument Format (ODF) support
  SP2 lets you open, edit, and save documents in version 1.1 of the ODF for Word
  (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/FX100649251033.aspx)
  , for Excel
  (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/FX100646951033.aspx)
  , and for PowerPoint
  (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/FX100648951033.aspx)
  . Users of these Office programs can now open, edit, and save files in the OpenDocument Text (*.odt), OpenDocument Spreadsheet (*.ods), and OpenDocument Presentations (*.odp) formats.
• Extensible file formats
  Extensible File Formats: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint now include a converter interface that lets you plug third-party custom file formats into these Office programs. A developer can create a converter for files of a particular extension. When this converter is installed on a user?s computer, the custom file format effectively behaves like a built-in file format. Specifically, users can open files of this format and save them by using the Open or Save UI. They can even set the custom format as their default file format. For more information, visit the following MSDN Web site:
  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd300649.aspx

  (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd300649.aspx)
• Built-in Save As PDF/XPS support
  PDF/XPS support is built into SP2 for Word, for Excel, and for PowerPoint. Users no longer have to download the add-in separately.

Office graphics

• Improves application performance when many graphic objects are present, especially for Excel 2007.
• Fixes several issues that involve the object model. These fixes let you better achieve parity with Office 2003 when the object model works with graphical objects.
• Increases printing fidelity of graphical objects in many scenarios.
• A new XML-based representation of each SmartArt graphic in a document is saved with the file to optimize interoperability. This new feature uses the standard DrawingML markup to describe the visual properties of the SmartArt graphic.
• Improves the Edit Points feature. This enables more accurate shape editing and increased interoperability with Office 2003.

Office security

• Fixes certain scenarios in which documents in trusted locations were treated as non-trusted.
• Improves several cryptographic or encryption scenarios.
• Provides a method to ignore time stamping expiration.
• Provides better security warnings when a certificate is revoked.
• An updated password algorithm that is in sync with the document ISO requirements.
• Provides an ISO-OOXML-compliant password verifier for Excel, for PowerPoint, and for Word.
• Enables smarter AVAPI blocking for encrypted macros.

Service pack removal

• 2007 Microsoft Office SP2 is the first service pack to support the removal of client updates through both the command line and the Microsoft Service Pack Uninstall Tool for the 2007 Microsoft Office Suite. The Service Pack Uninstall Tool is available as a separate download.
  
  For more information about this tool, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
  954914

  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954914/ )

  Microsoft Service Pack Uninstall Tool for the 2007 Microsoft Office suite

Input method editor (IME)

• Improves the Japanese Input Method Editor (IME). This includes improved conversion accuracy and improved self-learning functionality.

Downloadable list of issues that the service pack fixes

A workbook is available that lists the issues that are fixed by this service pack.

Download the 2007 Office Service Pack 2 Changes.xlsx package now.

Note This workbook is in the English language. It will not be translated into any other languages.

Known issues and behavior changes

After you install this service pack, you may notice the following issues:

• Chart text object model calls do not work on a sub-string that is designated by parameters to the Characters object.
  
  
• The Excel ChartWizard command programmatically exposes incorrect XValues for some series after the XValue is changed. However, the ChartType property works correctly.
  
  
• After you apply SP2, the Send to OneNote 2007 option may no longer appear. You can resolve this issue by running a "repair on Office" operation.
  
  
• In Outlook, assume that a meeting organizer sends a meeting request to an attendee by using a POP account. Then, the attendee responds to the meeting request and types a message in the response. In this situation, the organizer receive the response, but the message contents may be lost.
  
  
• In PowerPoint, assume that a section of text that contains multiple languages is selected. In this situation, the language of that text selection is reported as English (U.S.) instead of being blank. This is visible both on the status bar (at the bottom of a PowerPoint window) and in the Language dialog box.
  
  
• 968767

  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968767/ )

  The Chart axis settings may be wrong if both axes are turned off and the axis settings are automatic in Excel 2007
• 948683

  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948683/ )

  You cannot use Microsoft Visual Basic for Application (VBA) to modify a chart that you have inserted in PowerPoint 2007
• 968769

  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968769/ )

  Groove 2007 Service Pack 1 and earlier versions of Groove 2007 crash after you create or join lots of file sharing workspaces
• 968285

  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968285/ )

  On a client computer that has certain Help files for 2007 Office programs installed, an additional SP2 entry may be incorrectly displayed in Add or Remove Programs after you install the 2007 Office SP2
• 968773

  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968773/ )

  When Outlook 2007 is running in Cached mode, users do not see some new e-mail messages
• 968918

  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968918/ )

  The Change Calendar Time Zone button is removed in the Time Zone dialog box in Outlook 2007 after you apply the 2007 Office suite Service Pack 2
• 968776

  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968776/ )

  When you move one of the default drawing guides on a slide in a PowerPoint 2007 document, the drawing guide becomes invisible
• 968779

  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968779/ )

  You are prompted to convert your document to the Office Open XML format when you save a document in the encrypted binary file format in Word 2007, Excel 2007, or PowerPoint 2007 on a computer that has the 2007 Microsoft Office suite SP 2 installed
• 968781

  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968781/ )

  The 2007 Office suite Service Pack 2 provides a new ISO-OOXML-compliant password verifier for Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007, and Word 2007
• 968173

  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968173/ )

  Known issues that you may experience when you install the 2007 Microsoft Office suite Service Pack 2 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Service Pack 2

Technical information

For more information about this service pack, including a list of files affected, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: