by , 2:40 PM EDT, May 15th, 2007

Microsoft announced on Tuesday the immediate availability of its Office Open XML converter application for Mac Office 2004 and v.X users. The stand alone application, using drag and drop, converts Word's OOXML documents to Rich Text Format (RTF).

The stand alone application is provisional until the final, integrated converter is available in Mac Office 2008.

Here are the details on the converter for MS Word OOXML documents.

• The converter provides read-only access to Office Open XML files and converts Word documents to a Rich Text Format (.rtf).
• The converter offers both individual and batch file conversion.
• PowerPoint and Excel drag and drop updates to the converter will be released this summer.
• Upon the release of the final application update, the Mac BU will offer the only free, suite-wide Office Open XML converter tool.
• The final Office 2004 for Mac converter will be a fully integrated solution providing both read and write functionality, and will be available six to eight weeks after the release of Office 2008 for Mac.
• PowerPoint and Excel updates will be available via AutoUpdate.

The free converter is available at the Microsoft Mactopia Website, and is marked in red as "New!"