One of the more eagerly awaited features of Office 2007, the ability to save files in PDF, will now have to be downloaded separately.

The exact reasons for this are unclear but it seems that Microsoft and Adobe were unable to agree on how it should be included. Microsoft will make this feature available as a separate download.

The PDF format has become very popular as it guarantees that a document will look as it is intended, regardless of missing fonts or images on another computer. It has been included on competing products such as OpenOffice and WordPerfect Office for many years.

Thankfully, software such as PDF reDirect can be used to make PDF files from Office 2007. This software appears to Windows as a printer and so works with any program.

A Microsoft spokesperson told Computeractive that the company had made a significant effort to accommodate Adobe but it reached the point where it felt that Adobe's demands were too much and decided to remove the feature altogether.
Adobe has remained reticent on the subject. A statement from the company said that they do not comment on discussions with partners as a matter of policy. It denied rumours of any legal action against Microsoft and maintained that the " sole motivation is to maintain a fair, competitive landscape in the software industry".

Microsoft is also planning to make support for the OASIS OpenDocument file format available as a separate download. The OASIS format was recently ratified by the International Standards Organisation.