Microsoft has canceled plans to include an automatic way to save documents in the popular PDF format in the next version of its Office software, amid an ongoing dispute with Adobe Systems Inc.
Instead, users who purchase Office 2007, will have to download separate, free software to save documents created in Office products such as Word and Excel as PDFs.
The spat with Adobe, which developed the popular PDF, or Portable Document Format, comes as Microsoft is preparing to launch its own competing format for saving documents that cannot be easily modified. Microsoft's technology is called XPS, which stands for XML Paper Specification. Microsoft had previously said Office 2007 would be able to save PDFs.
Adobe's PDF is popular with government agencies and businesses in part because it allows users to share documents that can't easily be edited or changed.
Also, users do not need to have a copy of Microsoft Word or another paid product to see documents, and reader software is available for a wide range of computers.
Currently, creating a PDF file from Office requires separate software, ranging from the $449 Adobe Acrobat Professional to free products like Pdf995.
Other word-processing products also ship with tools for savings documents as PDFs.
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