No fix for Mac Office bug
Following yesterday's alert of a bug in Mac versions of Office, Microsoft has acknowledged the flaw which appears to be similar to a bug found in Office 95 earlier this year. The bug allows previously deleted text to be viewed in a saved file.
User information, or other data stored in files created by Excel, PowerPoint and Word may be included in files when they are saved even if they are deleted by the user. These could include passwords, personal data or private messages and according to BugNet this information is visible if files are opened as ASCII files in text editors like Notepad or BBEdit. The information is not viewable if the files are opened in their native format.
Microsoft says the bug first appeared in Office 95 with a fix made available in March. But David Bennie product marketing manager at Microsoft admits the company has no clear idea when the Mac problem will be fixed. "We posted the Office '95 fix in March in Service Pack 1, but no, I cannot give a date when this will be resolved for the Mac version."
Bennie says Microsoft is working on a fix and if Mac users are concerned about using Office they should go to Microsoft's support Web.
Apple officials were not available for comment