MS Word Zero-Day Flaw Got You Down?

12.13.06 | Apple

It seems MS didn’t quite get the zero-day flaw which was reported earlier this week plugged, with a brand new one being reported today. A patch for the original flaw was posted yesterday in the late afternoon, but pulled shortly afterwards. If you were one of those who were able to download it, MS recommends that any user who applied the patch should remove it.

So, what’s a paranoid Mac user who relies on Word to do until MS gets their act together? Simple. If you don’t already have one, grab yourself a Gmail account, or get invited, and use the Docs & Spreadsheets option to open and edit your Word files in the mean time. Granted, the extensive formatting options of Word (tables, etc.) won’t be available, but if you need to bang out a quick something, it’s a decent alternative until the MacBU in Redmond get their act together.

[Update] Note that Google’s Docs & Spreadsheets option is NOT compatible with Safari, so you’ll need to use, or download, a Gecko based browser. Camino is a good option, as is Bon Echo.

Of course, if you’re running Tiger there’s always TextEdit — which can both open and save files in the Word .doc format. Simply select the option in the save panel, and your Windows friends (who, by the way, the flaw has been patched for already) will be able to open your document without hassle.

Either way, you have a temporary solution to the problem until it’s resolved.