Cnet reports that Microsoft has released a free download for Office 2007 that will allow users to Save as PDF in addition to other Microsoft formats. Microsoft had originally planned to make this feature part of the Office 2007 release but Adobe asked that it be removed. Instead it will be offered as a separate free download.

XPS which stands for "XML Paper Specification" is a new Microsoft format for paginated documents which is similar in function to PDF. The XPS Document format is an open, cross-platform document format that allows customers to effortlessly create, share, print, and archive paginated documents.

Open XML is the new standard default file format for Microsoft Office 2007. Open XML format is a compact, robust file format that enables better data integration between documents and back-end systems.

Open Document Format, ODF, will also be offered for open source users who prefer that document format.

So, to recap, Microsoft Office 2007 will have a new file format to save documents called Open XML. The open source equivalent is ODF which will also be supported.

If you want to preserve documents in a paginated WYSIWYG format Microsoft has a new format called XPS. In response to customer requests Microsoft is also offering "Save as PDF".