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Telecommunications Microsoft to support Open Document Format
Telecommunications Microsoft to support Open Document Format | Microsoft to support Open Document Format |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Thursday, 06 July 2006 | |
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Last month the Belgian Government became the first in the World to move to ODF, and the Government of Massachusetts has been working towards this goal, but is facing strong internal resistance. Microsoft has launched, with partners, the Open XML Translator project to create tools to build a technical bridge between the Microsoft Office Open XML formats and ODF. The tools will be made available as free, downloadable add-ins for several older versions of Microsoft Office and will be developed and licensed as open source software. "The translation tools will be broadly available to the industry for use with other individual or commercial projects to accelerate document interoperability and expand customer choice between Open XML and other technologies," Microsoft said. However, in announcing the plan, Microsoft was at pains to stress the superiority of its proprietary Open XML document formats. " Open XML and ODF were designed to meet very different customer requirements...The Open XML formats are unique in their compatibility and fidelity to billions of Office documents, helping protect customers' intellectual investments. Open XML formats are also distinguished by their approach to accessibility support for disabled workers, file performance and flexibility to empower organisations to access and integrate their own XML data with the documents they use every day. In contrast, ODF focuses on more limited requirements, is architected very differently and is now under review in OASIS subcommittees to fill key gaps such as spreadsheet formulas, macro support and support for accessibility options." Microsoft warns that, as a result of these differences, "Certain compromises and customer disclosures will be a necessary part of translating between the two formats." Microsoft is developing the translation tools in collaboration with French IT solution provider Clever Age and several independent software vendors, including Aztecsoft in India and Dialogika in Germany. A prototype version of the first translator added to Word 2007 has been posted on the open source software development Web site SourceForge http://sourceforge.net/projects/odf-converter. The complete version of the Word translation tool is expected to be available free from the download site by the end of 2006, with add-ins for Excel and PowerPoint expected in 2007. Older versions of Office will have access to the translation tool via a free Compatibility Pack, which also provides free updates to enable Open XML format support.
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