Microsoft boosts support for rival formats in Office

Microsoft is opening up Office to other file formats, slowly but steadily.

On Wednesday, the company said it plans to add new formats to Office 2007, including the OpenDocument Format (ODF), Portable Document Format (PDF), and XML Paper Specification (XPS). The new formats will be added to Office as part of Service Pack 2 for Office 2007, due in the first half of next year.

ODF, a rival document format to Office's native format, has become popular with governments and schools. Microsoft, acknowledging requests for compatibility with ODF, released a converter to allow Word users to open documents saved in the OpenDocument format.

Likewise, the company had earlier made available an add-on for Office that allows users to save documents in PDF format.

Now, the company is going a step further by building ODF and PDF support directly into Office. In addition, customers will now be able to set ODF as the default file format in Office 2007.

The company said it will continue to work with the open-source community to make a translator for ODF available for older versions of Office, such as Office 2000, Office XP, and Office 2003.

"We have heard from customers and governments that they would like to see us do this. Now is the time to announce this support. It's also important to announce this now because we want to get involved in the maintenance of ODF," said Tom Robertson, general manager of Interoperability and Standards at Microsoft.

Microsoft has come under increasing pressure to support rival file formats in Office. Earlier this week, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) said that it has filed a complaint with the European Commission against Microsoft, alleging that Office 2007 will impede educational initiatives because it does not natively support open standards, namely ODF.

Robertson said the timing of Wednesday's announcement was not related to the Becta complaint filed on Monday. Microsoft will, however, discuss the new format support with the EC. "We have ongoing dialogue with the EC, so we will absolutely have a discussion with them about these steps and get whatever feedback they may have on it," Robertson said.

Also on Wednesday, Microsoft said it will add support for the latest version of Open XML, ratified by standards bodies in March, to the next major version of Office, being developed under the code name Office 14. Robertson said no date has been set for office 14's release. Typically, Microsoft releases a new version of Office approximately every three years. Office 2007 was made available to business customers in November 2006.

Microsoft plans to join a technical committee of the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, or OASIS, working on ODF advancements. The company will also take part in the International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) working group being formed to maintain Open XML.

[Mr. Dee]

I thought XPS and PDF support was already available as add ins or are they referring to full support through out the entire suite?

[kojacked]

So where are all of the naysayers who think Microsoft is closed and always out to do no good?

[The_Decider]

MS is closed and never out to do good. The reason they are doing this is because of outside pressures that are increasingly causing Office to be unnecessary. It is a decision of self-interest, not a true desire to be open and helpful.

[Penguinisto]

Forget that - more importantly, where is the big OOXML formatting they paid so much money for @ the ISO?

[Commander_Spock]

Subject: Now They Are "All" Doing Something Positive.

And, As a point of reference here is an extract from a 1998 Lotus Development Corporation communication; Re: "Concerning the issues with 1-2-3 that are talked about in the documentation you gave me, most of the issues are related to converting files between older and newer versions of product and converting documents between Lotus and Microsoft. Anytime a file is saved backwards or saved with an older file format than the format the file was created under, such as saving a 1-2-3 , 97 file for Windows 95 into a WK1 format for DOS, then naturally we are expected to loose certain features due to technology and features that are present now that were not present 8 - 10 years ago. Similarly, if we try to convert a file from Lotus into Excel or Excel into Lotus, due to differences in the products not every feature will be converted perfectly with the file filters that are available. Both Lotus and Microsoft create similar spreadsheet programs; however, there are several differences in both programs and these differences will remain to distinguish the products apart. We do try to design conversion filters that will allow as much of the file formats as possible to be exchanged and converted without disrupting the actual file design and format.

In one of your letters you made mention of the @IRR and @ERR functions in the 1-2-3 product. By design the @IRR (notably "absent" in Open Office) will calculate the Internal Rate of Return; where the @ERR is used in conjunction with other formulas, posted was an "ERR" showing an error was received in the calculations. As far as I can see in the program I cannot find an @ERR function that will allow us to calculate an Economic Rate of Return"

So, Where In The World Is IBM's "Open" Lotus SmartSuite That Will Interoperate With The "Open" Microsoft's Office XX...? And, You heard about this first on CNET NEWS.

[iertry]

It's never going to happen but it would be nice if there was support for apples apges, even as an add in. I have to save all my school work as PDF or .DOC for use in school. If they supported .pages i think all the major file formats would be supported then.

[mike ricciuti]

That's exactly what they are referring to--see the story above. add-ins have been available. Starting with Office SP2, ODF/XPS/PDF support will be built-in. No need for add-ins (for Office 2007 anyway....).

[Commander_Spock]

Re: >>>"Microsoft has come under increasing pressure to support rival file formats in Office. Earlier this week, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) said that it has filed a complaint with the European Commission against Microsoft, alleging that Office 2007 will impede educational initiatives because it does not natively support open standards, namely ODF.

Robertson said the timing of Wednesday's announcement was not related to the Becta complaint filed on Monday. Microsoft will, however, discuss the new format support with the EC. "We have ongoing dialogue with the EC, so we will absolutely have a discussion with them about these steps and get whatever feedback they may have on it," Robertson said...."<<<< Told ya all a long time ago that - It in not going to be over until the "Fat Lady Sings" or "The CONCORDE" flies commercially - Again!

[Commander_Spock]

Subject: Doing First Things First!

Re: "Microsoft plans to join a technical committee of the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, or OASIS, working on ODF advancements. The company will also take part in the International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) working group being formed to maintain Open XML." So, as was stated as the "subject"; Microsoft's joining "a technical committee of the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, or OASIS, working on ODF advancements" ought to have been done years ago in the first instance.

[t8]

They obviously did there job well because they forced Microsoft to do the reasonable.
No complaining and nothing gets done.

That is the way it is.

Microsoft are doing it because if they don't then someone will do it for them or more customers will just used Open Office which saves into that format by default.

[Wookiee-1138]

There's still hope for MS. Praise St. Isidore!

[benjaminstraight]

Finally. Good job microsoft.