Microsoft's file format perestroika

Microsoft plans to open Office to other file formats, a move the company hopes will placate government and business concerns about document interoperability.

Describing this as a step to foster greater transparency, Microsoft intends to document how it incorporated Open Document Format support into Office 2007 Service Pack 2, which is still in beta. That product is expected to ship sometime in the first half of 2009.

(You can read the notes on how each element of the specification was implemented at the Document Interoperability Initiative Web site.)

Tuesday's announcement concludes a pledge Microsoft originally made last spring to boost support for rival formats in Office.

For years, IT has struggled with how best to maintain the flow of data across heterogeneous environments without incurring data loss. Monoculture or no, customers often want to save documents in a variety of formats. This has not always worked to Microsoft's advantage. In fact, last year, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency filed a complaint with the European Commission in which it alleged that Office 2007 would impede educational initiatives because it failed to natively support open standards, in particular, ODF.

Doug Mahugh, a project manager at Microsoft who deals with interoperability issues connected with the Office software suite, described the steps taken today within the broader context of disclosure, transparency, and format support.

"To get there, we found that it was not just sufficient to conform to a standard. We needed transparency about all the design decisions involved in getting to that standard...it was a way of pulling together lot of the things we were doing in interoperability."

Rightly or not, the perception was that Microsoft Office did not treat ODF as first class citizen.

"That kind of feedback is why we built ODF support into SP 2," Mahugh said.

He added that in coming months, Microsoft will publish implementation notes for Open XML with the same kind of information.

[Penguinisto]

As long as it actually includes ODF (and not as some buried plug-in you have to spend forever hunting down), we already have it documented. :)

[rapier1]

The spec is documented but since implementation of a standard can take many forms documentation will be handy. If you read the RFCs for SSH you'll understand the protocol but the way in which that protocol is implemented varies widely from OpenSSH to PuTTY to SSH.COM to Van ****. Understanding the implementation is critical to actually understanding how these vendors offerings actually work in the real world. For example, while SSHv2 is a multiplexed protocol it doesn't address how per channel flow control should be (or if it even has to be) implemented which can lead to dramatic performance differences (cf HPN-SSH vs OpenSSH).

[Penguinisto]

Please read the following in the spirit of gentle humor:

"WHOOSH!"

That is all. :)

/P

[UnnDunn]

Of course, the Open Source "Hate Microsoft First" crowd will simply find something else to ***** about.

[Mr. Dee]

Why are they being so stiff with news on Office 14? I here that release will out of the box support ODF. I thought maybe would withheld SP2 for Office 2007 and release Office 14 first to draw upgrader's then release the support with SP2 after.

[MadLyb]

My concern is going to be interoperability.

While everyone was 'locked' to a format/application, I could share document with someone else and know it would render the same, but now it has the potential to wander from one app to the next. We have always dealt with this issue with DXF (the AutoCAD document interchange standard), and even the rockbed PDF has seen some issues in the last couple of years.

For browsing, we have W3C that established standards for how particular HTML standards should behave and render, and I think the same will be needed for each class of these documents to insure the presentation is maintained.

[Cube Over]

Still they will find a way to make sure you're skewed when you try to migrate away from Office2007.
That's their strategy, as we have seen so far.

[disambiguated]

I think you meant 'glasnost', not 'perestroika'.

[user_x90]

why do you say "perestroika"? ... should be "Microsoft's file format glasnost" makes more sense!

[Commander_Spock]

Why pay for the Microsoft's Office Suite when you can get get IBM's Lotus Symphony Office Suite for free!!!

http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home

[ranpha]

If only Symphony isn't crap, that would be a good idea. OpenOffice 3 is a better alternative of Microsoft Office. Free too, just in case you do not know.

[Commander_Spock]

Why pay for the Microsoft's Office Suite when you can get get the "Best Desktop Application" according to - ChannelWeb, Monday December 08, 2008" - IBM's Lotus Symphony Office Suite for free!!!

http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home

[shootthecops]

you're naive if you're not already asking "whats the trick microsoft?"
my guess is that they're going to be pulling a W3C, fracturing the .odt standards like they did web standards.
but i want to give microsoft a little credit for being creative, in their sabotage approach, let's see what damage they can wreak.

http://politicsoftechnology.blogspot.com/

[Mam00th]

Wow you really think Microsoft is the mother of all evil do you?

[shootthecops]

you say that mam00th, yet i cited a specific example. looks like you just made a Freudian slip.

[Sumatra-Bosch]

Don't count on glasnost or perestroika. Be prepared for diabolical subterfuge, from creatures that are a cross between the monster from Alien and Hannibal Lecter.