Corel to support Microsoft Office, ODF formats

Corel, the maker of the WordPerfect word processor, said that it intends to support Microsoft's latest Office document formats and its rival, OpenDocument.

The company intends to add both formats to its WordPerfect Office suite in the middle of next year.

On Thursday, Microsoft is set to release to businesses Office 2007, an upgrade of its productivity suite which introduces an XML-based file format called Office Open XML.

Because so many more documents will be created in that format, Corel has decided to make opening and editing those document types an option in the WordPerfect word processor as well as in the company's presentation application and Quattro Pro spreadsheet, said Richard Carriere, general manager of office productivity for Corel.

In addition, Corel in the middle of next year will allow people to open and view word processor documents stored in the OpenDocument format, or ODF.

The decision to support ODF is based on demand, notably from government customers, Carriere said. Corel has 11 million active users worldwide with the majority of them in North America, he said.

Carriere said that Corel's decision to adopt ODF contrasts with that of other ODF backers. In ODF standards meetings, it is clear that Microsoft rivals are backing the format in an attempt to unseat Microsoft's desktop hegemony, he said.

"What we've seen to our disappointment is that the discussions are around lobbying in ways to nail Microsoft in a corner by these industry players," he said. "It's a bit disappointing that not many people think about users of this debate."

Carriere said that Corel expects to ultimately support the ODF spreadsheet and presentation formats if there is customer demand.

[Commander_Spock]

This Looks Like The Battle Of The "SUITES"...

... all over again! That "Microsoft is set to release to businesses Office 2007, an upgrade of its productivity suite which introduces an XML-based file format called Office Open XML" on Thursday according to this article; and, with the company Corel, the maker of the WordPerfect word processor, saying "that it intends to support Microsoft's latest Office document formats and its rival, OpenDocument..."; therefore, with IBM also planning to release an upgrade of its venerable LOTUS NOTES (codenamed HANNOVER)

http://www-142.ibm.com/software/sw-lotus/products/product4.nsf/wdocs/productivitytools

which will also include "a set of office productivity tools which support the Open Document Format (ODF) standard. These productivity tools include word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation capabilities. "Hannover" users will be able to create, manage, edit, and import documents in ODF. The IBM productivity tools can also import and edit Microsoft Office documents and export those documents to ODF for sharing with ODF-comliant applications and solutions."; on the horizon it will appear to be (from the subject line) De Ja Vue all over again!

[`WarpKat]

Isn't It More Polite...

...to list the actual ratified STANDARD before the potential standard?

C'mon C|Net...all that's missing here is some common sense and you got it down pat!

[C.Schroeder]

Competition, at long last

It is long, long overdue that word processor products compete strictly on features using a common file format, instead of trying to lock-in market share with proprietary formats. I've been waiting 20 years for this day to arrive.

[System Tyrant]

Competition

I always like competition. I would love to see all word processing programs use a standardized format by default.

As a WordPerfect user I welcome any good support of ODF and I would also like to see better support for Word's DOC format. I've thought about switching to OpenOffice, but it's still not as easy to use as WordPerfect.

As for features... well I barely use any now. If it wasn't for a few formatting things and third party software support wordpad would probably be just fine. :)

[Commander_Spock]

Who Will Win, Who Will Loose....

... market share in the "SPREADSHEET" space! That "Champion Hugo" is once again appearing to be facing competitive threats from companies such as IBM (Lotus Notes), GOOGLE (Google Spreadsheets), COREL (WordPerfect Office), SUN MICROSYSTEM (StarOffice, OpenOffice) and a few others in the very near future; it is perhaps a good time to speculate on potential winners as well as loosers in "SPREADSHEET" space. The "gut" feeling is that this time around 90% Plus World "Champion Hugo" would definitely be on the receiving (loosing) end from the sharp "jabs" and "punches" that will come from the competition's ODF techniques!