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MS Office to support ODF, other open formats

electronista.com — Microsoft today broke from its tradition of primarily endorsing in-house formats by revealing that it will add support to Office for a number of universal standards outside of its own. Office 2007 Service Pack 2 will support the Open Document Format (ODF) touted by OpenOffice, Sun's StarOffice, and other third-party tools

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  • ninja0, on 05/22/2008, -4/+126Finally!
    • over900000, on 05/22/2008, -9/+13I am looking forward to how open source nut huggers will spin this into a anti-MS rant. MS can't win either way, they don't include ODF they get bashed. They include it and it is some kind of deliberate plan to take over the world.
      • GMorgan, on 05/22/2008, -1/+17Well opening and saving to a format that looks a bit like ODF isn't a sufficient requirement for support. To support ODF MS must:
        1. Produce an implementation as complete as Office will allow.
        2. Utilise the standardisation process for extending ODF in areas where it is weak (this process is already well under way, most the obvious problems are fixed). No ad hoc proprietary extensions.
        3. Provide high fidelity conversion between formats. It's possible to transfer between the formats with minimal document corruption.

        If they follow all three points that would be sufficient and then MS can receive credit for supporting ODF. If they don't then they aren't really supporting ODF at all and it's merely a traditional EEE process.
    • openworld, on 05/22/2008, -2/+3This is acceptance. and this is desperation... http://digg.com/tech_news/Micrsoft_We_ll_PAY_you_t ...
    • Micktion, on 05/22/2008, -0/+17T'his isn't new. The plugin has been available from....

      http://odf-converter.sourceforge.net/

      for quite some time...

      Note the contributors...

      http://odf-converter.sourceforge.net/#contributors

      Microsoft funded this project.
      • growler1, on 05/22/2008, -0/+4Nice one. Thanks for pointing this out.
    • boogie606, on 05/22/2008, -1/+1*****.....
  • mossblaser, on 05/22/2008, -16/+145Wrong catagory: this is microsoft news and not Linux/Unix news
    • mazza558, on 05/22/2008, -24/+13Except that the issue of open standards is in line with the FOSS way of thinking.
      • mossblaser, on 05/22/2008, -0/+21And this is the Linux/Unix section, not the FOSS section.
        • mazza558, on 05/22/2008, -3/+2There's no FOSS section.
        • nmnnotmyname, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1Go with the other related topic: Microsoft news. Oh wait...
    • jenshik, on 05/22/2008, -1/+27Linux/unix is just that. Linux/unix.
      This story is most definitely about microsoft, so why are people digging mossblaser down?
      • Eldoo77, on 05/22/2008, -4/+1Use the nice little "Reply button"... OK. Thanks.
        • Buu700, on 05/22/2008, -0/+5He did?
        • nmnnotmyname, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2As for you, Eldoo77, next time, Don't use the "nice little 'Reply button'".
    • bj1989, on 05/22/2008, -12/+10Because Linux users will be relatively more interested in this than people who read the Microsoft news?
    • mikem94590, on 05/22/2008, -2/+3As much as I agree, the catagory really isn't my primary concern. The real important thing that Microsoft has given in to the opendocument format, and will support it in the next service pack of Office.
    • PubStomp, on 05/22/2008, -2/+0arent they both the same?


      eventually?
      • Buu700, on 05/22/2008, -1/+2Are not _whom_ both the same, may I ask?
      • nmnnotmyname, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2Linux and UNIX you mean? We're talking about Linux/Unix vs Microsoft O_ot

        News is actually related to Microsoft -> Belongs in Microsoft area
  • Commodus, on 05/22/2008, -17/+29I'd argue this belongs here because it shows Microsoft embracing Linux-friendly standards - you won't have to convert all your ODFs to DOCs or other formats!
    • cquinnd, on 05/22/2008, -0/+4Unless you want to. Which puts it equally in the other camp.
    • BeefBaron, on 05/22/2008, -0/+8No doubt the default save type will still be OOXML so this wont help the adoption of truly open standards.
      • djchester, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3The default type is optional from SP2 of Office 2007 and that is the best thing about this news. Now everyone can save to ODF by default.
      • JasonCox, on 05/22/2008, -3/+4You'll be pleased to know then that OOXML is now an open standard, Microsoft had to give up control of it to get it to become a standard.

        Just because the FOSS folks like ODF doesnt mean it's the only 'open' format.
        • GMorgan, on 05/22/2008, -0/+9Yes but MS don't support OOXML. What Office 2007 produces bares no resemblance to that Frankenstein standard.
        • D4rkDrago0n, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3Office 2007 does produce OOXML


          just not ISO-OOXML
        • nmnnotmyname, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1Oh please, OOXML is so far from an open standard it's ridicules. You know why ISO accepted it? Because Microsoft has a ***** of Money.
        • D4rkDrago0n, on 05/24/2008, -0/+2http://www.ecma-international.org/news/TC45_curren ...

          there is the OOXML spec (much more documented and open than ODF)

          OOXML is more open that ODF is, so get off your high-horse and accept the fact Microsoft's trying to do some good.
    • sarixe, on 05/22/2008, -7/+2OpenOffice isn't for linux, it's for java, which implies most systems.
      • GMorgan, on 05/22/2008, -0/+11Open Office is written in C++. The amount of Java in it is tiny and is getting smaller all the time.
    • InorganicMatter, on 05/22/2008, -1/+5Wait, so OpenOffice is only available on Linux? Then what was all that about it being cross-platform and also available on Windows, Solaris, BSD, OpenVMS, OS/2, IRIX, and Mac OS X?

      Face it: you're just trying to shill up support from the easily-riled-up Linux fanbase. Buried as trolling. Enough of this crap.
    • Wakuko, on 05/22/2008, -1/+6Embrace, Extend, Extin...

      IT'S A TRAP!!!
  • argylesocks, on 05/22/2008, -0/+47This is great news for me. I use OpenOffice, Lotus Symphony, Google Docs and Word between my workplaces and OOo/Word at home. Word is the weak link currently due to the lack of native ODF. I will feel a little better about using it now.
    • JosephStalin, on 05/22/2008, -1/+4You can get ODF support in MS Office now:

      http://www.sun.com/software/star/odf_plugin/index. ...
      • brettmurf, on 05/22/2008, -0/+4The thing is that if you are an Open Office user, this means that you don't have to worry about other people or computers being able to see it. For when you send it to someone in the workplace or online to a friend, or you just aren't on your own computer.
        Good link though.
        • Buu700, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1Because all Office users have not only the latest release, but the latest service pack as well.
      • argylesocks, on 05/26/2008, -0/+1I'm not going to install, nor am i allowed to install a plugin on every copy of ms word I use.
    • ramiro, on 05/22/2008, -1/+1Wow, Lotus Symphony! I didn't know it still existed. I remember it used to cost thousands of dollars when they came in 5 1/4" diskettes and now they let you use it for free.
      • TimDigg, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2Lotus Symphony is the *****, I use it now....Way better than OO imo, but then again I haven't tried the new versions...
    • MikeCerm, on 05/22/2008, -1/+1All of those applications currently support Microsoft's old-school .doc format. Why not use that? Is having an XML-based file really that important? Does it really matter that the same 60KB .doc file can be stored as a 35KB .odt file?
      • rowjimmy, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3you answered your own question. yes, having an xml based file that can be read by anything is really taht important. yes, having storage space cut in half is really that important.

        i hope you forget the /sarcasm tag and aren't really that much of an idiot
  • ptFoe, on 05/22/2008, -1/+73A lot of the credit has to go to British schools foundation (can't remember their name) that announced MS should support ODF.
  • adila01, on 05/22/2008, -5/+13This announcement maybe a tipping point for Microsoft's control of the Office arena. Hopefully other office suits, especially Open Office, can now grab some more market share :D
    • grumpyrain, on 05/22/2008, -0/+35I have no problem with Microsoft Office being the most popular office tool. I do have a problem with using proprietary formats like Doc and OOXML as a thinly guised excuse for vendor lockin. I use Office 2007 because it is the benchmark. Open Office is certainly a capable suite, but it is not an Office substitute any more than The GIMP is a Photoshop substitute.

      But just because I like Office 2007 doesn't mean I want to buy Office 2010. In 2010 I want to buy (or use for free) the product that best meets my needs, and I do not accept incompatible file formats as an artificial barrier to this choice.
      • InorganicMatter, on 05/22/2008, -4/+1Except that OOXML isn't proprietary. OpenOffice.org could easily implement it. What part of Office OPEN XML is hard to understand?
        • init100, on 05/22/2008, -0/+5A name is just a name, it doesn't say anything about the product. That a product name includes the word "open" does not mean that the product is open, although the manufacturer surely would like people to think so.

          In addition, Microsoft OOXML is far from equal to ISO OOXML. Microsoft said that support for ISO OOXML won't be in Office until Office 14.
        • grumpyrain, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1It is more open than doc, but if a file format includes tags in the specification but fails to completely disclose every technical nuance of their meaning, it is a proprietary format.

          Or perhaps you can explain to the rest of the world how Open Office can correctly implement the "formatAsWord95" tag?
        • Gumboot, on 05/23/2008, -0/+0Apparently "formatAsWord95" was documented as part of the BRM process.
    • edupin, on 05/22/2008, -2/+0Not bad
    • widgetmaker, on 05/22/2008, -0/+15Office is by far the best productivity suite around, Open office is ok but no where near as good (especially compared to excel)
      However supporting open formats is extremely good news as it does alow greater competition.
    • wbgo, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2Probably not, but it will at least put pressure on them to compete on quality, features and price rather than leveraging the lock-in/lock-out of their formats.
    • InorganicMatter, on 05/22/2008, -1/+2Except that OpenOffice still doesn't have something to match OneNote, and Calc doesn't have 10% of the power Excel does.
  • pHr34kY, on 05/22/2008, -1/+32Yes! The system works! I'm not fussed if it uses OOXML by default and OO uses ODF, as long as both platforms support both formats, nobody will have problems.
    • nickert0n, on 05/22/2008, -4/+6Have you ever had an MS office .doc opened in Open Office or Saved an Open Office file in .doc format then open it in MS Office?

      They ***** the formatting up for eachother, this is just a stab back at Open Office cause watch they will make it so it looks like open office is corrupting the documents and Microsoft will spin it like "To avoid this problem run a pure Microsoft Office Environment" typical Micorosoft Move, its a trojan horse guided by retards no more no less
      • MikeCerm, on 05/22/2008, -0/+5It's not like it's entirely Microsoft's fault. Have you ever opened a webpage in Firefox, Opera, and Safari? Each will always look different (particularly fonts), and they will sometimes look drastically different (rendering errors).

        I'm just staying that, even in a space where there are open standards, there is no consistency. Different entities make decisions on how closely they'll adhere, and things get screwed up.
      • pHr34kY, on 05/23/2008, -0/+1It looks like the converter itself will be an open source project, and both OOXML and ODF are open formats. Microsoft will have little control over how well the conversion works (or fails to).

        Of course, the only problem will be the underlying problems in OOXML itself.
        • nickert0n, on 05/23/2008, -0/+1So what your saying is theoretically im wrong, but realistically im right?
  • grumpyrain, on 05/22/2008, -0/+12The article doesn't quote sources. Is there any official announcement?
    • grumpyrain, on 05/22/2008, -0/+19Replying to myself:

      "The 2007 Microsoft Office system already provides support for 20 different document formats within Microsoft Office Word, Office Excel and Office PowerPoint. With the release of Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) scheduled for the first half of 2009, the list will grow to include support for XML Paper Specification (XPS), Portable Document Format (PDF) 1.5, PDF/A and Open Document Format (ODF) v1.1."

      http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/may0 ...

      /Lets out a large cheer.
    • AngelBunny, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3a court order from last year was going to require to make MS office formats open source but instead MS found a way around it and embraced the linux open source formats then said they are supporting open source formats. Not necessarily the same but it is good enough for me.
  • TheWindBlows, on 05/22/2008, -0/+6Thank goodness, though by Microsoft doing something like this means they may be planning on some serious innovation to blow everything else out of the water far futher than something like MS Office 2007/8 (they did a good job with that but products are starting to catch up in one way or another.).
  • badassninja, on 05/22/2008, -8/+16Oh good, I won't have to save to .doc for people who won't better themselfs for free.
  • prophetpimp, on 05/22/2008, -4/+71People should keep in mind that MS is doing this due to EU insistence rather then on their own accord. There is a high chance the implementation might be halfassed.
    • JasonCox, on 05/22/2008, -2/+6If the EU is insisting Microsoft do this, than why is the EU investigating Microsoft for doing this?
      • wbgo, on 05/22/2008, -1/+9There are two separate things happening. On the one hand, the EU Competition Commission is after Microsoft for their anti-competitive practices and de-facto monopoly (they're after big EU companies, too, but MS, being a US company, doesn't have a government within the EU sticking up for it).

        On the other hand, many government bodies, including other parts of the EU, are requiring that open formats be used for documents and, consequently, that these open formats must be supported by software paid for by the government. They aren't using it as a stick to beat MS—indeed many government bodies have been pleading with MS to adopt open formats—it's simply the fact that governments want to cut their costs by leveraging IT, but a government CANNOT require its citizens to use a proprietary format when a perfectly satisfactory open and free alternative exists, at least not in the EU.
  • rsys, on 05/22/2008, -19/+0hmmmmmmmmm........untill Office able to run at Linux without using WINE... than it's will be finally....
    • yetAnotherCroc, on 05/22/2008, -1/+4We know that wont ever happen. At least not as long as Windows has a majority of the desktops.
    • mvent2, on 05/22/2008, -0/+6Windows should be able to run all Linux apps without any special libraries either!

      Your comment proves you obviously don't know what you're talking about.
  • possiblyneil, on 05/22/2008, -6/+23I bet it will not work well even though it should. Microsoft are bullies, they can support odf without much problem because it is a fully open standard. People from Sourceforge probably had problems getting a docx converter working because it is not fully open.
    None of this is surprising MS have been pulling stunts like this for years.
  • crapuccino, on 05/22/2008, -3/+39Wonder how many proprietary "improvements" they are going to make to the ODF standard?
    • dsmx, on 05/22/2008, -3/+4I thought they were known as features?
      (features is marketing babble for bugs)
    • nmnnotmyname, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1Shush, don't give em any ideas.
  • GhostFreeman, on 05/22/2008, -6/+43Embrace, Extend, Extinguish. I'll enjoy it while I can.
  • silviumc, on 05/22/2008, -14/+28Very probably it will not support .odf properly. They will do a half-assed job, just to be able to say it does. Most likely documents from OpenOffice.org will not look the same in MS-Office, defeating the whole purpose of it.

    They are evil.
    • ilikeeggs8877, on 05/22/2008, -3/+16they're legitimately doing something good (though probably somewhat unwillingly) and you still bitch about it... stfu and just give credit where its due sometimes...
      • wbgo, on 05/22/2008, -5/+5They will get credit when they implement exemplary ODF support.

        For now, they'll quite justifiably get a lot of suspicion. Microsoft has been here many times before and has every single time deliberately made sure other stuff doesn't work properly with theirs.

        It's very kind of you to offer them so much benefit of the doubt, but I'm expecting the usual from MS. It's all they know.
        • FKnight, on 05/22/2008, -2/+5Microsoft will never implement good ODF support because the people who will be judging whether it's "good' or not are people who have this fascinating ability to constantly relocate goal posts.

        • nmnnotmyname, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1Why is this getting dugg down? Does anyone not forget Microsoft Internet Explorer? They're doing it again, hopefully this time it won't be disappointing.
        • wbgo, on 05/23/2008, -0/+1FKnight: MS's implementation will be judged against the accepted, published standard. And it will almost certainly not be standards-compliant, i.e. 'buggy', to the extent that Word ODF docs will cause problems with other software.

          They did it with HTTP and HTML, they did it with email protocols, they even broke their own SMB protocol to screw with Samba.
  • dkitch, on 05/22/2008, -11/+18I'll always use the best tool for the job within my pricerange. Office 2007 is leaps and bounds above OpenOffice, Google Docs, and any other word processing program in terms of ease of use, user interface, functionality, etc. I just don't understand the "FOSS or die" folks. I can understand if the price is in the thousands of dollars (i.e. Photoshop, but Paint.NET beats GIMP anyday as an alternative), but $100 for a quality piece of software that blows the free alternative out of the water is nothing. If I was building a house, and I was offered a free community-built hacksaw as my only tool, I'd turn it down and buy a professionally-crafted $100 table saw instead. The amount of time and effort that it takes to do it the free way is worth more than $100 to me
    • Biznarie, on 05/22/2008, -7/+8Would be nice if office actually was $100, its more like $300-400 CDN for Office2007, which is a huge penny just for some "ease of use" when you can just download open office which is free and just as good as 2003 if not better, it all depends on someone needs and I doubt most people really need Office 2007 they just need a word processor open office is fine for that.
    • crapuccino, on 05/22/2008, -5/+8I've been using OO.org for years now, and I've never had many problems with it other than .DOC import from certain old versions of word, and PPT import into Impress which was nevel good, although I would accept that Impress does need work.
      Q: Where are you buying Office 2007 for $100?
      In my experience, OO.org is in a similar place to Office 2000. The additional features in later versions of office I view as little more than fluff. I strongly suspect I would never use any of them. OO.org is quite good enough for the vast majority of tasks.
      I would agree with the Gimp/Photoshop thing though, however I don't use either. Paint Shop Pro 7 all the way for me. Lightweight and easy to use. Later versions tried too hard to be Photoshop and got bloated. Once again, it's good enough for the vast majority of tasks.
      As for your table-saw analogy, that's just ridiculous and wrong in so many ways.
      Keep sucking the MS kool-aid - it's good for you. I'll take my competitive advantage using OSS and invest the license fee in a more productive area of my business.
      • Chewie67, on 05/22/2008, -1/+3"I've been using OO.org for years now, and I've never had many problems with it other than..."

        That's where you lose 95% of computer users. Once you say "other than" or "except", they are gone.

        The VAST MAJORITY of people using Office are secretaries and low level managers who can barely turn on a computer. They need "it works, every time" and they don't give a damned about FOSS or $400. They're not the one paying for it.

        Ask anyone who does tech support for a large group of non-technical users. $400 is nothing compared to the hours of headache that conversion problems will cause.

        It may not be the h@ck3r friendly answer, but it's the truth. No one ever got fired for rolling out MS Office.
        • wbgo, on 05/22/2008, -2/+2If you need "it works, every time", you don't want Office. The Office formatting engine is so unpredictable, I suspect it's self-aware.

          The big deal-breakers for most are retraining costs/loss of productivity, compatibility with clients and partners, or a heavy dependency on VBA.

          For most companies, switching platforms doesn't make commercial sense, because there are higher costs, unless there are strategic reasons to do so.
        • Biznarie, on 05/23/2008, -0/+1I'm doing a work term with the local school board and there is some really annoying bugs that cause Office XP to lose the activation when we ghosted to other computers, this caused a window to pop up and the students would cancel it and have office locked down and useless. To fix it we had to go around put the cd in and activate on every pc, which takes a long time with 1 cd. Open office would never have a problem like this and MS Office does not "always work".
    • webcrumb, on 05/22/2008, -3/+3But with the community hacksaw you get the community to help you if you have a problem, and when someone makes a drill you get that for free too. Plus, the $100 benchsaw will be fine only until you need to build an extension using someone else's wood.

      [/obscure analogy ftw?]
    • coldpockets, on 05/22/2008, -5/+1To everyone asking where you can buy Office 2007 for $100:
      http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8 ...
      First result on google for "Office 2007". That's for 3 licenses as well.
      • crapuccino, on 05/22/2008, -2/+3I'm not a student. My price would be $324.99
        • e2superman, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1You sir are an idiot -- You are just looking to cause trouble. Unless you were born yesterday the title reads "HOME and Student". It is a great price and has Word, PowerPoint and Excel. All full versions.
        • crapuccino, on 05/23/2008, -1/+1You sir are a Microsoft shill. How much of their stock do you own? If you don't have some vested interest in their products, you have to be a complete moron to drop $600 when there is a perfectly serviceable alternative which if free.
          I'm not a home user either. Keep sucking it up and pay St. Bill his tax. Keep convincing yourself that you're getting the best deal. I'm sure it does you good.
        • coldpockets, on 05/27/2008, -0/+1Calm down...what are you even talking about? It costs $389.99 for full retail office 2007 professional. It's fine if you don't like the product, but frankly stop making stuff up! If you're not a home user, I'd assume you're using this in a business environment. $389.99 really isn't that much, if it saves your employees time, and takes less time to support. It's disturbing how fired up people can get over productivity software...
      • coldpockets, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2See the thing about reading is that you have to read the words before and after the one that jumps out at you...HOME AND student. It's for non-commercial use. That's all.
      • coldpockets, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1It's not only for students. It's for home use, not in a business setting.
    • Chalks777, on 05/22/2008, -1/+9I don't really think Word 2007 is "leaps and bounds above" OpenOffice. Granted '07 is slightly more intuitive, and it certainly looks prettier, but for my purposes it has almost exactly the same functionality. I use OO to write letters, personal projects, and a few school essays and whatnot. I don't need it to butter my toast for me.
  • n0odles, on 05/22/2008, -4/+15http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_e ...
  • molom, on 05/22/2008, -6/+1Can't this completely put MS off the market?
    If ODF's are supported on OpenOffice and will be on MS, won't the transition from MS office to OpenOffice be 100% easy?
    • dkitch, on 05/22/2008, -1/+5It can, but free =/= better. The mainstream customer pays for functionality, ease of use, and quality. If OpenOffice comes out with a superior product, people will begin to move to it. Look what happened to IE with the introduction of FF. And look at Apple, a success story in terms of embracing compatibility (well, hardware compatibility at least). When they switched to an Intel chipset, they actually increased the size of Microsoft's potential market.
      • mossblaser, on 05/22/2008, -1/+1At the moment the mainstream customer pays because everyone else pays and because they know no better. Seriously if you tell people "Word" isn't the only word processor, they will be shocked. Lots of people still think windows and office come free with computers. Yes even the vaguely tech aware know about open office but only a few have used it and even less taken the time to learn how to use it and a good many of those people then use it.
    • crapuccino, on 05/22/2008, -1/+5Read between the lines. They embraced HTML and look what they did to that. Expect similar action with ODF. The OO.org people will end up spending huge amounts of time attending to inconsistencies in MS Office ODF. I'd like somebody to explain why Microsoft would not behave in this way. The weight of history standa with my viewpoint.
    • Chewie67, on 05/22/2008, -1/+7In theory, Yes.

      In practice, No. There is no IT Manager at a major company that's going to roll out Open Office. All it takes is one big-wig exec to have a problem opening a DOCX file from a major client, and that guy is fired.

      Office may be far from perfect, but it's got the Microsoft name on it, and it has become the industry standard. If you veer away from it, you do so at risk.

      May not be what the techie crowd wants, but it's what the business types want, so it's what gets bought.
      • init100, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3"All it takes is one big-wig exec to have a problem opening a DOCX file from a major client, and that guy is fired."

        Where I live, you need a better excuse for firing someone. You cannot simply fire people left and right to your heart's content for such minor matters.
        • grimward, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1Over here it's like that in theory, but they'll invent reasons to fire you.. it's a dog eat dog world.
  • binary1, on 05/22/2008, -1/+4Yay! About dam time!
  • buddamus, on 05/22/2008, -11/+6Docx is a pile of ***** in the new office
    • Batiu-Drami, on 05/22/2008, -2/+2.docx is much better than .doc, if only for sheer filesize reasons. (A report I'm working on now, for example, is 126KB in docx format, and 241KB in doc format).
      • mossblaser, on 05/22/2008, -1/+2.docx - only supported in MS products, very easily corrupted (seriously you have no idea how much more work they are than the old files), poor performance in terms of read/write, questionable status as any sort of status, etc...
  • cjntaylor, on 05/22/2008, -8/+5PWNED! http://news.cnet.com/Google-joins-OpenDocument-gro ...
    Basically, MS ***** a brick and is adding support. Way to go MS; hang on to your market share while it lasts...
  • bazzz, on 05/22/2008, -2/+17The technical basis for the ODF import/export in Office 2007 SP2 will probably be the ODF Converter (see sf.net) an open-source project funded by Microsoft, which uses XSLT to convert between the formats.

    I analyzed the quality of this converter ODF -> OOXML (StarOffice -> Office 2007) for a customer just two weeks ago. The quality was good for simple & trivial documents, but overall bad for more complex documents (which the customer mainly had).

    The ODF-Converter currently has a wide array of "known issues" and several hundred open bugs (see SF.net) and it seems that noone really cares about that product, some of these bugs are more than two years old and real show-stoppers.

    Formulas (OpenOffice.org formel editor for Writer) were 100% broken in Office 2007, most graphics in spreadsheets and at least 50% of the complex formulas in spreadsheets too. Random page breaks in resulting word documents, converted documents 2 or 3 pages longer than the original, table formats broken, etc. etc.

    Of those 100 documents only 10% were converted nicely, the rest required revision or the conversion was just unusable.

    If THAT is the technical basis for ODF in Office 2007 than this Microsoft info is a plain joke, ladies and gentleman.

    and NO I've not submitted any bugs&issues because it was just too much...
  • vdog, on 05/22/2008, -12/+64. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _________
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ./ It's a trap!
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _,,,--~~~~~~~~--,_ . . . .________/
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  • DestroyFascism, on 05/22/2008, -4/+7After 1.4 decades..............
  • rockus, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3Finally I can advocate the persistence with OpenOffice at office. Current concern with many is that customers would be affected by the change since the doc files with our templates behave very badly with OpenOffice. When Office 2007 does go mainstream customers should have no issue with the documents.
    • mikem94590, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2I agree, this is wonderful that Office 2007 will support the open formats. I think they realised that if they didn't, people needing access to the open formats would download or purchase another program (OpenOffice, Symphony, StarOffice, etc.), and that would be a risk Microsoft wouldn't want to take.
  • cthellis, on 05/22/2008, -1/+7*looks suspiciously into the sky for airborne swine*
  • ElFredo, on 05/22/2008, -1/+8BREAKING - Duke Nukem Forever to get released Real Soon Now. Hell expected to freeze by tomorrow.
  • worldgate, on 05/22/2008, -10/+3Still wont get me to use Open Office.
    • oobuntu, on 05/22/2008, -0/+7but you'll be able to read the odf docs that your acquaintances send you.
    • mikem94590, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1Microsoft's objective wasn't to get you to switch to OpenOffice; they wanted everyone to keep Office, so they added the ability to read files created in OpenOffice.
  • Chewie67, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3"No mention has been made as to whether Office for Mac 2008 also receives the ODF support."

    It had better. I just shelled out a lot for Office 2008. If they're going to charge that much, it better get the same level of support as the Windows version.
  • EEinOK, on 05/22/2008, -1/+2Why does MS always come out and say that they won't support this or that? I believe at one time they said that they wouldn't support bluetooth but now they do.
  • JasonCox, on 05/22/2008, -9/+17Microsoft supports ODF and you guys bitch.
    Microsoft doesn't support ODF and you guys bitch.

    Either way it's some Microsoft conspiracy to take over the world, right? Well, at least BillG has his holo-projectors working.
    • td04impostor, on 05/22/2008, -7/+8"Either way it's some Microsoft conspiracy to take over the world, right?"

      Right.
      • e2superman, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3Google also has plans to take over the world. It was not more than ten years ago that MS was in their honeymoon period like Google is now....
    • magus_melchior, on 05/22/2008, -4/+5Give it time. Most people who have seen what Microsoft did in its history are skeptical that they'll do a professional job supporting ODF, so they're in "wait and see" mode.

      Besides, Microsoft nudged all of its partner companies to shoehorn Office XML through ISO, *before* announcing ODF support. Supporting ODF after that brouhaha is like offering aspirin to someone you've run over.
    • Phocion55, on 05/22/2008, -6/+3"You guys". Stop generalizing. Some people DO think this is good news.
      • lacronicus, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1Then he's not referring to them. There are people here who have bitched about both, and so his comment is aimed towards them.
  • hamobu, on 05/22/2008, -5/+2Sounds like Office will be able to open default OOo file format, but OOo will not be able to open default Office format.
  • edwinjose, on 05/22/2008, -1/+5They are going to render the document as a jpeg and store it in ODF. And that way they will have die hard MS users in the corporate world think FOSS is incompetent.
  • brandon81211, on 05/22/2008, -6/+1Now if only MS Office wasn't so damn expensive..... Torrent FTW :)
  • ysilver, on 05/22/2008, -2/+1About time...!
  • 1053r, on 05/22/2008, -1/+3Embrace and extend, baby. Embrace and extend.
  • liquidmetalband, on 05/22/2008, -1/+1Well sure, but what other packages are going to support ODF? There's no point in adding it to Office 07 if you're not going to add it to Office 03. Hopefully MS will add it to Office 03 as a Windows automatic update.
  • Woknblues, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2I guess this is a plus for the MS office suite users. not too sure how this effects non users, or why this article is in the linux section. do we need a MS section in digg?
  • InorganicMatter, on 05/22/2008, -4/+4Haha, ODF just got hit with stage one of EEE. You guys think this is a victory? Think again:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace%2C_extend%2C_ ...
    What do you bet OOo never includes OOXML support? Double talk anyone?
    • Marvelboy, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2Actually, the makers of version 3 intend to add it in, it may already be in the beta.

      Naysayer.
    • akhomerun, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1i thought OOo already had it (at least NeoOffice does already).
  • TweekyD, on 05/22/2008, -1/+1o'¬o...

    /backpedal
  • esc27, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3"The company further plans to become an 'active participant' in the development of ODF and PDF in addition to collaborating with others to advance its Open XML and XPS standards in the larger community."

    If you can't beat them, join them, and co-opt them from the inside.
  • Makurosu, on 05/22/2008, -0/+5That's great news, I guess. I haven't used MSOffice in years. OpenOffice already supports .doc and .odf for free and it works on all the major OS's, so why pay hundreds of dollars for something that only does .doc and only works in Windows? Uh.. hooray?
    • lacronicus, on 05/22/2008, -1/+2Because when I tried it, it glitched when I scrolled and highlighted at the same time. Stuff like that puts me off; it's small, but when I've got a paper due the next day, am I going to choose the program that I had problems with the first time I tried, or the program that has remained stable and bug-free every time I used it? There are some apps that I need to work absolutely perfectly, and I'll willingly pay for them.
  • TimDigg, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3There is a much larger piece to this puzzle however. What about the systems that flag anything thats now .doc or .pdf

    Thats a huge piece to the OO puzzle
  • Stonekeeper, on 05/22/2008, -0/+10I'm sorry, but i can't take anything Microsoft says on good faith.
  • s4g4n, on 05/22/2008, -0/+5When will MS Office have support for OGC :'-(
  • monkeymad2, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1This is vaguely in context...
    Does anyone know how to batch convert a whole load of works files (i.e. wks, wps) preferably on OS X but any other OS would be fine....and for free?
    • mikem94590, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3I would try to upload them to Google Docs and redownload them again.
  • geehossiphats, on 05/22/2008, -1/+4It's a trap.
    Microsoft's existing Open Specification Promise (OSP) is fine for proprietary vendors and non-commercial open source use, but incompatible with commercial open source products.

    Incompatible if your business uses open source software.

    Ballmer hates your business.
  • kinerry, on 05/22/2008, -1/+2What about Office 2008?
  • fjavier, on 05/22/2008, -3/+0looooollll

    Im-presionante :) amazing.

    Next is MicrosoFtreeOS, lol a Linux (or more BSD code inside Windows... TCP stack was since years inside M$)

    ¿Alguien se lo cree? Si, Steve Ballmer XD por eso grita tanto.
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