AT&T Tech Support 360
November 29, 2006 6:40 AM PST
Corel to support Microsoft Office, ODF formats
- Related Stories
-
Microsoft-led project to deliver on ODF
October 13, 2006 -
Microsoft bends on OpenDocument
July 5, 2006
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.
See more CNET content tagged:
OpenDocument Format,
Corel Corp.,
Corel WordPerfect,
word-processor,
productivity suite
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!
C'mon C|Net...all that's missing here is some common sense and you got it down pat!