Unlimited long distance $24.99/moFebruary 1, 2007 9:00 PM PST
Microsoft to release ODF document converter
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Microsoft started the project at SourceForge last year, relying on three partners to develop the code that lets a user open and save word processor documents in two different formats.
The Microsoft format is called Office Open XML (OOXML), which is the default document format in the company's recently released Office 2007 suite. The other is ODF, which is backed by Microsoft competitors IBM, Sun Microsystems and Novell.
The plug-in will work with Microsoft's Word application, including the latest Office 2007 version as well the Office 2003 and Office XP editions, Microsoft said. Once installed, a person can open and save documents in the ODF format from Word.
People can download the software, available under the open-source BSD license, for free from SourceForge on Friday. Microsoft intends to make the software available from its own Web site as well, the company said.
The same group of Microsoft partners will now start work on code to translate file formats between Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet and PowerPoint presentation software and the corresponding ODF files, said Jean Paoli, the general manager of interoperability and XML architecture at Microsoft.
Those plug-ins, which will also be developed as open-source projects, are expected to be available by the end of the year, he said.
Novell last year said it will use the Word translator to allow users of OpenOffice, which supports ODF, to work with OOXML files from Microsoft Office.
The delivery of the first document format translator comes at a time of growing interest in electronic document standards.
ODF has emerged as a viable document format and been integrated into commercial products. Microsoft, meanwhile, has standardized the Office Open XML (OOXML) document formats at Ecma International and is in the process of seeking certification with the ISO, or the International Organization for Standardization.
Adobe Systems, too, said last week that it intends to submit the full Portable Document Format, or PDF, to ISO for standardization.
Critics of Microsoft's OOXML have complained that it overlaps with the functionality already in ODF and that there should be only one standard. Others have complained that the specifications--at more than 6,000 pages--are too difficult to implement in products.
IBM, a vocal advocate of ODF, was the only representative to vote against making OOXML an Ecma standard. Now it is seeking to block its ISO standardization as well, said Tom Robertson, Microsoft's general manager of interoperability and standards.
"The most vocal opponent is a competitor (that) has business reasons to try to stop the process from happening and I think that's unfortunate. By doing that, it's creating an environment where choice and innovation would be limited," he said.
Robertson said he expects many document standards to exist to serve different purposes and markets.
Paoli said that although the specification is large, developers are free--both legally and technically--to implement only components of the full documentation.
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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". Why after all of these years since it was determined that there may be several differences in various OEM programs and "these differences will remain to distinguish the products apart" it appears that it is only now as this article states that "The same group of Microsoft partners will now start work on code to translate file formats between Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet and PowerPoint presentation software and the corresponding ODF files"! As it is now 2007... it appears also that there are no more time-outs for the Office Team from the Redmond Campus. Huh!
I visited it 2 days ago and downloaded the latest version for OS X PPC CPU. First Open Office has the most distributions for the wide array of different computer platforms that exists in the market place.
Microsoft only develops for it's own OS and does a 1/2 ass job for the Mac platform, and Access is not even included. (Visual Basic can't be licensed under Apple OS X or what ?).....
After some time playing with it, I realized that it is not as good as Office 2003, but close, and there are some features in it that are even better then Office 2007. For Macros you can use 4 different languages to work with, you are not limited to VBA. I like VBA, but just saying, that's something right there...
Anyways, I really hate the new Office look, but will probably have to learn it for work related.