Microsoft later this month plans to release a converter that will let Word users open documents saved in the OpenDocument format.
By the end of the year, the open-source project building the converters will move past simply opening documents and add the ability to save documents created in Word in the ODF format, said Brian Jones, a Microsoft Office program manager. A first prototype of this "Save to ODF" Word add-on will also be made available later this month. Next year, the Open XML Translator project, done primarily by developers at French company Clever Age, intends to create converters that can translate between Microsoft's Excel and PowerPoint and the corresponding ODF file formats, Jones added.
The converters will not be packaged as part of the upcoming Office 2007. Instead, Microsoft will make them available from the same Web site where people can get add-on converters for the PDF and XPS formats, Jones said.
OpenDocument is built on XML, and Office 2007 will use Office Open XML by default, another XML-based format.
View: News.com
By the end of the year, the open-source project building the converters will move past simply opening documents and add the ability to save documents created in Word in the ODF format, said Brian Jones, a Microsoft Office program manager. A first prototype of this "Save to ODF" Word add-on will also be made available later this month. Next year, the Open XML Translator project, done primarily by developers at French company Clever Age, intends to create converters that can translate between Microsoft's Excel and PowerPoint and the corresponding ODF file formats, Jones added.
The converters will not be packaged as part of the upcoming Office 2007. Instead, Microsoft will make them available from the same Web site where people can get add-on converters for the PDF and XPS formats, Jones said.
OpenDocument is built on XML, and Office 2007 will use Office Open XML by default, another XML-based format.
View: News.com
bull
bull
Why is that bull?
What they can do is to start supporting this format natively and hope they'll take OOo marketshare or so, but not really much more. In case they'd grab the OOo source and do something on their own with it, they need to release their modifications as source code too, and then a free branch made by a random guy from Microsoft's version would be legal too. This is a traditional LGPL license.
Last edited by Jugalator on 14 Oct 2006 - 00:13
No. The license stays the same.
you are comparing a technical recommendation (web standards) with a legal license
They use .ODT but see no mention of this in the article.
At least with the PDF / XPS thing in Office 2007 the option is still there in the menu so that you know it was available for download - when I installed the Beta 2 refresh I almost crapped myself because I thought it had been totally removed, but then I spotted it a few seconds later
blame adobe for microsoft not supporting openxml, odt and pdf out of the box. I still don't get why adobe won that case (i can understand pdf, but who openxml?)
And that, boys and girls, is how the game is played.
I didn't say I was expecting people to suddenly flock to OpenOffice. I'll thank you not to try to put words in my mouth.
Oh, and just a note for your future writing endeavors: The first word of a new sentence is supposed to be capitalized. Did someone steal the Shift keys from your keyboard?
you were pedantic in another way besides telling me to capitalize the first word of my sentence...
the point behind my whole response is that the timing wasn't a cunning scheme by Microsoft, as you implied. if there were no Vista hype, nothing significant would happen to Microsoft's business. Microsoft would feel pressured to make the converter anyway, they would release it, perhaps it would get more notice, but no major shift in the market would happen.
--and the release of Vista will be relatively near the release of Office 2007--they try to pair all major Windows releases with an Office release. the reason they are announcing the converter is because Office 2007 will be coming out soon. that Office and Vista are on track to be out, is just a sign of some degree of health in Microsoft's business.
so, saying nobody will be flocking to OpenOffice, is to say that the converter would never have been a big deal in any case, in the short run. the timing doesn't matter.
btw, next time you respond; no, sentences aren't "supposed" to be capitalized. it's a convention, and it's not always important in casual conversation.
Last edited by brianshapiro on 14 Oct 2006 - 07:14
ODF Add-in for Microsoft Word
We do have OGG/OGM, ODF and bittorrent. Free software made by idealistic individuals is usually a much better and less bloated alternative to corporate software. Business must grow so they constantly have to add bloat and hastly developed features for a deadline. I use uTorrent as an example, one of the best programs I've ever had the pleasure of using.
uTorrent
No install, keeps its settings in its own dir so no if you keep it on D: theres need to move around stuff before a reinstall and no need to copy stuff if you dual-boot XP/Vista, super small, alphablended buttons for clean, fast, pretty customization.
http://jooh.no/web/utorrent_pretty.png
Last edited by GamblerFEXonlin on 15 Oct 2006 - 00:49
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