Microsoft to release ODF document converter
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Microsoft-sponsored open-source group expected to release ODF translator for Word.
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Linux distributor TurboLinux is helping to translate docs from Open XML to ODF for Asian markets.
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InfoWorld - It may be Valentine&#39;s Day but there are no love letters being exchanged between duelling electronic document formats, ODF (OpenDocument Format) and Open XML. Instead, Microsoft, the backer of Open XML, took a public swing at ODF supporter IBM.
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Rather than stacking the vote, Microsoft simply wanted to allow interested organizations to participate in the Open XML standardization process, unlike other rival efforts, a company executive said Wednesday.Critics and supporters of the competing ODF (Open Document Format) have accused Microsoft of stacking votes, particularly a preliminary vote late last year in the International Organization for Standardization regarding standardization of the Open XML format.&quot;We have a very different perspective&quot; on how that process occurred, said Tom Robertson, general manager of Microsoft&#39;s corporate interoperability and standards group, speaking to a group of journalists from around the world in Kirkland, Wash. &quot;There was an increase in participation both from ODF proponents trying to stop this and people who wanted to see it to promote choice,&quot; he said. That meant that more than the &quot;old guard&quot; -- companies such as IBM that typically participate in such processes -- became involved, he said.Microsoft wanted to involve anyone who has a stake in interoperability, including governments, technology companies, academics, and enterprises, he said. &quot;This cannot be a closed-door process,&quot; he said. &quot;Should those who are impacted by this decision have a seat at the table? Absolutely. Should it be restricted to Open XML advocates? No, it shouldn&#39;t be.&quot;Microsoft also defended&#160;its choice of Ecma to initially standardize the technology, rather than another standards body. &quot;It is one of the leaders in standardization in the IT space for decades,&quot; Robertson said.All but one member -- IBM -- of the Ecma general assembly voted to adopt the standard. The general assembly also voted to pass it on to ISO, a worldwide standardization body, for ratification.Despite that progress, critics wonder why Microsoft built the technology in the first place when there was&#160;already an existing open file format, ODF.&quot;It starts with our customers,&quot; Robertson said. &quot;Many say that ODF doesn&#39;t meet their needs.&quot;As an example, the ODF group initially decided not to support spreadsheet formulas, said Gray Knowlton, group product manager for Microsoft Office. &quot;When we look at customers of Excel, we can&#39;t give them a standard that doesn&#39;t recognize spreadsheet formulas,&quot; he said. However, he also noted that ODF later reversed that decision to support spreadsheet formulas.Microsoft is hopeful that Open XML will pass an upcoming ISO vote, but if it doesn&#39;t, it won&#39;t be the end of Open XML, the executives said. &quot;It&#39;s already an open standard and already available to the community,&quot; said Robertson. &quot;The issue here in the ratification is: Does the global community want a voice in the evolution of Open XML going forward.&quot;Also, if individual governments mandate the use of ODF instead of Open XML, Microsoft would adapt, Knowlton said. The company would then implement the missing functionality that ODF doesn&#39;t support. However, those extensions would be custom-designed and outside of the standard, which is counter to the idea of an open document standard, Knowlton said. &quot;Disastrous? No. But definitely not preferable,&quot; he said.
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Speculation mars Burton Group report that suggests Microsoft's OOXML document format is preferable to ODF, says OpenOffice.org.
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Microsoft outlined a new feature that will be included in Office 2008 for Mac.
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BOSTON -- A data format used in Microsoft Corp.'s prevalent Office software line has been approved as an international standard _ a move aimed at preserving access to documents created with the package for years to come.
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In another carefully timed move to garner support for its document format still under consideration for an international standard, Microsoft today altered the terms under which use of its Office Open XML format by developers is permitted.
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Microsoft is calling IBM out over its opposition to Office Open XML, saying it is attempting to create a movement to prevent ISO standardization of the format. In an open letter posted to its Web site, Microsoft claims IBM is trying to limit choice by pushing the OpenDocument Format.
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Microsoft Corp. is enlisting Linux distributor TurboLinux Inc. to help tailor work being done to translate documents between Open XML and ODF file formats for Japanese and Chinese users.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft Corp. has failed in its attempt to have its Office Open XML document format fast-tracked straight to the status of an international standard by the International Organization for Standardization. The proposal must now be revised to take into account the negative comments made during the voting process. Microsoft expects that a second vote early next year will result in approval, it said Tuesday. A proposal must pass two voting hurdles in order to be approved as an ISO standard: it must win the support of two-thirds of voting national standards bodies that participated in work on the proposal, known as P-members, and also of three-quarters of all voting members. OOXML failed on both counts, according to figures provided by Microsoft, and by other sources with knowledge of the voting process. ISO has not yet officially announced the results. Microsoft could miss out on revenue from the lucrative government market if OOXML is also rejected next year. Some governments, worried that the need for access to electronic archives held in proprietary formats leaves them hostage to their software vendor, have mandated the use of document formats that comply with open international standards. Others are considering such a move, which could put Microsoft at a double disadvantage to open source products such as OpenOffice.org, which not only store files natively in the standardized Open Document Format, but are free.
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Contrary to what Microsoft calls "alarmist news stories," the company is continuing to work towards providing Open XML format converters within the Mac version of Office, although their release is not expected until Spring 2007.
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(InfoWorld) - When Massachusetts' government decided to use Open Document Format (ODF) as the default document file format throughout its agencies, a key concern was that ODF would not allow the visually impaired to use assistive computer technologies. On Wednesday, IBM Corp. said it has helped solve that problem by developing technology that will allow applications based on ODF to better communicate with products used by the blind to access visual information on computer screens. Through Project Missouri, IBM developed application programming interfaces, (APIs) collectively called iAccessible2. These APIs will make it easy for visuals in applications based on ODF and other Web technologies to be interpreted by screen readers that reproduce that information verbally, IBM said. IBM spokesman Ari Fishkind said that in the past it has been hard for screen-reading technology to keep up with the advent of cutting-edge development and file formats such as ODF, AJAX (asynchronous Javascript and XML) and DHTML (dynamic hypertext markup language). The latter two technologies allow increasingly complex visuals to be rendered in Web browsers, and those are difficult to translate for screen readers, he said. iAccessible2 not only will help ODF communicate better with screen readers that assist blind computer users, but it will also allow charts, pictures and other visuals based on AJAX and DHTML to be discerned by the visually impaired through those readers. "It's like a universal decoder ring," he said of iAccessible2. The technology is based on interfaces IBM originally developed with Sun Microsystems Inc. to make programs on Java and Linux platforms accessible to the blind. IBM has donated its work in Project Missouri -- so named because Missouri is called the "Show Me" state -- to the Free Standards Group, a nonprofit group that promotes open-source software. That organization will work on the technology and maintain it as an open standard so anyone can use it, IBM said. Other companies working on the development of iAccessible2 include Sun, Oracle Corp. and SAP AG. Mozilla Corp. also intends to integrate iAccessible2 into its open-source Firefox Web browser, Fishkind added. ODF has been approved as an international standard by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and is currently in competition with Microsoft's Open XML file format to become the industry's default file format for documents. Open XML is the basis of Microsoft's proprietary Office 2007 productivity suite that also recently was approved by the ISO as a standard. Companies such as IBM, Sun and others are promoting the use of ODF against Microsoft's technology, while others will support both ODF and Open XML just to be on the safe side, in case both are widely adopted. The rivalry between ODF and Open XML heated up last year when Massachusetts put forth a proposal to change its default file format to ODF for all of its state agencies, which would mean they would have to stop using Microsoft Office. This eventually led Microsoft to submit Open XML as a standard as ODF was already going through that process. Increasingly, government agencies are moving their IT platforms to technologies that are considered standard throughout the industry, forgoing some technologies that are seen as proprietary.
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The open source project to build a translator between Microsoft's new Office Open XML format and OpenDocument, the standard backed by OASIS, reached its first milestone Friday, releasing 1.0 of the technology for both Microsoft Word and competing ODF-compatible office suites.
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Company joins project designed to bridge rival document formats and thus enable its OpenOffice customers to work with Microsoft Office.
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Did Redmond try to pack standards groups? Microsoft's failed attempt to get its Office Open XML (OOXML) file format adopted by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) could land the software giant in hot water with the European Commission (EC).â¦
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(InfoWorld) - New York has become the latest U.S. state to ponder whether to use open standards for government document formats, though the move is not necessarily good news for proponents of the ISO standard ODF (Open Document Format). New York State Bill A08961, sponsored by Democratic Assemblywoman RoAnn M. Destito, proposes the state study how government documents are created, exchanged, and preserved and how these documents can be used in a way that "encourages appropriate government control, access, choice, interoperability, and vendor neutrality," according to the text of the bill. Though lawmakers in other states -- including Texas, Connecticut, Florida, Minnesota and Oregon -- have proposed similar bills that might have mandated the use of open standards for document formats, none of those states has ended up officially supporting ODF yet. ODF is a freely available document format and rival to the default file format in Microsoft's Office 2007 suite, Open XML. If what has happened in other states is any precedent, Destito's bill may end up going nowhere. Bills that would have required state agencies to use freely available document formats in Texas, Connecticut, Florida, and Oregon were shot down mainly due to the pro-Microsoft lobby, while a bill in Minnesota was passed only to study the possibility of using open document formats, not to actually mandate them. Battle lines between Microsoft and ODF supporters, such as IBM and Sun have been drawn for some time, and while both sides claim to have the best interest of technology users in mind, both have been criticized for promoting their own commercial interests. IBM uses ODF as a file format for its Lotus Notes 8 software, and Sun uses it in its StarOffice productivity suite. Key Microsoft rival Google also supports ODF in its Google Docs & Spreadsheets online application. So far, Massachusetts is the only U.S. state that has officially adopted an open documents policy that will include ODF support, though governments in other countries such as Belgium, Denmark, and France are ahead of the U.S. in mandating their agencies use open document formats. Microsoft also has submitted Open XML to be an international standard in the ISO (International Organization for Standardization, though it has been criticized for trying to control the Open XML specification more than is usually the case with standard technologies. Nevertheless, ODF is scheduled to be up for an approval vote before the ISO late this year.