Ecma's approval sets stage for Open XML to compete, co-exist with ODF
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Microsoft Corp.'s Office Open XML file format won approval from the Ecma International standards body. The vote could make it easier for users and vendors to justify supporting both Open XML and the rival OpenDocument format.
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(InfoWorld) - Texas and Minnesota may become the second and third U.S. states to adopt ODF (Open Document Format for XML) as the standard file format for government documents instead of the file format that Microsoft uses in its Office 2007 software suite. Two separate bills up for legislative consideration in each state propose to mandate the use of an open, XML-based file format that is "interoperable among diverse internal and external platforms and applications; fully published and available royalty-free; implemented by multiple vendors; and controlled by an open industry organization with a well-defined inclusive process for evolution of the standard," according to the Minnesota House of Representatives bill, which can be found here. The Texas bill, which can be found here, uses similar wording to describe the file format the states intend to support. The Minnesota bill proposes that the mandate would take effect beginning July 1, 2008, while the Texas bill gives the state's Department of Information Resources until Sept. 1, 2008 to develop a plan for the transition. Though the bills do not specifically name ODF as the document format under consideration, the explanation of what each state wants to move to seems to fit the standard. ODF is an industry standard supported by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), is available for free, and is supported by several vendors in their office suites, including IBM, Sun, and Google. In an e-mail to the IDG News Service, one of the senators who sponsored the Minnesota bill, State Senator Don Betzold, confirmed that his state's bill was written with ODF in mind. "ODF is the standard intended," he said. "It is my goal to make sure that the public has access to electronic documents in the years to come and that we do not have to rely on licensing agreements or code access." Indeed, proponents of ODF view the bills as another victory for the file format and another step closer to giving Microsoft Office the best -- and arguably only -- competition it's had in years. Office 2007 uses Open XML, a format Microsoft developed, as its default file format. "After Massachusetts, the ODF genie is out of the bottle here in the U.S.," Marino Marcich, managing director of ODF advocacy group the ODF Alliance, said. "We're encouraged that Texas and Minnesota seem to be following suit." Currently, Massachusetts is implementing a plan using ODF as the standard format for all state agency documents. Massachusetts was the first U.S. state to adopt ODF. Microsoft also has submitted Open XML as a global standard, and it is currently before the ISO for approval. If approved and adopted by companies other than Microsoft, it could theoretically fall under the description of an open, XML-based file format as outlined in the Texas and Minnesota bills. Novell plans to implement Open XML in its version of OpenOffice, and Corel plans support for Open XML in its WordPerfect Office software. In a statement from its public relations firm, Microsoft said it supports customer choice and interoperability and urges governments to also do so. However, the company does not approve of governments mandating the use of only one standard for file formats. Microsoft certainly is keeping a close eye on ODF and recognizes the need for its applications to interoperate with it. Microsoft funded the development of software that translates between Open XML and ODF. The software, called the ODF Translator, was made available in 1.0 form last week on SourceForge.net.
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The standards body ECMA International voted to make Microsoft's Office Open XML document format an international standard.
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Microsoft's Open XML standards proposal fewer vehement foes than expected in the ISO standards committee tasked with approving to deny the spec. But document obtained by Computerworld indicate that if the vote were held today, there's no guarantee that the proposal would pass.
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Open XML Translator provides tools to build a technical bridge between the Open XML Formats and Open Document Format(ODF). As the first component of this initiative, the ODF Add-in for Microsoft Word 2007 allows to Open & Save ODF documents in Word.   As you might have noticed, the long awaited Release 1.0 is now available for download!  It has been 8 months since the project started in early June and we've been hard working all that time to ensure the add-In meets a high quality level. It has been tested over Word XP, Word 2003 and Word 2007 in five different languages (English, Dutch, French, German and Polish) thanks to DIaLOGIKa (http://www.dialogika.de/) and Aztecsoft (http://www.aztecsoft.com/).  Since the official announcement from Microsoft (see the press news: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/jan07/02-01OpenXMLPR.mspx), over 8000 of copies were downloaded on SourceForge.org (at the time of writing this news)! This is a great pleasure for us to see that the add-In has reached such an enormous success.  Already, we have received quite a lot of press coverage. A hit in Google for ODF Converter returns 871 000 results! We are proud to bring life to a project that has stirred a big crowd, sometimes positively sometimes not, as the whole open standard issue seems to have become a political controversy...  Nonetheless, we sincerely hope this Add-in will benefit the entire community in exchanging electronic documentation. Yes, exchanging documents won't be chore any more. Yes you will be able to read and write ODF documents even if you don't have openOffice suite (or other ODF implementations). And conversely, as Novell (http://www.novell.com/) has announced that the Translator will be natively implemented in its next version of OpenOffice.  But we won't stop here.... We'are also planning to work on Excel and Powerpoint and this should be availble by the end of the year (Novembre 2007), so stay tuned and keep on providing feedback as this will help us in future development!  Thanks all for participating in this exciting project! I'm looking forward to the next releases... ;)   Highlights of January Release 1.0      * Unified installer     * Localisation in German, Polish, Dutch, French and English     * OpenXML to ODF conversion :           o Change tracking           o Cross references           o Language for proofing           o Graphical bullets           o Better handling of page styles           o Line numbering           o Drop caps           o Complete footnotes and endnotes  For more information see:  https://sourceforge.net/projects/odf-converter
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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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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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The OpenDocument Foundation, which was set up to promote its namesake file format as a universal choice for storing documents, is switching  its allegiance to the Compound Document Formats created by the World Wide Web Consortium.
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BREAKING NEWS - Early this morning, Microsoft reported it had been notified that its Office Open XML format received a 74% positive vote in a preliminary ballot that could pave the way for its final ratification as an international standard.
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With critical ISO vote on ratification of Office Open XML looming, company maintains it has users' best interests at heart.
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Sunday, September 2 is the deadline for ISO member countries to vote on Microsoft's Office OpenXML -- the result will determine if it's approved as an international standard. Name calling, finger pointing and muckraking have sparked a debate over current standards-approval procedures and how they're affected by corporate influence. All this excitement over office docs?
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Making good on an earlier promise, Novell has posted an Open XML translator for the OpenOffice.org productivity suite, adding Microsoft Office 2007 file format capability to the open-source application bundle.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft's quest to have Open XML approved by the International Organization for Standards (ISO) as a global technology standard seems to have recovered from a setback it suffered last week as both sides of the Open XML-ODF debate shore up arguments as the final vote to approve Open XML nears. The executive committee for the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS), which represents U.S. interests in the ISO, approved the draft specification of Open XML "with comments" on Thursday after a technical committee that advises it last week failed to earn the two-thirds majority it needed to reach the same decision. Predictably, Microsoft is counting this move as a victory, according to a blog entry by Doug Mahugh, a Microsoft technical evangelist. "They'll reach a decision within the executive board on this proposed position by mid-August, which allows plenty of time for subsequent discussion or another vote if needed before the final U.S. position is due on Sept. 2," he wrote. The ISO is scheduled to vote on the Open XML that day. In a press statement attributed to Tom Robertson, Microsoft's general manager of interoperability and standards, the company said the decision shows "positive momentum" behind ISO ratification of Open XML. "It reflects the importance of allowing users to choose the format that best meets their needs and the fact that innovation and evolution will take place over time," according to the statement. When the V1 committee could not come to an agreement over Open XML, it seemed that things would not bode well for an approval vote from the U.S. in the ISO. However, even if the U.S. comes down in favor of the spec, it still faces opposition from other countries that also get to vote, such as Italy and Portugal, which have complained about the approval process Microsoft used to rush Open XML through another international standards body, Ecma International, on its way to the ISO. In the meantime, those who favor Open XML, led by Microsoft, and those who have misgivings about the technology mostly due to their interest in the rival file format Open Document Format for XML (ODF), are getting in some final comments for their respective sides. ODF has already been approved by the ISO as an international standard. Ari Fishkind, an IBM spokesman, said there are still issues around some technical details of Open XML that did not get fixed in the fast-track process. Those include a glitch that makes spreadsheets in Open XML unable to calculate dates before 1900 and a bias toward the U.S. and other countries that adopt a Western way of thinking. "It is not geared toward an international community," he said. For its part, IBM hopes that before the vote there will be as much "correct information" provided to the national bodies that vote in the ISO so they can make "an informed decision," Fishkind said. Open XML's approval as a standard is considered key to helping Microsoft keep its 90-plus percent share among productivity software users worldwide. Some countries and U.S. states have either adopted or are eyeing plans to use only technologies considered to be open standards for use in their IT systems. Approval by the ISO in addition to the Ecma approval it already has would lend more weight to Open XML -- and thus Microsoft Office -- being a part of those systems. Some in the industry are taking a middle ground on the Open XML-ODF debate and promoting both by emphasizing the idea of choice. Melanie Wyne, executive director of the Initiative for Software Choice (ISC), which promotes neutral government procurement, standards, and public research and development policies for software, said her group is promoting the existence of both ODF and Open XML as ISO standards because having only one global standard for document formats is limiting to end-users. "Technology is a rapidly developing area, and if you standardize on one technology, you could wind up losing out on functionality or applications that may develop in the future," she said. ISC is run by CompTIA, a U.S.-based technology industry association, and has about 280 member companies and organizations. Microsoft is among them; however, IBM and Sun, the two biggest proponents of ODF, are not. Wyne said that the ISC does not support any kind of mandates by governments or public agencies about what kind of technology is run in their systems. Instead, the group believes the key focus should be interoperability between different kinds of technology. "Our feeling is there are a number of ways to getting to interoperability, and open standards is just one in a number of those ways," she said.
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Open Text's major software acquisition takes flight.
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InfoWorld - Sun&#160;has created software that will provide translation between the file format in Microsoft&#39;s Office 2003 suite and ODF (Open Document Format for XML). The plug-in lets people who use computers with assistive technologies to access documents written in ODF.
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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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IBM has taken the lead in lobbying against the adoption of Microsoft's Office Open XML format. But it does support the format in a few products -- a fact that some Microsoft bloggers were happy to point out.