ISO to Fast-Track Office Open XML Process
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The head of the International Standards Organization committee JTC 1 has given her official approval to giving consideration to Microsoft's Office Open XML document standard under a fast-track process.  This despite some opposition, though apparently fewer formal objections than had earlier been anticipated.
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The unique features of the 2007 Microsoft Office System make it an extremely challenging migration. However, best practices and automation can significantly improve process efficiency and reliability.
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Maker of the WordPerfect word processor and productivity suite will support Microsoft's Office Open XML, OpenDocument format.
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The Open Document Format saw a marked uptick in use last year across the globe, according to the ODF Alliance&#39;s 2007 report.Twelve countries and six regional governments have adopted &quot;pro-ODF policies,&quot; according to the group, composed of companies and organizations that advocate for the format. The latest countries are the Netherlands and South Africa, which require government agencies to use the format. Also, more than 40 applications now support ODF, and the Alliance&#39;s membership ranks are set to rise above 500, according to the report.&quot;Considering where we started when we launched the alliance back in 2006, the developments in 2007 are amazing in terms of the progress that has been made,&quot; said Marino Marcich, managing director of the group.&quot;It&#39;s one thing to recognize ODF as a matter of policy in an enterprise architecture framework and another to mandate its use,&quot; he added. &quot;Proprietary formats in the public sphere are going out of style and becoming unacceptable globally.&quot;The ODF Alliance&#39;s report marks another chapter in the long-brewing debate over Microsoft&#39;s Office Open XML document format and ODF, which is supported by the likes of Sun Microsystems&#39; StarOffice application suite and Google&#39;s hosted productivity software.OOXML is the native file format in Microsoft Office 2007, and&#160;Microsoft is attempting to get it recognized as a standard. ODF advocates have lambasted OOXML, calling it far too proprietary to warrant such a stamp of approval.Marcich echoed that charge. &quot;Microsoft certainly has the right to advance its proprietary format,&quot; he said. &quot;What it doesn&#39;t have the right to do is call OOXML open and interoperable. ... We&#39;d love it if Microsoft supported ODF in its products natively.&quot;Despite the prevalence of Office software, ODF nonetheless has a chance to thrive, Marcich argued.Today, he noted, Microsoft&#39;s&#160;DOC format, not OOXML, is still dominant. &quot;If the question is &#39;what is the future,&#39; clearly ODF has the lead right now,&quot; he said.OOXML cannot supplant&#160;DOC until the majority of organizations and users upgrade to Office 2007, he noted, a process that will not occur imminently.&quot;We have a window here where governments have time to make a decision as to upgrading,&quot; he said. &quot;I think 2008 will be a critical year as to which format will emerge as the format of the future.&quot;Another ODF advocate, Andy Updegrove, also expressed pleasure over ODF&#39;s adoption to date and optimism about its future. &quot;The tipping point has been passed. I don&#39;t think it will lead to a deluge, but progress will continue,&quot; said Updegrove, an attorney with Gesmer Updegrove in Boston. Updegrove serves as legal counsel to technology companies as well as standards bodies, including OASIS, and closely tracks the ODF-OOXML saga on his blog.Updegrove predicted that 2008 will be &quot;a tough year for Office,&quot; pointing beyond ODF and OOXML to broader trends in computer usage. &quot;The monolithic idea of an office suite is really eroding, and the younger you are, the more meaningless it becomes,&quot; he said.Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment Friday.Another win for ODF in the United States could come soon. New York officials are expected to decide which format the state will use in its systems. The public comment period for the matter had originally been scheduled to end on Dec. 28, but an updated document on the state&#39;s Web site indicates that the period has been extended to Jan. 18.
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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.
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eBook Tools is a collection of tools to assist with creating and modifying ebook OPF files and ebook content files.   Welcome to eBook Tools ----------------------  eBook Tools is a collection of tools I have written to assist with creating and modifying ebook OPF files and ebook content files.  There is currently no Icon or Helpfile for this project, if you would like to donate either please see the About dialog in the program for contact details.  This program utilises MS-Word very heavily to perform most of the tasks available.  So if you do not have MS-Word installd do not install the application as it will not work. It has been tested with Winjdows XP (SP2) and MS-Word 2000 and also with MS-Word 2002 and was found to work ok. I have not tested it with Vista. So reports on how it does will be much appreciated.  The features available in the current version are as follows ------------------------------------------------------------  Open, modify and save OPF files eBook meatadata, x-metadata and guide items. Supports Metadata lookup from the internet  Create new OPF files Drag and drop file ordering for ebook spine, exclude items from ebook spine   The Tools available are as follows ----------------------------------  Convert docs to HTML - batch convert all documents (MS-word docs) in the file list to HTML documents.  Split Document - use on either Word documents or HTML documents,  helps split a large file into seperate chapter files. Note:  whens using the document splitter the main windows is hidden and the splitter is controlled from an icon is the system try.  Format documents - removes forced CR's and changes the font and size of all documents in the file list to a pre-selected format.  Create Toc file - helps create a TOC file to all the files in the filelist,  has several options for the naming of the hyperlinks in the resulting Toc file  Change Dialect - Changes the dialect of all files in the filelist - eg, American to English spelling, or vice-versa.   Dictionary file ---------------  The dialect change tool uses an MS-Access database file containing a list of words and their english spelled couterpart. The copy of the DB file that comes with the initial install contains only a few words. I plan to post updated database files as the list grows longer. If you would like to contribute to the word list database please see the 'About' dialog on the application for contact details.   Licence -------  Free for everyone for personal use, for business use please contact me.  Disclaimer ----------  Whatever happens to your computer or data, it's not my fault and I will not be held liable or responsible in any way. Use at your own risk, if you don't read this and use anyway, it is still not my fault (ignorance cannot be used as a defence).  Suggestions/bugs ----------------  If you have any please see the 'About' dialog in the application for contact details.     Ian.            Presented By     Intermarkets Donates to Needy Families to Spread Hope      Intermarkets, Inc. participates in sponsorships of local families in need during the holiday season through The Salvation Army, and the U.S. Marine Corps' Toys for Tots and "Adopt-A-Family" programs. (PRWeb Dec 19, 2007)                          Post Comment:Trackback URL: http://www.prweb.com/pingpr.php/TWFnbi1aZXRhLVN1bW0tQ3Jhcy1UaGlyLVplcm8= &nbsp;    Ads by Pheedo
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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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OpenOSX today announced Office 1.5 for Mac OS X, an easy-to-use solution for installing, configuring, and using the open source GNOME Office software on Mac OS X. OpenOSX&#39;s Office release includes the necessary
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(InfoWorld) - The Swedish Standards Institute has declared its recent vote in favor of Microsoft's Office Open XML format invalid. It means that Sweden will probably abstain from an important upcoming international vote on whether to make the format a standard. The reason given by SIS was not the controversial circumstances surrounding the vote, in which Microsoft was found to have offered companies "incentives" if they voted in favor of OOXML. Instead, SIS cited a technicality, saying proper procedures had not been followed. "It appears that one of the organizations that took part had two votes. Since the rules weren't followed, the decision made earlier is void," SIS president Lars Flink told IDG's Computer Sweden. A new vote will now be held. It probably won't be possible to arrange it by Sunday, however, the deadline for countries to submit their votes on whether to standardize the format to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The ISO will then tally the results and publish the result early next week, possibly by Monday. "The board of SIS knows that there is not much time, which means that Sweden won't take part [in the ISO vote], although we won't know for certain until Sunday," Flink said. He denied that the storm of criticism directed at the vote was behind SIS's decision to declare its vote invalid. "The vote has been criticized, but that is not the reason for our decision," he said. "The sole reason is that one of the companies that voted cast more than one vote. No member company has more than one vote." The original decision to accept OOXML as an ISO standard was taken by the Swedish working group on Monday. Microsoft Sweden was later found to have offered extra "marketing contributions" to its business partners to encourage them to vote for OOXML, according to e-mails seen by Computer Sweden. A Microsoft manager said this week that the e-mail "should never have been sent." SIS said it is now "practically and formally impossible for the Swedish working group to arrange a new vote before September, 2, 2007, when the global vote is closed. If a new Swedish vote cannot be arranged, Sweden will abstain from voting." About 100 countries will take part in the vote. OOXML is Microsoft's rival to the Open Document Format (ODF), which is used by applications including OpenOffice.org and Star Office. ODF has already been adopted by the ISO as an international standard, but Microsoft is pushing ISO to have OOXML adopted as well.
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It's easier than you might think to create your own OpenOffice.org extensions.
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(InfoWorld) - Denmark's government agencies will be required to handle two competing document format standards, the Open Document Format (ODF) and Microsoft's Open XML, during a one-year test period that will begin next year. Denmark is requiring both standards for the test period since neither are "fully mature," said Rachid El Mousti, senior adviser for the IT strategy division of Denmark's National IT and Telecom Agency. A third party will evaluate the results of the tests in the first half of 2009, after which the Danish Parliament will conduct a further assessment, the Ministry of Science and Innovation said. The government is also requiring that new products bought by the agencies be able to accommodate at least one of the standards. It is also studying how its agencies exchange documents, including their use of converters to change document formats. Denmark could decide to use one standard, both, or neither of them, depending on market developments, El Mousti said. Government backing for document formats is seen as significant because it could help promote wider use of the standards in the market. If governments mandate the use of ODF, it could help office suites such as OpenOffice.org, which use the standard, to compete more effectively with Microsoft's dominant Office suite. El Mousti said Denmark has felt pressure from supporters of both ODF and Open XML, which was created by Microsoft and is used in Office 2007. Denmark has maintained an open dialog with all vendors, he said. "In order for us to succeed not just with open standards ... we of course need to have the vendors with us," El Mousti said. A Microsoft executive softly chided Denmark's move to mandate standards. "While I still believe that mandated standards are not an optimal solution for interoperability, this is an important step" in recognizing Open XML as a standard, wrote Jason Matusow, Microsoft's director for corporate standards, in a blog posting last week. Denmark does not widely use ODF. Most of its agencies use Microsoft software, and most documents that need to be published are turned into PDFs (portable document format). Microsoft has been strongly encouraging governments and organizations to use Open XML, which was approved as a standard by Ecma, a European standards body, in December. Microsoft argues that Open XML has more features than ODF, but some critics say the specification is overly complex. On Monday, the state ofÂ Massachusetts put Open XML on a list of standardsÂ that could be used for documents in the future, along with ODF. Â
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft Corp. and Novell Inc. have wasted little time in demonstrating there is real work being done as part of their recent Linux interoperability pact. Just a month afterÂ the historic deal between the companies, Novell said Monday it will support the proprietary document format in Microsoft Office 2007, Open XML, in its open-source version of the OpenOffice productivity suite by the end of January. Novell also will release software that will bidirectionally translate word processing, spreadsheets and presentations between its version of OpenOffice.org's productivity suite and Microsoft Office to the OpenOffice.org project so Open XML can become a part of that open-source project, the company said. However, this does not guarantee that Open XML will be integrated into the OpenOffice.org code, said Justin Steinman, a Novell director of marketing for Linux. "We are going to release the code to the open-source community. Whether it gets integrated or not is up to the community," he said. Novell and Microsoft worked together on the translation project, which will allow users of a new release of OpenOffice due in January to create, save and send files as Open XML documents, Steinman said. Creating interoperability between the OpenOffice and Microsoft Office suites was a goal that was part of the companies' deal, announced Nov. 2, to make Microsoft's proprietary software work more seamlessly with Novell's Suse Linux and other open-source software from the company. The Open XML work will ultimately allow users to more easily share files between Microsoft Office 2007 and OpenOffice, which support different document formats, Steinman said. The native document format in OpenOffice is OpenDocument Format (ODF), an XML-based file format recognized as a standard by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Microsoft so far has chosen not to support ODF and instead created its own file format, Open XML, for Office 2007. Microsoft's lack of support for ODF has been controversial, and the company further stirred up concern in the industry that it was trying to promote its own proprietary file format as an industry standard instead of ODF by submitting Open XML to Ecma International in November 2005. Ecma is a standards organization that can fast-track technology standards through the ISO. Ecma plans to vote on whether to approve Open XML for submission to the ISO as an international standard on Dec. 7. Microsoft released Office 2007, which supports Open XML, last week to business customers. The suite is expected to be widely available to consumers in retail outlets on Jan. 30.
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UPDATED - In another carefully timed move to garner support for its document format still under consideration for an international standard, Microsoft today clarified the terms under which use of its Office Open XML format by developers is permitted.
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(InfoWorld) - Standards body Ecma International expects to publish the final draft of the Office Open XML file formats specification proposed by Microsoft Corp. as early as Monday, ahead of a formal vote to adopt the specification as a standard in December. Governments are taking an interest in open-standard document formats as a way to guarantee access to legacy public information, and to avoid dependence on developers of proprietary software. Denmark's government voted in June to mandate the use of open-standard document formats in central government from Jan. 1, 2008. For now, five ministries are testing the OpenDocument Format (ODF) standard, used in open-source software suite OpenOffice.org, and also in proprietary software including Sun Microsystems Inc.'s StarOffice and IBM Corp.'s Workplace. ODF is a rival to Office Open XML. If ECMA approves the Office Open XML format, used by Microsoft in its forthcoming Office 2007 software suite, the Danish ministries could use that instead. The French government is conducting a public inquiry into how to make its computer systems interoperable, but has reached no conclusions yet. However, in a report commissioned by the prime minister, National Assembly Deputy Bernard Carayon called for a law making it compulsory for French government departments to use ODF when they create or distribute documents. He suggested that France ask its European partners to do likewise when exchanging documents at a European level. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO)Â approved the ODF standard in May, but the Office Open XML specification is still some way off that status. Ecma's General Assembly will vote on the text during its meeting on Dec. 7 and Dec. 8. It cannot amend the text, only accept or reject it. If the final draft of the Office Open XML specification wins the assembly's approval, it will become an Ecma standard, and go on to ISO for fast-track approval, which can take six months to nine months. ISO may request amendments to the standard before voting to approve it. Both Ecma and ISO are based in Switzerland. Before submitting the text to the general assembly, Ecma's Technical Committee 45 will publishÂ the final draft on the standards body's Web site. That could happen as early as Monday, according to Ecma employee Isabelle Walch, and another source with knowledge of the process. The publication of the draft will give software developers a chance to make their applications compatible with the final version of Microsoft's Office 2007 document format ahead of the application suite's launch to business users at the end of this year. Technical Committee 45 has held six meetings to discuss the Office Open XML specification since beginning work on it last December. At the most recent meeting held in Trondheim, Norway, from Sept. 26 to Sept. 28, participants discussed numerical data precision, a mechanism for describing application characteristics, and extending spreadsheet capacity before agreeing the final draft, committee member Tom Ngo wrote in a report of the meeting. Ngo is chief technology officer of NextPage Inc. The meeting is chaired by two representatives from Microsoft, while other committee members represent the British Library, the U.S. Library of Congress, and companies including Apple Computer Inc., Intel Corp., Novell Inc. and Toshiba Corp.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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Microsoft has published a new beta of its Open XML File Format Converter for Mac.
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(InfoWorld) - The Danish government could save around 125 million Danish krone ($21 million) over the next five years if it adopted the OpenOffice.org productivity software instead of upgrading to Microsoft's Office 2007 suite. Doing nothing could save it even more, according to a study by consultancy RambÃ¸ll Management A/S. RambÃ¸ll compared the cost of different ways of implementing the Danish Parliament's June 2 decision that government institutions exchanging information digitally with citizens or companies must do so in file formats based on open standards from Jan. 1, 2008. The Danish Open Source Business Association commissioned the report, which was published in Danish in August. An English version of the report was linked from the OpenOffice.orgÂ Web siteÂ last week. Adam Lebech, head of office at the Danish National IT and Telecom Agency, welcomed the debate the report had started, but warned that the numbers did not tell the whole story. "It's very difficult to make these calculations because you have to make a lot of assumptions," he said Wednesday. "The report doesn't look at savings from open standards, it only looks at costs. ... It's not a business case," he said. The report examined the cost of switching the exchange of documentation to two possible open standard document formats: Office Open XML and OpenDocument Format (ODF). Microsoft developed the Office Open XML file format for its Office 2007 software suite, and proposed it to European standards body ECMA International for standardization. In late August, an ECMA technical committee chaired by Microsoft was still discussing draft version 1.4 of the specification, whereas the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved the rival ODF standard in May. ODF is the format used by open source software suite OpenOffice.org, and also by proprietary software including Sun Microsystems' StarOffice and IBM's WorkPlace. RambÃ¸ll estimated the cost of two ways the government could switch its document exchange to Office Open XML: by using free file translation tools Microsoft has said it will provide for existing versions of its Office software, or by upgrading to Office 2007 when it becomes available. For ODF, RambÃ¸ll compared the cost of migrating to OpenOffice.org software, or of using file translators, still in development, to open and save ODF documents from within Microsoft Office. It concluded that if the government continued its policy of progressively upgrading to newer versions of Microsoft Office, the cost of licensing and installing the upgrades, and switching document exchange to the Office Open XML format, would cost around 380 million krone. The cost of continuing to upgrade Microsoft Office whileÂ switching to ODFÂ would be slightly more, because of greater file conversion and support costs. Migrating from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org, while switching to ODF, would cost around 255 million krone, RambÃ¸ll said. The cheapest route, at 105 million krone, would be to adopt Office Open XML -- but to stick with the versions of Microsoft Office already in use, primarily Office XP and 2003, RambÃ¸ll said. Sticking with current versions of the software and switching to ODF would cost marginally more. The report, Estimating the Costs of Implementing Office OpenXML and ODF in the Central Government, isÂ available in EnglishÂ from Danish Open Source Business Association.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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The former secretary general of the organization shepherding Office Open XML through the ISO standards approval process says he expects that the standard will gain approval in the spring of 2008.