Digital Trends

Microsoft has announced it plans to offer free tools to convert between Office formats and ODF (OpenDocument Format) documents.

Microsoft has announced it plans to develop and release free tools for users to convert between Microsoft Office's Open XML Formats and the OpenDocument Format (ODF). The move is in response to requests from organizations and (particularly) government agencies requesting interoperability—a growing issue for agencies creating and processing public records concerned that information not be locked away in proprietary digital formats which may not be accessible in coming years.

Microsoft says its Open XML Translator tools will be developed and licensed as open source software (a prototype is available right now), and offered as free downloadabout add-ins for older versions of Microsoft's Office productivity application suite.

"By enabling this translator, we will make both choice and interoperability a more practical option for our customers," said Jean Paoli, general manager of interoperability and XML architecture at Microsoft. "We believe that Open XML meets the needs of millions of organizations for a new approach to file formats, so we are sharing it with the industry by submitting it, with others, to become a worldwide standard. Yet it is very important that customers have the freedom to choose from a range of technologies to meet their diverse needs."

Quality of translation between file formats may be an issue for some documents which take advantage of features offers by particular applications, but which may not be similarly supported (or even extant) in applications from other developers.

ODF converters for Microsoft Word are expected to be finalized by the end of 2006; converters for Excel and PowerPoint are expected during 2007.