Microsoft Opens Up Office to New Document Formats

In the strongest sign yet that Microsoft has given up its stranglehold on office productivity document formats, the software giant today announced that it will enhance Microsoft Office with native support for competing formats. The change will first arrive in Office 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2), due in early 2009, and will be implemented directly into the next major Office version, currently codenamed Office 14. Additionally, Microsoft has pledged to become more active in relevant document format standards bodies and working groups.

With regards to compatibility, Microsoft will add native support for Open Document Format (ODF) 1.1, Portable Document Format (PDF) 1.5 and PDF/A, and the XML Paper Specification (XPS). These formats will be treated as first class formats beginning with Office 2007 and can be configured as the default document format used in applicable Office applications.

"We are committed to providing Office users with greater choice among document formats and enhanced interoperability between those formats and the applications that implement them," said Microsoft senior vice president Chris Capossela. "By increasing the openness of our products and participating actively in the development and maintenance of document format standards, we believe we can help create opportunities for developers and competitors, including members of the open source communities, to innovate and deliver new value for customers."

Microsoft currently offers an Open XML-ODF translator via SourceForge.net and will continue supporting that so that user of older Office suites--Office 2000, XP, and 2003--can access and use ODF documents. The company also says it will join the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) technical committee to help guide the direction of future versions of ODF and will participate in the ISO/IEC working groups for ODF, Open XML, and document interoperability.

Microsoft's Office document formats were once seen as one of the company's "crown jewels," but in a recent briefing with the company, I was told that Microsoft now considers its Office applications, and not the document formats, as the place to innovate in this space. "We're opening up innovation at the application level," Doug Mahugh, a senior product manager for Microsoft Office, told me. "The value of the discussion is not the formats; it's in the tools that are solving problems for customers."

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Now this is a feature that I can use...

;D

sx4sport@hotmail.com May 21, 2008 (Article Rating:

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Does the pdf support make Adobe Acrobat Reader unnecessary? In that case, I don't think Microsoft will be allowed to do it. They might be able to make it available as a free download or something - not as part of a service pack.

shark47 May 21, 2008 (Article Rating:

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"Does the pdf support make Adobe Acrobat Reader unnecessary?"

don't expect so. PDF has always just been a reading format, not an editing format (like XPS), so i'd expect it to just be that the export plugin that was formerly available as a free add-on through the Office website, is now just included by default in Office 2007 SP2, with the format version upgrades.

if they do add support for editing PDF's, not only does it make Reader unnecessary, but also Adobe Acrobat itself.

XP

Waethorn May 22, 2008 (Article Rating:

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Ah, the things that looming threats of more billion-dollar EC fines can make someone do. Sad that this is being driven by the EC and not by actual customer requests for builtin ODF.

No wonder the Office 14 front has been so quiet... wonder when 14 will arrive now, given that ODF support probably requires everyone on the Office team working on it. 2011 maybe?

PatriotB6007 May 22, 2008 (Article Rating:

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"if they do add support for editing PDF's, not only does it make Reader unnecessary, but also Adobe Acrobat In fact, to "make Adobe Acrobat unnecessary", they will have to do all this:

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatpro/productinfo/features/

I don't see that happening, sorry.

lotsamystuff May 22, 2008 (Article Rating:

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Thank goodness - where else could I get the manditory B00ble toolbar as a complimentry download?

sx4sport@hotmail.com May 22, 2008 (Article Rating:

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"where else could I get the manditory B00ble toolbar as a complimentry download?"

Still posting from your parents house are we? Carlos Mencina is more original than you are, and he steals his material. Get a new gimmick, spelling Google ad B00ble is just as lame as spelling MS as M$ or Apple are Crapple.

Now go on and enjoy using that failure known as Live.com

Reflections May 22, 2008 (Article Rating:

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"In fact, to "make Adobe Acrobat unnecessary", they will have to do all this:"

you're kidding, right? 95% of that stuff is already accomplished through Office natively, and is maintained in the target PDF document by the current exporter! where have you been?

"Now go on and enjoy using that failure known as Live.com"

still more visitors than .Mac!

XP

Waethorn May 23, 2008 (Article Rating:

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Guess MS found out that it's easier and faster to implement ODF than make their own format ISO compatible (since not even MS implements the ISO standard based on OOXML).

MysterMask May 24, 2008 (Article Rating:

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you're kidding, right? 95% of that stuff is already accomplished through Office natively, and is maintained in the target PDF document by the current exporter! where have you been?

I've "been" using Acrobat since version 1.0, thankyouverymuch. Office is no substitute. But it's interesting that you marketing approach seems to be that it's "good enough". Which it isn't, sorry.

lotsamystuff May 25, 2008 (Article Rating:

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