Open XML Translator V.1 online
p2pnet.net News:- Version 1.0 of the Open XML Translator, the first part of a Microsoft-sponsored project to convert Microsoft Word documents between Open XML and Open Document Format (ODF) for Office Applications file formats, is now available for download from SourceForge.net.
“Open XML Translator provides tools to build a technical bridge between the Open XML Formats and Open Document Format(ODF),” says SourceForge. “As the first component of this initiative, the ODF Add-in for Microsoft Word 2007 allows to Open & Save ODF documents in Word.”
It can also be found on Microsoft’s Web site here and here.
Microsoft funded the work but didn’t contribute code, the IDG News Service has Microsoft’s Jason Matusow saying. Rather it, “provided architectural guidance and management to the project”.
France’s CleverAge contributed the code and built most of the Open XML Translator, while Aztecsoft in India and Dialogika in Germany did the quality assurance and testing, says the story, going on:
The team is currently working on translation between ODF and Open XML for spreadsheets written in Microsoft Excel 2007 and presentations developed in Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, IDG quotes Matusow as stating.
“Much has been made of the fact that Microsoft did not provide native support in Microsoft Office 2007 for ODF, though it provides support for 30 other file formats and uses Open XML as the default document file format,” says the story, adding:
“Matusow defends that decision by saying Microsoft tries to meet its customers’ wishes, and there was no customer demand for ODF — largely supported by rivals IBM Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. – when development on Office 2007 began. IBM and Sun both use ODF as the default file format in their own rivals to the Microsoft Office suite.”
Also See:
IDG News Service – Open XML translator for Microsoft Word, February 5, 2007
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February 5th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Why would Microsoft, a company that thrives on proprietary software design, support a FOSS project that allows conversion to ODF instead of writing their own? Even more perplexing, why didn’t they just re-brand the BSD-lisensed Open XML translater as a proprietary plugin? After all, it only works for Microsoft Office, and the company would most likely consider that rationale enough. That would have been a more Microsoft-y thing to do.
Who knows. Maybe not everybody at the company is a heartless soulless dictator. Maybe.
Or this could just be a public relations stunt.