California to mandate ODF?
p2pnet.net news:- San Francisco assemblyman Mark Leno’s Bill AB1668 would force the California state government to become the latest to mandate the use of open document formats.
“The bill does not specifically mention the OpenDocument Format (ODF), but that format has been the catalyst for Massachusetts, Minnesota and Texas to introduce legislation that would push the adoption of open and extensible file formats,” says Techworld.nl, going on:
“Massachusetts has adopted an open document policy, but is using plug-in technology to support ODF while it considers a way to serve people with disabilities who need magnifiers not supported by open office applications that use ODF. Bills in Minnesota and Texas are working through the legislative process.
Similarly to other states’ bills, Leno’s, which is waiting to be assigned to a committee for review, would require all state agencies to, “create, exchange, and preserve all documents, as specified, in an open, extensible-markup-language-based, XML-based file format, and to start to become equipped to receive any document in an open, XML-based, file format, as specified,” says the story.
It specifically bars the use of proprietary file formats, “although it does not mention the most well-known of those: Microsoft Office: but does, however, mandate that open formats be “under the control of an open industry organization” with a “well-defined, inclusive process for evolution of the standard”.
“Other stipulations require the format to be interoperable among diverse internal and external platforms and applications, fully published, and available royalty-free,” says Techworld.nl.
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, became available last month.
“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.”
Also See:
Techworld.nl – California to consider ODF as state standard, March 2, 2007
Open XML Translator – Open XML Translator V.1 online, February 5, 2007
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March 7th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Of course, that’s ALL the Open XML translator does. It really just translates between Open XML and OpenDocument; if you want to convert your old DOC files, you need to save them in Open XML first, THEN use the translator to translate them into OpenDocument. It also doesn’t integrate nearly as well as Microsoft’s Compatibility Pack for older versions of Microsoft Office, something that the OpenDocument Foundation’s daVinci plug-in (http://openstack.blogspot.com/2007/01/running-on-opendocument-inside-of.html) promises to do.