iTWire - Microsoft back translator between Open XML and China's UOF doc formats

Microsoft back translator between Open XML and China's UOF doc formats

by Stuart Corner
Monday, 21 May 2007
Microsoft is to fund the development of a translator between the Open XML document format used by the Vista version of Microsoft Office and the emerging Chinese Uniform Office Format (UOF) standard. Register now to win a Canon EOS 500D The development will be done in collaboration with the Beihang University (Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics) and others. The UOF translation tools will be developed and licensed as open source software, and ultimately will be made available as free, downloadable add-ins for Microsoft Office Word 2003 and 2007 from SourceForge.net. A preview of the UOF translator tools will be released on SourceForge this northern summer, with final versions expected early next year. Further details are available at http://uof-translator.sourceforge.net/ Microsoft has also released beta versions of translation tools for Windows XP, and the 2003 and 2007 versions of Excel and PowerPoint as part of the Open XML Translator project launched in July 2006.. The UOF standard is being developed by the Chinese Office Software Work Group (COSWG), founded in January 2002 and led by the Ministry of Information Industry (MII), major suppliers of Chinese office software suites, and academic institutions such as the Beijing Information Technology Institute. The first draft of the specification was produced in December 2005. The group producing the standard is open, with 'open-door' meetings, equitable voting by ballots, and the standard document is free. At the WTO IPRs Issues in Standardization" conference in Beijing in April convened by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the China State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) and Sun Microsystems, Sun chairman, Scott McNealy, called for a merger of OASIS/ISO's ODF and China's UOF. However, according to Wikipedia, "While both formats are open, there are significant technical challenges in achieving a merger, as the two formats have made different fundamental choices in how to describe documents."{moscomment} Please enable JavaScript in your browser to post your comment! Tags See All Tags Add New Tag... Please Enter New Tags Separated By Comma's Or Close China Microsoft OPen document format Open Source Stuart Corner Windows Powered By Joomla Tags