Microsoft delivers Open XML updates for Mac Office but no ODF support

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 25 June 2008 07:36

Opinion and Analysis

While Office 2004 users will no doubt welcome the simplification of working with Open XML documents created by colleagues and friends wielding Office 2007 or 2008, Microsoft's efforts to make Open XML an ISO standard left a nasty taste in some mouths. There were suggestions of "irregularities" in the voting process in some countries.

ODF - Open Document Format - is held up by its widespread supporters as a truly open standard for office-style documents. Microsoft's efforts to gain ISO standardisation for Open XML were interpreted as a reaction against moves by some governments to mandate the use of software that supports open standard formats to prevent lock-in to a particular vendor.

InfoWorld recently quoted Microsoft national technology officer Stuart McKee as telling the Red Hat Summit "ODF has clearly won". McKee was referring to Microsoft's decision to add ODF support to Office 2007 in Service Pack 2, planned for 2009. There has been no indication yet that Office 2008 will also gain such support at some stage.