Vista to support OpenDocument Conversion

SourceForge, Microsoft’s development and download repository of Open Source code and applications, is releasing a translator that will convert file formats between Microsoft Office and rival standard OpenDocument, or ODF.

In a project started in 2006, SourceForge has developed code which allows a user to open and save word processor documents in two different formats - Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) format, and ODF which is supported by IBM, Sun Microsystems and Novell. OOXML is the default document format in Microsoft’s Office 2007 suite.

The plug-in will work with Microsoft’s Word application, in the Office 2007, Office 2003 and Office XP editions. The translator allows a user to open and save documents in the ODF format from Word.

The software will be available to download for free from SourceForge under the open-source BSD license. It will also be available on Microsoft’s own website.

SourceForge is now starting work on code to translate file formats between Microsoft’s Excel spreadsheet and PowerPoint presentation software and the corresponding ODF files. These plug-ins, which will also be open-source, are expected to be available by the end of 2007.