Sun Launches Completed Open Document Plugin

By Greg McNevin

July 12, 2007: After several months in development, Sun has released the its Open Document Format (ODF) plug-in for Microsoft Office, enabling the ODF standard to be read and written by Microsoft’s software, plus be used as the default format.

Microsoft has been working on its own ODF translator tool, however, the difference between its offering and Sun’s is that it only reads ODF, and cannot save a document in the open source format, or default to it.

Sun claims the final version both improves the conversion quality and adds support for Excel, Powerpoint alongside Word. It also now supports Office XP, 2000 and 2003, no doubt a welcome addition to those who have not as yet updated to Microsoft’s latest productivity offering.

While the final version is out, Sun notes that Word 2007 support is patchy due to “an issue in Word's 2007 Filter API handling” according to Sun OpenOffice.org technical architect Malte Timmermann.

“You can save to ODF, but when you try to open ODF, Word ignores the installed filters and tries to open with it's own filters. Of course Word can't, so you get an error message "The Office Open XML file cannot be opened because there are problems with the content",” writes Timmermann on his official blog. “This even happens if you explicitly select the ODF filter! I hope Microsoft will fix this issue with the next service pack.”

Timmermann says that conversion is handled by StarOffice code and its proven filters and doesn't require anything else to be downloaded like Microsoft’s conversion tool. “Just download and install, no need to install additional things like the "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack", ".NET Framework" and hot fixes” he writes.

Timmermann adds that a localised versions are on the way, and will automatically detect and use the language MsOffice is set to.

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