October Release For MS Office ODF Support

October 16th, 2006: After announcing that it will be adding support for the Open Document format earlier this year, Microsoft has made a follow up statement saying that the plug-in is on track to be released on October 23 this year.

Up until July when it made the announcement, the company had been pushing its own Open XML format as a better alternative to Open Document (OFD), however, due to mounting public and government support Microsoft has bitten the bullet and embraced ODF – if somewhat reluctantly.

Initially Microsoft’s ODF support will be read only, with the save function to be added in an update later on this year. Office 2007, however, will also require plug-in support for ODF as Microsoft will standing by its Open XML format as the default for its upcoming office productivity suite.

The company has continued work on Open XML, submitting it to both ISO and ECMA for standardisation approval. It expects the two to vote in its favour over the next twelve months.

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