Sun Develops ODF Converter

February 9th, 2007: Shortly after Microsoft’s release of its Open XML/Open Document Format (ODF) converter, Sun Microsystems has released its own software that enables translation between the two formats.

Called StarOffice 8 Conversion Technology, the software comes in the form of a plug-in that provides two-way conversion between Microsoft Office 2003 and ODF. According to the IDG News Service, the plug-in is aimed at users who require assistive technologies to access ODF documents.

Users of assistive technology are currently tied down to Microsoft office as the interface devices they use only have drivers written for Microsoft Word 2003 or earlier.

"Right now, our focus is to ensure that people using assistive devices are able to join in with OpenDocument workflows," Simon Phipps, chief open-source officer at Sun told the . "Because Microsoft hasn't published interfaces for those devices to use, they are all hard-wired to Office 2003, and their users can't migrate to other software."

Despite supporting some 30 different formats, Microsoft does not support ODF in its latest release of Office. Instead it offers the newly released ODF Translator to enable two-way conversion between Open XML and ODF.

A preview of Sun’s software will be available this month, while the official release is set for the middle of June.

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