| Coming soon: ODF for MS Office |
May 04, 2006
Just because Microsoft refuses to support ODF (Open Document Format) never meant that someone wouldn't write a plug-in to enable Microsoft Office users to read and write ODF documents. Well, it's happened.
In an interview with Groklaw's Pamela Jones, the OpenDocument Foundation Inc.'s co-founder and president, Gary Edwards, said the Foundation will be presenting Massachusetts with an Office plug-in that will allow Office users to open, render, and save to ODF files, while also allowing translation of documents between Microsoft's binary (.doc, .xls, .ppt) or XML formats and ODF.
In the interview, Edwards said that the Foundation has "completed testing on an ODF Plugin for all versions of MS Office dating back to MS Office 97. The ODF Plugin installs on the file menu as a natural and transparent part of the open, save, and save as sequences. As far as end users and other application add-ons are concerned, ODF plugin renders ODF documents as if it were native to MS Office."
Edwards hopes that this plugin, which also supports accessibility add-ons, will end any further debate about whether ODF is suitable for government use. Microsoft has continued to take pot-shots at ODF as being unsuitable for business or government users.
The popular open document format has also just been approved as an ISO standard.
The Foundation is offering ODF support for Microsoft Office because "this isn't about 'Windows' or MS Office. It's about people, business units, existing workflows and business processes, and vested legacy information systems begging to be connected, coordinated, and re-engineered to reach new levels of productivity and service. It's also about the extraordinary value of ODF and its importance to the next generation of collaborative computing," said Edwards.
News of the plugin, Edwards told Linux-Watch, has made quite a splash. "We didn't expect this kind of response," he said.
He was also caught by surprise by Massachusetts' RFI (Request for Information) regarding Open Document Format plug-ins for Microsoft Office, which came out on May 3rd. "We had no idea that the RFI was being planned," Edwards said. "[The plug-in] came out of testing on Friday, and we didn't expect that much interest in it."
Edwards adds that the Foundation has not decided yet how or when it will make the plug-in publicly available, however. "The plugin is not available yet online. People have been saying that it's out, and you can do this and that with it, and that's completely crazy. We haven't decided yet how we're going to distribute it."
Edwards explains that the plug-in began its life as a donation to the Foundation, and from discussions with Chris DiBona, open source program manager of Google.
At first, "We weren't sure it could be done. But, we stepped outside the box and worked on it. Our expectation of success was very low. Now, we're surprised at how it works. With it, every 32-bit Windows user can use ODF."
One of the distribution routes that the Foundation is exploring is to make it part of the Google Pack of useful Windows software.
Another reason for creating the ODF plugin is that "We've been having trouble getting end-users to see the value in open formats. The world is used to working with 35-different formats. IT management, archivists... [they] all get it, but the end-users don't get it. With the plug-in, users can get it without any change, and then they'll see how useful a universal format can be."
The plugin, however, won't please everyone. "The open document vendors -- IBM, Sun, Novell, KOffice, OpenOffice.org. -- sell alternatives to MS Office. They're selling a replacement. This will extend the useful life of MS Office," said Edwards.
Of course, as Edwards points out, the Foundation is out to move ODF to the center of office documentation, not to champion any vendor's or open-source group's office suite.
Edwards concluded by saying that he's now waiting for the "Microsoft ODF plugin to show up. Microsoft has said that if the demand is out there, they will produce it. If Bill Gates holds up a finger to judge the wind for ODF demand today, he'll get his arm ripped off."
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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