Microsoft Relents to Pressure On OpenDocument Format By ROBERT A. GUTH Wall Street Journal
July 6, 2006; Page B4 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115215216823499185.html?mod=home_whats_news_us Microsoft Corp., bowing to pressure from governments, will offer free software that will let Word, Excel and PowerPoint handle documents in a rival technology format promoted by Sun Microsystems Inc., International Business Machines Corp. and others. The Redmond, Wash., software maker today will post on the Internet software that will let users of Microsoft applications view and create documents in the OpenDocument Format. The OpenDocument Format is a set of software technologies for storing and creating documents. It is supported by a group of companies and organizations such as the American Library Association. The format is used in a growing number of products, including OpenOffice, an open-source rival to Microsoft's Office suite of programs. Microsoft has been promoting a rival format called Open XML. Over the past year, the company's rivals have sparked a debate over the two technologies, arguing that documents, such as government archives, that need to be saved for many decades and beyond shouldn't be entrusted to a technology owned by a single company such as Microsoft. The new Microsoft software, called the Open XML Translator, will be available free under an open-source license. The software is designed to let a user of Word and other programs in Microsoft Office open and save files in OpenDocument. "This is based on feedback from governments," said Microsoft General Manager Tom Robertson. Such formats for storing data files can have great impact on companies' influence over certain markets. If a file format becomes established and widely used, the company that created that format can enjoy advantages over others. In the U.S., the debate over file formats has centered largely on a decision by Massachusetts' information-technology division to use OpenDocument, which has been opposed by some government officials there. Microsoft plans to release a tested and more polished version of the software late this year for Word and early next year for Excel and PowerPoint, Microsoft executives said. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list medianews@twiar.org To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
