Download OpenXML Translator (ODF Converter Add-in for Office Word 2007, 2003 and XP)

Microsoft Office 2007 uses Open XML as its native document file format, while OpenOffice.org makes use of Open Document Format (ODF) as default document format which is aloso favored by the open source community and ratified by the International Standards Organization (ISO) in May 2006. Both file formats are incompatible, meaning you can’t open Open XML formated files in OpenOffice program, and vice-versa is also true for Office 2007 Open XML format in OpenOffice. Beside, ODF format is not supported by all version of Office suites with pre-OpenXML format too. But Microsoft and Novell have worked with open source community to develop OpenXML Translator which will provides interoperability between OpenDocument and OpenXML to allow Office users able to open or save in ODF format (.odt, .ods, .odt etc) and OpenOffice.org users able to create and view documents in Open XML format (.docx, xclx, .pptx etc) or original Office format (.doc, .xcl, .ppt etc).

Microsoft has released the first component of OpenXML Translator which is a ODF converter support add-in for Microsoft Word program, part of the Office system. ODF Add-in for Microsoft Word 2007 allows users to open, create, work, edit and save ODF documents in Word without the need to install OpenOffice suite (or other ODF implementations). The ODF converter add-in also supports Word XP, Word 2003 and Word 2007 in five different languages (English, Dutch, French, German and Polish).

Download OpenXML Translator (ODF Add-in for Word) Release 1.0 from SourceForge.net.

Note that by converting between Open XML and Open Document Format (ODF) with Word ODF Converter from OpenXML Translator , some features of Microsoft Word documents may be lost as it cannot be fully shown in ODF, although ODF converter will handle the losses silently and transparently in the background.

The highlights and features of January Release 1.0 OpenXML Translator include:

• Unified installer
• Localisation in German, Polish, Dutch, French and English
• OpenXML to ODF conversion:
  • Change tracking
  • Cross references
  • Language for proofing
  • Graphical bullets
  • Better handling of page styles
  • Line numbering
  • Drop caps
  • Complete footnotes and endnotes

ODF converter component for Microsoft Office Excel and PowerPoint will be available by November 2007. Currently, the ODF converter plug-in is only available for Microsoft Office applications, as OpenXML Translator will be natively built-in and implemented in next version of OpenOffice.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 at 1:33 am and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.