The new StarOffice 8 Conversion Technology Preview is primarily based on the OpenOffice platform. It is available as a plug-in to StarOffice or OpenOffice. Initially, it will support conversion of the Word .doc format only, with support for Excel .xls and PowerPoint .ppt formats expected in April.
Of course, conversions between StarOffice or OpenOffice and Microsoft Office documents is nothing new. What’s new here is that the converter is now available for ODF, the next-generation XML-based file format of the Star and OpenOffice suites.
However, while the new plug-in extends support to ODF file format, it is limited on the Microsoft end in that it only supports up to Office 2003. It does not yet support the new .docx file format of Office 2007.
For the short term, that should prove only a minor issue, as corporate take-up of Office 2007 is only just beginning, and may not get a huge boost until businesses conduct their next major hardware refresh cycles. And given that Office 2007 coincides with release of a new OS, Vista, past history is that it takes at least 18 months for corporate procurements to hit critical mass.
Behind the news, Sun and Microsoft are both converting to XML-based file formats for their office suites because the new formats are more compact and portable. Sun promotes ODF as fully open because of its open source status, and its official ratification by Oasis.
For its part, Microsoft is promoting its OpenXML rival as the real standard, having submitted it to ECMA (a European body that has been friendly territory to Microsoft in the past, having ratified Microsoft’s Common Language Runtime and C# as standards).
Microsoft’s move is in response to public agency pressure that is limiting procurements of office suites to products based on open standards. By contrast, Sun promotes the open source aspects of Open Office as a cheap, and in many cases, free alternative to Microsoft Office. And it’s pinning its hopes on emergence of Linux desktops in lesser-developed nations that can’t afford to pay for Microsoft Office licenses.
In some cases, the move to open file formats has been controversial. While the former CIO for the Commonwealth (state) of Massachusetts resigned for other reasons, it was prompted by his mandate for open file formats. While the CIO was forced out, the policy lives on. Sun pointed to the Executive Department of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as its reference customer for the new ODF plug-in.
The ODF plug-in will available now as a free download within the next couple weeks, and as part of the next release of OpenOffice in the spring.
