Microsoft has severely criticised IBM, saying the company is pushing the OpenDocument Format standard to the detriment of Microsoft's own Open XML standard.
The company will sponsor an open-source project to create converter between Ecma Open XML and Chinese standard as well as new ODF converters.
The Melbourne member office of international accountancy and business advice provider HLB International is mid-way through the process of replacing its Microsoft Office-based desktop suite with the OpenOffice.org open source alternative.
The certification from ECMA -- formerly known as the European Computer Manufacturers Association -- marks a year of work for a technical committee set up to standardise Office Open XML.
The International Organisation for Standardisation is unlikely to adopt Microsoft Office Open XML format, now that it has approved the OpenDocument Format, according to analyst group Gartner.
Developers wanting to use Microsoft's Office Open XML specification will need to brush up on their legal skills.
Here's what you should know before you invite the new Office onto your hard drive.
What is it about Microsoft's proposed OOXML standard that has boffins hurling death threats at each other?
Who predicted Linux servers would outnumber Windows servers by 2006? Who said one in five enterprise desktops would be Linux-based by 2008? We look back at the bad (and good) predictions made about Linux over the past decade.
A new version of Microsoft Office for Mac is due in a couple of weeks. Here are our impressions after testing the release candidate for a month or so.
Office 2008 for Mac may be the best pick for business users, but most people can get by with less expensive alternatives.
If you need to make sleeker-looking documents and presentations, Microsoft Office Standard 2007 is a worthy upgrade. But stick to your current software if you don't feel that it lacks anything.
Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 makes prettier presentations, so an upgrade may be in order if your work is particularly image-focused and you don't mind relearning the application. If PowerPoint 2003 serves you well, however, it offers most of the same features, albeit with flatter-looking graphics.
Current WordPerfect customers should certainly upgrade to Office 11.0. But SOHO users won't need some of the functionality.
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