Standards body Ecma International has created a committee to standardise Microsoft Office document formats, handing the software giant a victory in an intensifying struggle over desktop software.
The next version of Microsoft Office will be "dramatically better" as a platform for creating applications, according to Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect.
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.
Microsoft said it plans to sponsor an open-source project to create software that will convert Office documents to OpenDocument, a rival format gaining ground, particularly among governments.
The governor's office of Massachusetts said Microsoft's effort to standardise Office document formats could meet the commonwealth's procurement guidelines.
Michael Meeks is a distinguished engineer at Novell. But his current project may be his toughest yet. He is in charge of tackling interoperability between Novell's OpenOffice.org productivity suite and Microsoft Office. And as with anything relating to Microsoft, this involves more than just technology.
Microsoft says beta testing for Office 12 begins in November. Also, the company gets 120,000 requests a month from people who want to save their Office documents in PDF format, making it one of the most requested features.
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