Novell said on Monday in the US it is participating in an open-source project designed to bridge rival document formats and thus enable its OpenOffice.org customers to work with Microsoft Office documents.
Microsoft has issued an update for Office Mobile to enable compatibility with Office 2007 documents.
Word documents generated by the latest version of Microsoft Office 2007 do not conform to Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) standard, according to tests run by a document standards specialist.
A group of software developers have created a program to make Microsoft Office work with files in the OpenDocument format, a move that would bridge currently incompatible desktop applications.
Microsoft on Thursday said it will make application programming interfaces (APIs) for Office and Windows Server available free of charge, in a move designed to make its products work better with software from other providers, including open-source communities.
Office 2007 continues to be the focus of discussion here at Big Deal, but the most recent crop of reactions to my postings have shifted from the possible nuisance value of interface changes to the potential upside for OpenOffice, the open-source rival to the desktop suite crown.
Organisations considering a change of productivity suites may do well to follow the example of Queensland University of Technology, which has taken a cautious approach to Microsoft Office 2007 and instead focused on sprucing up its back-end messaging environment.
The software company has made a big show about opening up its APIs, but has it really changed its stance towards open source?
If you work with Microsoft Outlook on a daily basis, this upgrade can make scheduling simpler and e-mailing more interesting. Still, we wish Instant Search and e-mail rendering were better.
OpenOffice.org 2.4.0 is a free, open source alternative to Microsoft's Office application suite. It is fantastic if you need basic office applications such as a word processor or spreadsheet at no cost. However, large organisations and power users may be disappointed by its lack of features and support.
While the interface of IBM's free office suite is sexy, its hunger for system resources and lack of features mean that OpenOffice.org 3 is still the best free office suite. Also, watch out for Symphony's lack of OOXML support.
Thunderbird 3 takes flight
Thunderbird 3 is finally here, after a gestation period measured in
years. The latest version of Mozilla's fr… Watch it now
Google Chrome beta for Mac
It's not fully baked yet, but Google Chrome for Mac reaches a major milestone with the release of an official … Watch it now
2009 in review
What were the top five stories that shaped 2009? From the launch of Microsoft's Windows 7 OS, to the departure… Watch it now
How do you build a smarter planet?
Having problems with complex data center? Simplify your data center now.
Welcome to National Censorship Day
That sinking Tcard feeling
The challenge of government 2.0
Best Servers
Want to find out what the best servers are?
Check out the top rated here!
Optus Deal
Broadband + home phone + PlayStation®3 in a single package price!
Click here for more!
Best Laptops
Check out the best laptops here!
Click here for more.
