Office 2007 SP2 to Include ODF Support

Microsoft has announced Office 2007 will gain support for Open Document Format (ODF) and PDF in the first half of 2009.

Now that Microsoft has succeeded in getting its OOXML format approved as an ISO standard, the company has announced it will offer support for Open Document Format (ODF) and the standardized PDF 1.5 format in Office 2007 Service Pack 2, due in first half of 2009. The mainstream suite of productivity applications will also gain support for the XML Paper Specification (XPS). Microsoft wants the world to know this is one way it’s making good on its promise of improved interoperability with competing products and technologies.

“We are committed to providing Office users with greater choice among document formats and enhanced interoperability between those formats and the applications that implement them,” said Microsoft business division senior VP Chris Capossela, in a statement. “By increasing the openness of our products and participating actively in the development and maintenance of document format standards, we believe we can help create opportunities for developers and competitors, including members of the open source communities, to innovate and deliver new value for customers.”

Under Office 2007 SP2, users will be able to open, save, and edit ODF documents and save documents in PDF and XPS formats without having to use any add-on tools or third-party applications. Office 2007 will also enable customer to set ODF as their default document format, enabling easier exchange with folks using other application suites.

Microsoft says it will keep working with the open source community to bring ODF support for OFfice XP and Office 2003 through ongoing development of the Open XML-ODF translator product on SourceForge.