ODF Plugin for MS Office
Linux-Watch reports on the new ODF Plugin for MS Office, allowing MSO to read and write ODF files as if it were native. Widespread distribution as a part of the Google Pack is being explored.
The original news comes from Groklaw, where PJ writes “OpenDocument Foundation to MA: We Have a Plugin.”
Gary Edwards of the OpenDocument Foundation tells Groklaw: “The OpenDocument Foundation has notified the Massachusetts ITD that we have completed testing on an ODF Plugin for all versions of MS Office dating back to MS Office 97. The ODF Plugin installs on the file menu as a natural and transparent part of the open, save, and save as sequences. As far as end users and other application add-ons are concerned, ODF plugin renders ODF documents as if it were native to MS Office.”
“The testing has been extensive and thorough. As far as we can tell there isn’t a problem, even with Accessibility add ons, which as you know is a major concern for Massachusetts.”
Elsewhere on the web, we’ve got some more reports and discussions on the subject:
- Andy Updegrove writes “ODF Plug-ins and a Microsoft Promise of Cooperation“
- Slashdot discusses Updegrove’s article