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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 software giant launched the Open XML Translator project on SourceForge.net, a popular site for hosting code-sharing projects. The software will be available under the BSD open-source license.

The software, developed by a France-based Microsoft partner, will allow people to use Microsoft Office to open and save documents in the OpenDocument, or ODF, format.

Strange, wonder what is Microsoft's rationale for supporting ODF format ??

Source: http://news.com.com/Microsoft+bends+on+OpenDocument/2100-7344-6090912.html?part=dht&tag=nl.e703

Microsoft officials acknowledged on June 29 that the company will not meet the October 2006 business-availability target to which it committed in March of this year. At that time, Microsoft officials said to expect retail availability of Office 2007 to be some time in January 2007, so as to coincide with the Windows Vista launch.
Company officials declined to provide further details. They also would not say whether the retail launch of Office 2007 is still on for January.

Source: http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,2180,1983839,00.asp
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1983846,00.asp