In an abrupt about-face, Microsoft announced mid-week that it now plans to support version 1.1 of the ODF (OpenDocument Format) standard in the upcoming Service Pack 2 update of Office 2007. Office 2007 SP2 currently is scheduled to be released in the first half of 2009. Support for PDF and XPS formats will also added via the same service pack.

Ironically, it appears that Microsoft's decision is related to issues with backward compatibility with its own OOXML. Although OOXML was successfully pushed through as IS29500 in April, changes that OOXML had gone through now make it more difficult to support than ODF in Office 2007. As such, full support for OOXML will come only in the next version of office.

Whatever the case, this announcement should help Microsoft alleviate legal pressures somewhat, especially in the face of initial complains that Microsoft is limiting choice by not supporting ODF.  Others remain skeptical however.  Pamela Jones, founder of Groklaw noted that "I will believe it when I see it."

For more on Microsoft's abrupt about-turn on ODF:
- check out ZDNet article