Microsoft Open XML/ODF translator now available

If you've been losing sleep over the compatibility issues that Microsoft's Open XML and the competing Open Document Format will introduce to your business, worry no more. A couple of international developers, funded by Microsoft, have completed work on version 1.0 of a translator to convert between the two formats. The translator will allow for the conversion of Microsoft Word documents from the Open XML format into the ODF format and vice versa (Excel and Powerpoint translators are still in the works). Once downloaded, the translator can be installed as a plug-in for Microsoft Office 2007 and is available for integration into other applications as well. I must say, hats-off to Microsoft for funding this translation project and for getting it out the door so quickly. The only question that remains: if both standards are supposedly "open" and easily translatable, what's the point of having two standards in the first place?

For more on the translator:
- see this ComputerWorld article
- and download version 1.0 at SourceForge.net