Sun Gets Ready to Preview its ODF Plug-In

I'm not sure why Sun didn't come up with a simpler name for the technology, which is being referred to as the "StarOffice 8 Conversion Technology Preview plug-in application for Microsoft Office 2003."

But, that being said, this OpenDocument Format (ODF) plug-in will be made available as a free download, and will facilitate two-way conversion of Microsoft Word 2003 documents to ODF.

The plug-in will preview later this month, with the finished version expected around April, at which time it is also expected to offer full support for spreadsheet and presentation documents, something Microsoft has just started work on.

Redmond expects customer technology previews of those to be posted to SourceForge starting in May, with the final versions scheduled to be available in November.

But the good thing with these move is that users will have more choice and options with regard to the productivity suites they choose to use and how their documents are saved.

Andy Updegrove, a partner with Boston law firm Gesmer Updegrove LLP and the editor of the ConsortiumInfo.org standards blog, has an interesting take on all this.

He says that less staff training, and associated costs, might be required to get staff to convert from an existing version of Office to an ODF-compliant product, such as OpenOffice or StarOffice, than an upgrade to Office 2007.

That's because there is a lot of similarity between many ODF products and the current version of Office, in contrast to the dramatic differences that exist between Office 2007 and its predecessors, he says.

Now there's an interesting thought!