IBM developing Microsoft Office competitor (ODF compliant)

IBM is pouring heavy resources on a Open Document Format (ODF) compliant Microsoft Office style Office productivity application software that would support XML-based Open Document Format for saving files produced by productivity applications such as word processors and spreadsheets.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts have already established ODF as the statewide standard with which all agencies and contractors who do business with them must comply. Microsoft Office Open XML formats are not as available as the ODF. And Microsoft has already said that current and future editions of Microsoft Office will not support ODF.

IBM’s Workplace Managed Client already supports Microsoft’s file formats. Users who need to convert their Office documents into ODF-compliant ones will be able to do so by opening them with WMC and then saving them in ODF.

IBM ODF compatible Office suite will be available by the end of 2005. Read full story - IBM’s potential MS-Office killer to roll out by year’s end

The Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0 Specification has been approved as an OASIS Standard. OpenDocument provides a single XML schema for text, spreadsheets, charts, and graphical documents. It makes use of existing standards, such as HTML, SVG, XSL, SMIL, XLink, XForms, MathML, and the Dublin Core, wherever possible.