Microsoft says aids Office/open-source interaction

By David Lawsky

ST GALLEN, Switzerland (Reuters) - Microsoft said on Wednesday that starting some time next year it will make it easier for users of an open-source rival to work with Microsoft Office.

Without adding any special software to Office, users will be able to open documents sent to them in the open source Open Document Format (ODF), the company said. As well, users will be able to edit and save documents in that format.

"Microsoft is going to be providing support for three new file formats directly in the Office product," said Erich Anderson, vice president and general counsel for Europe, in a telephone interview.

In addition to ODF, Microsoft will also support Adobe's popular PDF fixed format and Microsoft's competitor to PDF, known as XPS.

Microsoft offers support for ODF in its current version of Office but only if additional software is downloaded separately and installed.

The company did not address concerns expressed earlier this month by a British government agency, BECTA, that Microsoft's existing ODF software does not work very well.

BECTA has complained to competition authorities in London and Brussels that the ODF "translator software" has limited functionality and is poorly integrated, compared with Microsoft's own products.

The European Commission responded cautiously to Microsoft's statement.