OpenOffice Will Support Microsoft's Office Open XML format

[Via ZDNet Belgium] Novell is going to include Microsoft's Office Open XML Format in OpenOffice! Read the full press release in Novell's Press Room.

Novell Boosts OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office Interoperability

Novell to support Open XML format to advance document interoperability

WALTHAM, Mass.—04 dec 2006—Novell today announced that the Novell® edition of the OpenOffice.org office productivity suite will now support the Office Open XML format, increasing interoperability between OpenOffice.org and the next generation of Microsoft Office. Novell is cooperating with Microsoft and others on a project to create bi-directional open source translators for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations between OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office, with the word processing translator to be available first, by the end of January 2007. The translators will be made available as plug-ins to Novell’s OpenOffice.org product. Novell will release the code to integrate the Open XML format into its product as open source and submit it for inclusion in the OpenOffice.org project. As a result, end users will be able to more easily share files between Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org, as documents will better maintain consistent formats, formulas and style templates across the two office productivity suites. (continue reading)