Microsoft has expanded the list of supported formats in Microsoft Office. In 2007, Microsoft Office System already supports 20 different document formats in Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The version of Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) will also include XML Paper Specification (XPS), Portable Document Format (PDF) 1.5, PDF / A and Open Document Format (ODF) v1.1 in the list. Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) is scheduled to launch during the first half of 2009.

With SP2, users will be able to open, edit and save documents using ODF and save documents in the XPS fixed and PDF formats directly within the application. They did not even need to install another code. Furthermore, they can put in ODF format as the default file for Office 2007. Furthermore, to provide support ODF for users of Microsoft Office XP and Office 2003, Microsoft will continue to work with the open source community in the evolution of the Open XML-ODF translator project on SourceForge.net.

“Microsoft support of ODF in exercise is a major step enabling customers to work with the document format that best suits their needs, and it enables interoperability in the marketplace,” said Roger Levy, vice - President and CEO of the Open Platform Solutions for Novell. “Novell is proud to be an industry leader in cross-platform document interoperability through our work in the document Initiative interoperability, the Interop Vendor Alliance and with our direct collaboration with Microsoft in our laboratory for interoperability. We look forward to continuing this work for clients across the spectrum IT. ”

Microsoft also said it is committed to providing Office customers with the ability to open, edit and save documents in the Chinese national standard file format, uniforms Office Format (UOF). Microsoft is currently supporting the development of UOF-Open XML translator project on SourceForge.net, and also intends to promote the distribution and usability of a translator.