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The company announced earlier this week that it would include support for the ODF and PDF formats in the next Service Pack for Office 2007 - but won't add support for the new ISO-approved

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version of its own OOXML.

The company said it would instead implement the new OOXML standard in Office 14, which is expected to be launched next year, raising concerns that Office 2007 owners could be left without a method of saving ISO-approved OOXML files.

Microsoft says the new OOXML format won't be included in Office 2007 SP2 because of the sheer complexity of the standard - a criticism that was levelled at OOXML during the heated ISO ratification. "The ISO process has resulted in quite a few changes," says Jerry Fishenden, national technology officer at Microsoft. "Changing the existing file format in Office 2007 is complex... due to issues of backwards compatibility with the ECMA [original] version of OOXML."

"We want to be sure we're doing it in step with other people as well," Fishenden adds. "People want a consensus of implementation across platforms."

However, Fishenden says it will eventually provide translators for Office 2007. "We're going to make sure customers are not left out. We will always offer backwards compatibility."