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Microsoft will be developing the tools in collaboration with the France-based IT provider Clever Age and software vendors such as Aztecsoft in India and Dialogika in Germany. The output will be made available as open source, under the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) license, said Microsoft.

While a first prototype is expected to be available today on the relevant SourceForge site - sourceforge.net/projects/odf-converter - the complete version of the Word translation tool is expected to be available by the end of 2006, with add-ins for Excel and PowerPoint expected in 2007.

For older versions of Office, a free Compatibility Pack will give access to the translation tool and also provide support for the Open XML within Office 2007, the launch date for which recently slipped.

Given that the ODF format is itself XML based, as is Office 2007's default Open XML format, it might not seem that much translation is really needed for this XML-to-XML transition. This is not the case, however, Darren Strange UK Product Manager 2007 Microsoft Office System told us. Given the size and detail of the respective format specifications, ensuring the full testing of the various combinations of features is a large-scale task.

What will be important for Microsoft, however, is to be better able to defend itself from critics within public bodies that its formats are closed and proprietary.

'By enabling this translator,

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we will make both choice and interoperability a more practical option for our customers,' declared Jean Paoli, one of the co-creators of the XML format and now general manager of interoperability and XML architecture at Microsoft. 'We believe that Open XML meets the needs of millions of organisations for a new approach to file formats, so we are sharing it with the industry by submitting it, with others, to become a worldwide standard. Yet it is very important that customers have the freedom to choose from a range of technologies to meet their diverse needs.'

It was the state of Massachusetts, and its plans to adopt the OASIS formats pioneered by the open source OpenOffice project, that first caused waves in this area. It highlighted the proprietary nature of Microsoft's file formats as a reason for public bodies not to purchase Redmond software and pursue more open, standards-based, open-source alternatives.

The erstwhile CIO of the state of Massachusetts, Peter Quinn, then took his open standards campaign to Europe, lobbying Euro MPs to ensure that public documents are not tied to proprietary formats. Belgium, for one, was recently considering the adoption of the OpenDocument Format.

Note that Open XML is sill making its way through the standards process of the Ecma International standards body.

Comments and observations on the progress of the Open XML Translator project will be found on Darren Strange's blog.

PC Pro readers should note that a copy of Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 Beta 2 is available on the cover disc of this month's issue, accompanied by an exclusive 200 page eBook. See Latest Issue.