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In a recent announcement, Microsoft revealed that Office 2007 will support ODF (Open Document Format), the document standard used by OpenOffice.org and other open source productivity suites, with the release of Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2.

In Office 2007 SP2, users will be able to open, edit, and save ODF and PDF documents as well as set the software to automatically save documents in those file formats by default. The increased support also includes its own XML Paper Specification and the Chinese national document format, Uniform Office Format.

The company further plans to become an "active participant" in the development of ODF and PDF in addition to collaborating with others to advance its Open XML and XPS standards in the larger community.

"We have heard from customers and governments that they would like to see us do this. Now is the time to announce this support. It's also important to announce this now because we want to get involved in the maintenance of ODF," said Tom Robertson, general manager of Interoperability and Standards at Microsoft.

Despite the focus on increased standards support in Office (all of the new file formats have been accepted as standards either internationally or nationally), Microsoft will not support the standardized version of its own Open XML format until the release of Office 14, which is expected in late 2009 or early 2010. According to Robertson, that's because of the substantial work required to ensure that the standardized version of Open XML would be backwards compatible with the version found in Office 2007.

Microsoft plans to join a technical committee of the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, or OASIS, working on ODF advancements. The company will also take part in the International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) working group being formed to maintain Open XML.

Most industry observers believe the movement and the associated creation of the Document Interoperability Initiative to be reactions to the European Commission's USD 1.4 billion fine imposed against Microsoft for its alleged failure to give adequate access to its formats to competitors.