Forget Microsoft Office Documents forever!

We can all dream!

How many times do you get sent MS-Word, MS-Excel or MS-Powerpoint files?
Whilst OpenOffice does an excellent job opening them all, I would prefer them all in an open format natively.

It appears the Dutch may come to the rescue and make that dream a reality.

Reading through IDABC website it appears that the Dutch Council of State are going to open-source an application they have written that allows you to convert flawlessly between Microsoft Office <-> Open Office. It can also convert -> PDF.

At present, the only minor hiccup is images generated to PDF are a little 'darker'.

Really, I am happy to just get MS Office -> OpenOffice.

Really the European approach to OSS is a beacon of light that hopefully is adopted across all regions. The days of proprietry file formats are quickly disappearing. For future generations and long term storage Open Standards in file formats in mandatory.

History will look back at the stand the EU has made against Microsoft and show that their stance was the under swell that pushed many in that direction.

It's great to see South Africa has also filed their appeal against the OOXML becoming an ISO standard. It does show there are some people left within ISO that still have a back-bone and conscience.

South Africa challenges the validity of the final vote that we contend was based upon inadequate information resulting from poorly conducted BRM. Moreover, we challenge the validity of a process that, from beginning to end, required all parties involved to analyze far too much information in far too little time, involved a BRM that did not remotely provide enough time to perform the appointed purpose of that procedure, and for which an arbitrary time limitation was imposed to discuss and resolve a significant number of substantial responses, despite the Directives for not requiring any such limitation as to duration.

It is our opinion that the process followed during all stages of this fast track has harmed the reputations of both ISO and the IEC and brought the processes enshrined in the Directives into disrepute, and that this negative publicity has, in turn, also harmed the reputations of all member bodies of ISO and the IEC.

Let's hope this appeal isn't squashed in a face-saving exercise by ISO. The entire ISO process surrounding the adoption was flawed from the start with many unethical breaches of conduct undertaken during the whole voting process.