A Word-ODF plug-in

As governments start to standardize on the Open Document Format

instead of Word, a big concern has been on mitigating the cost of the

transition. Now an open source programmer has developed a plug-in that

will allow Word to read and write ODF files, News.com

reports.

But the plug-in won't be made available until state governments like

Massachusetts vet the software.

"We'd rather have a level of validation that is worthy enough so that

when other entities want to consider OpenDocument, eighty percent of

the testing is done for them," Edwards told CNET News.com on Friday.

He said that the OpenDocument Foundation will respond to a request for

information Massachusetts issued last week on an ODF plug-in for

Office. He noted that the plug-in for Word, for example, was well

tested but there remains work to be done for Excel and PowerPoint.

Here's an interesting tidbit from Edwards - and a word to the wise for

developers.

The technical break-through came when developers stopped following

Microsoft's interoperability instructions and started considering

undocumented APIs, he said.

"Your big mistake is following instructions Microsoft provides. You

need to be looking at what Microsoft does, not what they tell you to

do," Edwards said.