In the upcoming version of Office, users can save to Strict Open XML. They can also open, edit and save documents in the ODF 1.2 format, which was standardised last September and which adds ...

“ODF 1.2 is approved as on OASIS standard,” said Chet Ensign, director of standards development and TC administration. The specification itself will be published next week, he added.

ODF 1.2 is hoped to fix spreadsheet issue Microsoft's response to the issue has been to say that the problem lies in the ODF 1.1 standard, which does not include formula syntax.

Users of Office 2007 should be able to install the plug-in and get right-click access to ODF files; those with earlier copies may have to install the Compatibility Pack and .NET 2.0 to get it working.

Soon after ODF was approved as a standard in 2006, Microsoft created its own competitive file format, Office Open XML, for Office 2007. OOXML was later ratified by a standards organization.