OpenDocument

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OpenDocument or ODF, short for the OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications, is an open format for saving and exchanging electronic documents such as memos, reports, books, spreadsheets, databases, charts, and presentations. This standard was developed by the OASIS industry consortium and based upon the XML format originally created by OpenOffice.org. OpenDocument was approved as an OASIS standard on May 1, 2005, and became an officially published ISO and IEC International Standard (ISO/IEC 26300) on November 30, 2006 under the name ISO/IEC 26300:2006.[1]

The OpenDocument standard has been developed by a variety of organizations and is publicly accessible. This means it can be implemented into any system, be it free software/open source or a closed proprietary product, without royalties. The OpenDocument format is intended to provide an open alternative to proprietary document formats so organizations and individuals can avoid being locked in to a single vendor.

ODF is the first standard for editable office documents that has been approved by an independent recognized standardization body.

Contents

[edit] Specifications

Main article: OpenDocument technical specification

The most common file extensions used for OpenDocument documents are:

An OpenDocument file can be either a simple XML file that uses <office:document> as the root element, or a ZIP compressed archive containing a number of files and directories. The ZIP-based format is used almost exclusively, since it can contain binary content and tends to be significantly smaller.

For a comparison with the Office Open XML standard format used by Microsoft Office, see Comparison of OpenDocument and Microsoft Office Open XML formats.

There is a comprehensive set of sample documents in OpenDocument Format available. The whole test suite is available under a Creative Commons license.

[edit] Standardization

Main article: OpenDocument standardization

The OpenDocument standard was developed by the OASIS industry consortium. The standardization process involved the developers of many office suites or related document systems. The first official OASIS meeting to discuss the standard was December 16, 2002; OASIS approved OpenDocument as an OASIS standard on May 1, 2005. OASIS submitted the ODF specification to ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC1) on November 16, 2005, under Publicly Available Specification (PAS) rules.

After a six-month review period, on May 3, 2006 OpenDocument unanimously passed their six-month FDIS ballot in JTC1, with broad participation,[2] after which the OpenDocument specification was "approved for release as an ISO and IEC International Standard" under the name ISO/IEC 26300.[3]

After responding to all written ballot comments, and a 30-day default ballot, the OpenDocument International Standard went to publication in ISO, officially published November 30, 2006.

Further standardization work with OpenDocument includes:

  • OpenDocument 1.0 (second edition) has the status of a Committee Specification in OASIS. It includes all the editorial changes made to address JTC1 ballot comments
  • OpenDocument 1.1 was approved by OASIS on October 19, 2006. It includes additional features to address accessibility concerns.[4]
  • OpenDocument 1.2 is currently being written by the ODF TC. It will include additional accessibility features, metadata enhancements, spreadsheet formula specification based on the OpenFormula work (ODF 1.0 did not specify spreadsheet formulas in detail, leaving many aspects implementation-defined) as well as any errata submitted by the public. Originally OpenDocument 1.2 was expected by October 2007.[5] However, upon learning that many of its activities will be completed far before then (e.g., the formula subcommittee expects to complete in December 2006), the group has agreed to develop a newer accelerated schedule.[6]

[edit] Application support

[edit] Software

Main article: OpenDocument software

A number of existing applications and programs (both FLOSS and proprietary) support OpenDocument. Two of the most prominent office suites supporting OpenDocument are OpenOffice.org and KOffice.

Since there are a number of independent implementations of the ODF standard, of various degrees of maturity and completeness, it is not surprising that interoperability testing is needed. The OpenDocument Fellowship has performed some tests and scored the various implementations.[7]

The OpenDocument Foundation and other third parties have also announced development of plugins and filters to support OpenDocument on Microsoft's products.[8][9]

Although Microsoft Office does not support OpenDocument, Microsoft now finances the MS Open XML translator project on SourceForge. This project is an effort by several of Microsoft's partners to create a plugin for Microsoft Office called Open XML Translator that will be freely available under an open-source BSD-like license. The project plans to release a complete version of this software by the end of 2006 for Microsoft Word and early in 2007 for Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Powerpoint.[10] A prototype of the plugin for Microsoft Word is currently available on SourceForge.

Further information: Standard office document formats debate

[edit] Accessibility

A primary concern is whether OpenDocument is accessible to those with disabilities. There are two issues: does the specification support accessibility, and are implementations accessible?

The specification of OpenDocument has undergone an extensive accessibility review, and a few additions were made to OpenDocument 1.1 to improve accessibility. Many of the components it is built on (such as SMIL for audio and multimedia and SVG for vector graphics) have already gone through the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative processes.

Some argue that open formats like OpenDocument are necessary for true accessibility.[citation needed] The claim is that OpenDocument has an accessibility advantage over proprietary file formats such as those of Microsoft Office, which generally do not have public peer review of accessibility issues and cannot be implemented by all parties.[citation needed] OpenDocument is fully specified in a public document without any implementation barriers, allowing anyone to create the software necessary for those with disabilities.

Further information: OpenDocument software - Accessibility

[edit] Licensing

The OpenDocument specification is available for free download and use. Key contributor Sun Microsystems [1] made an irrevocable intellectual property covenant, the first in its class, providing all implementers with the guarantee that the specification contains no material that necessitates licensing from any author. Reciprocal, royalty-free licensing terms are being promoted by some standards developing organizations, such as the W3C and OASIS, as a method for avoiding conflict over intellectual property concerns while still promoting innovation. See also software patent debate. In short, anyone can implement OpenDocument, without restraint. Both proprietary and free/open source software programs implement the format; see OpenDocument software.

Further information: OpenDocument vs. Microsoft Office Open XML licensing

[edit] Promotion

The work of OASIS includes promoting the OpenDocument Format through the OASIS OpenDocument Adoption Technical Committee.

There is a set of OpenDocument icons which can be used for services and systems that use the OpenDocument format.

The OpenOffice.org Project promotes the OpenDocument Format, as it is used as the default file format in the Open Source office suite. Several groups and companies support the OpenDocument Format. For example:

  • Companies like Sun Microsystems, IBM, Novell promote the OpenDocument Format actively, as well as other companies who may or may not be working inside the OpenDocument Format's Technical Committee of the OASIS.
  • The OpenDocument Format Alliance was founded in March 2006 by the 35 founding members. In July 2006 the foundation already had more than 280 members.
  • On November 4, 2005, IBM and Sun Microsystems convened the "OpenDocument (ODF) Summit" in Armonk, New York, to discuss how to boost OpenDocument adoption. The ODF Summit brought together representatives from several industry groups and technology companies, including Oracle, Google, Adobe, Novell, Red Hat, Computer Associates, Corel, Nokia, Intel, and Linux e-mail company Scalix. (LaMonica, November 10, 2005). The providers committed resources to technically improve OpenDocument through existing standards bodies and to promote its usage in the marketplace, possibly through a stand-alone foundation.
  • http://opendocumentfoundation.us/ The OpenDocument Foundation, Inc. is a USA-based 501c(3) non profit organisation chartered to work in the public interest to support, promote and develop the OASIS OpenDocument File Format
  • OIDI.org (Open Interoperative Document Initiative) is committed to encouraging efforts by governments at all levels, around the globe, to implement changes necessary to ensure public documents are open and interoperable and thus available to all citizens/residents without the need for specific vendor software.

[edit] Adoption

Main article: OpenDocument adoption

One objective of open formats like OpenDocument is to guarantee long-term access to data without legal or technical barriers, and some governments have come to view open formats as a public policy issue. OpenDocument is intended to be an alternative to proprietary formats, including the popular, undocumented DOC, XLS, and PPT formats used by Microsoft Office. Another perceived competitor to OpenDocument is the Microsoft Office Open XML format. However, on July 6, 2006 Microsoft announced that it would finance the creation of another plugin to allow Office to save to ODF. The OpenDocument Foundation has created a plug-in which is already being tested by governments as a component of adoption strategies. The plug-ins will allow continued use of legacy software while transitioning to full OpenDocument support.

European countries and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in particular have been examining the ramifications of selecting a document format. It was also announced on March 31, 2006 that the National Archives of Australia had settled on OpenDocument as their choice for a cross-platform/application document format. Other governments around the world are also considering the adoption of the format. In October 2006, a report commissioned by the French prime minister Dominique de Villepin recommends that all French government publications be made available in OpenDocument Format.[11]

The Belgian federal administration plans to exchange all documents in ODF from September 2008. All federal administrations should be able to read ODF documents one year earlier. [2]

See also Standard office document formats debate for more information about the ongoing debate over adoption of OpenDocument and competing formats.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "ISO/IEC 26300:2006 Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0". ISO.
  2. ^ ISO/IEC SC34 Secretariat (2006-06-13). Summary of Voting on DIS ISO/IEC 26300 - Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0. ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 Document Repository. Retrieved on 2006-08-24.
  3. ^ ISO and IEC approve OpenDocument OASIS standard for data interoperability of office applications. ISO Press Releases. ISO (2006-05-08). Retrieved on 2006-08-24.
  4. ^ OpenDocument 1.1 Specifications. OASIS (2006). Retrieved on 2006-10-31.
  5. ^ Brauer, Michael (2006-05-04). TC Roadmap Proposal. Oasis' list archives. OASIS. Retrieved on 2006-08-01.
  6. ^ Oppermann, Lars (2006-08-18). OpenDocument TC Coordination Call Minutes 2006-08-07. Oasis' list archives. OASIS. Retrieved on 2006-08-25.
  7. ^ Application support for the OpenDocument format. OpenDocument Fellowship. Retrieved on 2006-08-21.
  8. ^ OpenDocument Foundation to MA: We Have a Plugin. Groklaw (2006-05-04). Retrieved on 2006-08-23.
  9. ^ "Microsoft Office to get a dose of OpenDocument", CNet, 2006-05-05. Retrieved on 2006-12-06.
  10. ^ Microsoft Expands Document Interoperability. Microsoft (2006-07-05). Retrieved on 2006-12-06.
  11. ^ Sayer, Peter. "French gov't recommends standardizing on ODF", InfoWorld, 2006-10-03. Retrieved on 2006-12-06.

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