OpenOffice.org is seeking beta testers for the OpenOffice 3 release. See the announcement.
One of the features mentioned in the announcement is partial support for DOCX, Microsoft's new document format and a direct competitor to the OpenOffice ODF format. According to the announcement, OpenOffice 3 will open DOCX files but not save to that format. Saving to the old DOC binary format will continue to be supported.
I'm glad to see that OpenOffice is providing limited, but only limited support for this format. Recently my wife got an email from a friend with a DOCX file attached. Our OpenOffice 2 doesn't open it. Nor can the vast majority of Windows and Office users.
Apparently Word 2007 saves to DOCX by default. Users who want friends to be able to actually open their files have to change it to DOC manually. What a cynical way for Microsoft to use novice users who don't know any better to spread its new file format around and waste people's time.
There are some solutions for Office 2003 users and even OpenOffice 2 users, but none of them are doable by novice users.
Kudos to OpenOffice.org for providing a light at the end of the tunnel for OpenOffice users whose friends unknowingly inflict these DOCX files upon them, without adding to their further proliferation.
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