Novell Releases Open XML Translator for OpenOffice

On March 5, Novell announced on the PR Blog the availability of the Open XML Translator for the Novell edition of OpenOffice.

The more I speak with people about the issues around document formats, the more clear it becomes that translation is critical to the future of the document formats debate. The argument that "there can be only one" standard is a nice soundbyte but not a market reality. HTML, PDF, RTF, ODF, OpenXML, and the various other doc formats actively in use. Image formats, data formats for transaction processing - etc. etc. etc. This is to say nothing of legacy formats from the binary format past in the industry that need to be considered as well.

Those points where people are looking to build a bridge between formats of various types are going to look to effective translation. Software is fundamentally different than the physical world, and translation is possible at a different level than any other medium.