ISO adopts Open Document Format

May 14, 2006

After a six month voting window, adoption of the Open Document Format (ODF) as an ISO/IEC standard has become official, with a unanimous vote supporting the ODF (and some abstentions). The ODF format allows developers to produce office-type applications which use an inter-operable standard, allowing users to share documents without requiring a specific application to read them. The format covers text documents, spreadsheets, databases, charts and presentations.

ISO Secretary-General Alan Bryden said, "[this publication] reflects the international community's recognition of the importance of open formats in enabling business interoperability."

So far, the two major applications which support the ODF format are OpenOffice.org and KOffice. Microsoft Office currently dominates the market for office applications, although several third-party applications also contain limited support for the Microsoft Office formats.