Microsoft said it will open up the application programming interfaces of Office 2007 to outside software programmers so that different document formats, such as ODF, can be the default. Gray Knowlton, group product manager for the Microsoft Office system, reiterated Microsoft's position that's Open XML, ODF, and other formats should coexist.

"We've said this before, but the goals of Open XML are distinctly different than ODF, PDF or UOF, and hopefully we can begin to separate the conversation about product functionality from the necessity for the Open XML standard. In our view, these have always been different conversations. The addition of these interfaces removes a potential obstacle to the adoption of other standards within our products," he wrote.

That basic view is even shared by some of Microsoft's competitors. Novell, for example, is working to support ODF and Open XML and its distribution of the Open Office open-source desktop application suite.

The editor of the ODF standard, Patrick Durusau, last week took that position as well, calling for "coevolution" of ODF and Open XML (PDF).

Read the complete article by Martin LaMonica in CNET News.