The Sun ODF Plug in for Microsoft Office was designed to give users of Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint the ability to read, edit and save to the ISO-standard Open Document Format. The ODF Plug in is available as a free download from the Sun Download Center (SDLC). Download the ODF Plug in.

The Plug in is easy to setup and use, the conversion happens transparently and the additional memory footprint is minimal. Microsoft Office users now can have seamless two-way conversion of Microsoft Office documents to and from Open Document. The ODF Plug in runs on Microsoft Windows and is available in English. More language support will be available in later releases.

Here are some key features of "Sun ODF Plugin for Microsoft Office":

· Open Source
The availability of the source code enables customization, ports to different platforms, deeper integration options and localization for any language.

· Open Standard XML File Format
Access and process your documents outside of OpenOffice.org, and avoid proprietary file format lock-in. Beginning with version 2.0, OpenOffice.org will use the OASIS OpenDocument XML file format standard as the default file format. The OpenDocument file format has been approved by ISO as well and is supported by multiple vendors and applications.

· Multi-platform
Users can have office productivity on their preferred platform(s), and across heterogenous environments.

· Multi-lingual
Create documents in your native language.

· Interoperability with other office suites
Leverage your existing investment - read, write and edit documents from other office suites, including Microsoft Office.

· PDF Export
One click PDF export enables convenient document-sharing outside the enterprise.

· Drawings and Diagrams
Create org charts, network diagrams and illustrations without requiring additional software.


Requirements:

· Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003, or the equivalent standalone version of Word
· Pentium compatible PC
· 256 MB RAM (512 MB RAM recommended)
· 45 MB available hard disk space

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· The new release of the ODF Plugin has improved in many areas, the most important being the availability of more languages. The ODF Plugin now supports 16 different languages.
· The accuracy of document import and export has also been improved in this release.