Addressing the Issues of File Compatibility with Microsoft Office Posted by Julief Tuesday Jun 2, 2009 Tags: General Stuff Comments: No Comments

Users of word processors, spreadsheets and common suite applications such as Microsoft Office are often interested in file format compatibility. As the global marketplace and workforce continue to expand, file compatibility is becoming more and more important. After all, if individuals and businesses cannot easily share documents, work flow slows, costing everyone involved both time and money. And while Microsoft is a dominant platform in many marketplaces, globally, other platforms are utilized, creating a certain need for compatibility in order for business to be conducted seamlessly.
Programmers and vendors have been collaborating in recent years to develop programs with broad file compatibility.
Openoffice.org has been making regular updates, blurring the differences between the most widely used system, Microsoft Office. Recent upgrades to Openoffice.org have increased compatibility for PowerPoint presentations which is popular among business organization users.
The Microsoft Office 2007 SP2 upgrade has also effectively closed gaps in file compatibility as they have added support for the default OpenDocument format with OpenOffice.org. Users are most concerned with excel and spreadsheet compatibility components between the various programs. In one attempt to manage these consumer demands, Microsoft has stripped formulas from their ODF spreadsheets within their Excel 2007 program. While this does not completely solve the problem of compatibility, it is a short term solution that allows users to share documents with users on other platforms without losing valuable data.
While some steps have been made successful toward addressing issues with file compatibility, there is still a great distance to cover in the minds of most programmers. As Microsoft programs continue to dominate the consumer marketplace, bridges need to be developed to facilitate consumer communication with users who are utilizing other platforms locally and worldwide.