Microsoft claims document interoperability improvements

Microsoft's Document Interoperability Initiative was launched in March

Microsoft said that document interoperability efforts are steadily improving, and that a recent Document Interoperability Initiative (DII) event it held in Belgium has delivered many concrete results.

"Achieving interoperability between document formats requires the IT community coming together to test implementations and develop tools to promote interoperability over time," said Jean Paoli, general manager of interoperability strategy at Microsoft.

"We are pleased to see the DII events filling this important role over the past several months, which result in real-world tools and solutions that will help vendors meet the interoperability needs of customers."

New interoperability announcements included an Open XML to HTML translator, which Microsoft said would give developers greater choice and flexibility when working on web and browser applications.

Also available is a new version of the Open XML/ODF translator plug-in for Microsoft Office 2003, 2007 and XP, and a software developer kit for the Apache POI, Java and Open XML.

The DII was launched in March, and includes industry representatives from across the world. The organisation holds regular meetings to discuss and develop solutions to interoperability problems.