ECIS applauds ISO for approving the OpenDocument Format as an international standard

ECIS, a member of the ODF Alliance, is pleased to hear that the International Standards Organisation (ISO) has approved the OpenDocumentFormat (ODF) as an international standard.

ODF is an open XML-based document file format for saving and exchanging editable office documents (including memos, reports, and books), spreadsheets, charts, and presentations, and is utilised in an increasing number of applications on the market today.  Because it is a completely open format, storing information in the ODF format ensures that it is accessible across platforms and applications, and removes the risk of a user being locked into a single vendor’s products.

ISO’s approval of ODF as a standard is a promising step potentially leading, amongst other things, to the development of interoperable personal productivity productivity applications, such as word-processors and spreadsheet applications.  When all applications utilise the open standard as the file format of their choice, users can easily exchange data between each other regardless of whether they are using the same application or not.

For more information on ODF, see the ODF Alliance website.