The UK government took the first steps to move from the Microsoft Office format to the ODF format in an effort to direct the entire government mechanism to the open source code.
The proposal to go to Open Document Format has been posted on the Cabinet Office website, which is part of the government that supports the Prime Minister as well as the Deputy Prime Minister and ensures the efficient operation of the government.
The article posted on his website office of the Cabinet, is called "Challenge: Handling or Collaborating in Government Documents" and explains the purpose of this argument, which is sure to bring headaches to Microsoft headquarters.
“Users in this challenge including citizens, businesses and distribution partners who need to exchange information with the government should use editable documents. Users are also officials in government departments who need to share and work on documents together," the UK proposal says.
The article also mentions the expected benefits of such a bold move. Most importantly, users (whoever they are) should not purchase the software in order to submit documents to government officials or services because of the format required in the document.
Documents that must now be Open Document Format compliant are: word processors, spreadsheets, and presentations. If you look closely, these are exactly Word, Excel and Power point.
There are a number of free available office suites available for download already, such as LibreOffice and OpenOffice, with which you can save documents in this format.
Although other individual cities around the world had been getting the same? decisions in the form of open source documents, the UK Government is the largest organization that has expressed its interest in open source, although at present it refers only to Open Document Formats.
It's safe to say that a number of open source organizations have already expressed their support for this decision, including the Document Foundation. “The Document Foundation enthusiastically supports the UK Government's proposal to support and adopt ODF 1.1 and ODF 1.2, along with HTML 4.01 and HTML5, CSV and TXT, for thechange or cooperating with government documents” says a comment under the UK article.
