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KOffice 1.5 brings OpenDocument support

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KOffice, an element of the KDE interface software widely used with Linux, now supports the OpenDocument format and uses it by default. The change comes with version 1.5, released Tuesday, project organizers said.

ODF, a standard gaining prominence as a rival to Microsoft's proprietary file formats, is the format used by the dominant open-source application suite, OpenOffice.org.

ODF is used in KWord, KSpread and KPresenter, but work remains. "Great care has been taken to ensure interoperability with other office software that supports OpenDocument, most notably OpenOffice.org. We acknowledge, however, that the ODF support and interoperability is not yet perfect," project organizers said in a statement.

KOffice 1.5 also features the debut of Kexi 1.0, a personal database program, and introduces a scripting language that can automate KOffice software. KOffice 2.0 is due near the end of 2006 or early 2007 and will employ KDE 4.0 components designed to make it easy to move applications to Windows and Mac OS X, organizers said.

KDE competes with GNOME, but work is under way to bridge between the two projects.