Microsoft this week officially gave developers the right to freely use code and specifications for translating between its older proprietary Office file formats and Office 2007’s newer XML formats without fear of being sued.

At the same time, company officials must be sitting on pins and needles as a key meeting over whether or not its newer formats will become an international standard looms.

Microsoft officials announced today that they have placed the older Office binary file format specifications for Word, Excel and PowerPoint (.doc, .xls, .ppt) under the company’s Open Specification Promise (OSP). The OSP is a legal program whereby Microsoft promises not to sue developers who use specifications that it puts under the program’s aegis.

Documentation for the formats has been available by request on a royalty free basis for a while, but putting it under the OSP gives developers cover from lawsuits.

“By making these specifications easier to access, others will be able to build products or tools that will be able to convert documents from the binary file formats to Open XML,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement e-mailed to InternetNews.com.

Additionally, the company announced that an open source project to produce free translator code to convert from the older formats to the newer ones is now live on the SourceForge code repository site. That project, which is being sponsored by Microsoft, had also been scheduled to start this week. The code produced under the project will be available under the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) open source license, according to company statements.

Both moves are part of an effort by Microsoft to preserve its dominance in the Office productivity market even as it evolves its products to reflect its emerging software-plus-services strategy.

Source: internetnews