Britain adopts ODF unifying format documents and abandon Microsoft formats

The British government announced the unification of file formats for documents in the public sector towards ODF, abandoning a Microsoft formats.

ODF (short for Open Document Format - open document format) will be this formula is the standard uniform and standard documents and government documents, as well as formulas PDF and HTML.

This decision comes after a long and controversial first started in 2011 and led to the occurrence of consultations have been concluded in February.

This step is inconsistent with the heavy pressure from Microsoft, as the Microsoft Insisted to Britain to use a format OpenXML (OOXML) as the format uniform - so the format used in Word documents Word documents - but critics responded, saying it not en Open source format.

This is because the British government delayed the adoption of ODF format is because of the constant pressure from Microsoft to Britain, as suggested by some sources.

The responses consultations about file formats tend overwhelmingly towards the open source format ODF as a standard.

The Executive Director Government Digital Service, Mike Bracken said :

I've made ​​reactions clearly how important it is to choose the right way, using open standard and this means that people will not pay Costs imposed on them for display or just dealing with information from the government, it's a big step forward, and I'm happy with it. 

The government mentioned the benefits of adopting this new approach :


- Citizens will not be back, companies and voluntary organizations need specialized software to open \ view or dealing with documents and government documents.

- People who work in the government will be able to participate in and deal with the documents in a unified coordination; This limits the problems of different formats.

- Non-governmental organizations will be able to choose the most ideal applications and cost-effective and convenience.