Dutch Gov releases Open Source tool

THE DUTCH COUNCIL OF STATE will let loose the software it uses to convert proprietary document formats created in MS Office into Open Source documents which follow the Open Document Format (ODF) protocol.

The software, which has been developed by Council employee Marcel Pennock and uses existing plug-ins, offers an icon which centrally converts documents to either ODF of PDF in the background.

Conversion testing has so far been successful, with just minor colour issues found in PDF files created by the software.

The Council decided to create its own central conversion tool because of the security issues involved with converting thousands of often sensitive documents.

Although the new tool reduces costs by saving time, the major saving comes with the reduction in software licenses which need to be purchased. Which should make Microsoft really happy!

L'Inq
IDABC