Corel released a beta version of its WordPerfect Office suite, which the Ottawa-based company claims reflects a shift in the office productivity arena towards open standards compatibility.
The new WordPerfect Office version supports Open Document Format (ODF) and Microsoft Office Open XML (OOXML) -- a capability that spells a strong industry differentiator, said Jason Larock, the company's director of product management for WordPerfect Office.
ODF and OOXML are freely-available and implementable XML-based file format specifications for electronic documents, like spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents.
Corel, a developer of graphics, productivity and digital media software, wants to target consumers and small-to-medium-sized businesses, said Larock, as well as CIOs of enterprise and government who typically have to address issues of long-term use of the business's IT architecture.
Therefore, he said, the company is adopting a 'format-neutral approach in terms of our vendor support, whatever will make it easier for a customer to adopt and have a long life and be able to extend their architecture is where we're coming from.'
With the release, Corel intends to continue serving its customers in the government and legal sectors by offering them those compatibility choices, he added.