Office 2010 displays a “Welcome to Microsoft Office 2010 screen” on the first start of PowerPoint, Excel or Word in which the user is aksed to select a default file type.

Available for selection are Office Open XML formats, the standard Microsoft Office formats, or OpenDocument formats. Selecting Microsoft’s own format ensures full compatibility with all Office 2010 features while some contents or editability may be lost if the ODF format is selected instead.

Selecting a default file type simply means that Microsoft will save the documents in that format. It is still possible to select a different format in the Save As dialog whenever it is needed.

default file types

Microsoft has created a table for Excel, Word and PowerPoint that outlines the level of support for the ODF format.

Available support levels are supported, meaning that the ODF format supports the feature, partially supported, meaning that formatting or usability might be affected but text or data is not lost, and not supported meaning that saving the document in the ODF format could lead to losing content, formattting and usability.

The selection of a default document format could affect, to a certain extent, the manner in which you can use Microsoft Office and the way you exchange documents with users of other productivity applications. Document formats were initially developed to reflect the features and behavior of one or more applications (the features and behavior of productivity applications can be quite different). For example, OpenDocument Format (ODF) was originally developed to reflect the features and behavior of OpenOffice-based productivity suites and

OpenXML was originally developed to reflect the features and behavior of Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office now provides support for ODF and gives Microsoft Office users the opportunity to save their documents in ODF. However, because Microsoft Office and OpenOffice features are not exactly the same or are not implemented the same way, Microsoft Office users who use the features that are not fully Supported (see below for a list of links for these features) in ODF may experience changes in the editability of the document and sometimes see a loss of content when saving their document in ODF.

• What happens when I save a Excel 2010 presentation in the OpenDocument Spreadsheet format? [link]
• Differences between the OpenDocument Presentation (.odp) format and the PowerPoint (.pptx) format [link]
• Differences between the OpenDocument Text (.odt) format and the Word (.docx) format [link]

Office 2010 users need to make a choice when the screen appears before they can start working with the software. It is possible to change the default file format at a later time. This is done the following ways:

Here are the steps for Excel 2010.

• Click the File tab.
• Under Help, click Options.
• Click Save, and then under Save workbooks, in the Save files in this format list, click the file format that you want to use by default.

Here are the steps for PowerPoint 2010.

• Click the File tab.
• Under Help, click Options.
• Click Save, and then under Save presentations, in the Save files in this format list, click the file format that you want to use by default.

Here are the steps for Word 2010.

• Click the File tab.
• Under Help, click Options.
• Click Save, and then under Save documents, in the Save files in this format list, click the file format that you want to use by default.

The Sun ODF Plugin for Microsoft Office is now offered for the premium price of $99 per application user plus an annual support fee of $19.80 with a minimum order quantity of 100 licenses. No information are currently offered if the product will be made available to Office end users as well.

The main Sun ODF Plugin page is still displaying a Get it now. Free button which when clicked links to the new pricing information that are then redirecting the user to the Oracle shop.

Microsoft Office 2007 has integrated ODF 1.0 support with the release of the service pack 2. The ODF plugin on the other hand adds support for ODF 1.2 document formats introduced in Open Office 3.2.

The most common file names are .odf for word processing documents and .ods for spreadsheets. If you encounter such a file and want to open it in the Microsoft Office Suite you will notice that it is not possible. Instead of downloading another Office suite you could instead install the ODF addins for the Microsoft Office Suite which add support for the office software programs Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Powerpoint. This means support for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, and the file formats .odt (documents), .ods (spreadsheets) and .odp (presentations).

After installing the Open XML / ODF Translator addins in the Microsoft Office Suite users can not only open but also save Open Document Formats. Supported are the Microsoft Office Suites Office 2007, Office 2003 and Office XP.

Update: The Open XML / ODF Translator Add-ins for Office have been updated recently. The biggest change is support for Microsoft Office 2010 which previously was not supported by the add-ins. It basically means that Office 2010 users can download and install the add-ins for their program to open ODF file types with it.

Other changes include a series of fixes and improvements for specific features and their transition. Installation should be straightforward. Just download the ODF add-in from the Sourceforge website and execute it on the computer that you want to use it on.

If installation is successful, you should be able to open an “.ODF” file from Microsoft Office (see menu”File>ODF…->Open ODF”). Also, when right-clicking on a “.ODF” file in explorer, you should have the option to open the document in Microsoft Office (menu “Open with Microsoft Office”).

The program adds capabilities both to the file menus in Microsoft Office and to Windows Explorer’s Open dialog.

The current release of Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 is scheduled for the first half of 2009 which means that it will take about a year before Microsoft is adding the support officially. Common Open Document File extensions are .oft for word processing, .ods for spreadhsheets, .odp for presentations and .odg for graphics.

The Sun ODF Plugin for Microsoft Office gives users of Microsoft Office 2007 the ability to load, save and edit odf files. The plugin is also compatible to previous editions of Microsoft Office including Office XP, Office 2003 and Office 2000. The plugin integrates itself seamlessly into the Save and Load file dialogs and is translated into several languages including English, German, French, Spanish and a dozen more.

Update: The ODF Plugin is no longer available on the Sun or Oracle website.