Open Office and Star Office can both open and save in the Microsoft Word format but that does not help Microsoft Office users sent documents made in these alternative formats.

This plug-in for Microsoft Office will enable users to open OpenOffice documents in Word, Excel and Powerpoint using the standard odf file format. It also installs a new toolbar in Word and Excel to make it easy to import and export.

It is compatible with Microsoft Office 2003, XP and 2000. Office 2007 is also now supported with this new v1.2 release.

It is possible to set Word to use the odt format by default. Click on the Tools menu and select Options. Click on the Save tab and select odt in the Default format section.