The new ODF to Open XML Translator Project has been getting a lot of attention lately. This is a collaborative project to build add-ins for Office 2007 that can read and write ODF (Open Document Format) documents. The first component is a Word add-in, and Excel add-in is planned for later this year.

The August CTP (Community Technology Preview) version of the ODF translator tools was released on August 11, and over 25,000 copies have been downloaded. This release includes an ODF Add-in for Word 2007, command line translator tools, complete sourfce code, sample ODF test documents, and a comparison of the Open XML and ODF schemas including a transformation map.

See these posts on Brian Jones's blog for technical information about the translator project and related topics:
08/23/05: ODF to Open XML Translator Project Update
07/11/05: More information on the Open XML translator and some questions answered
07/05/05: Open XML Translator project announced (ODF support for Office)

The project is sponsored by Microsoft, and much of the initial development work has been done by France-based IT solution provider Clever Age and several independent software vendors, including Aztecsoft in India and Dialogika in Germany. For more information about the project's origin, see Microsoft's press release announcing the kickoff of the project.