Corporate report

Open Document Formats: the FCO implementation strategy

Published 27 July 2015

1. Introduction

Cabinet Office announced the selection of Open Document Format for editable documents on 22 July 2014, which established ODF (1.2) as the standard for holding and sharing documents across the government. PDF/A and HTML5 become the default format for documents intended for viewing. The open standards guidelines apply to all new documents.

The Open Standards Principles Policy requires the publication of implementation plans when standards are selected for use across government. The government’s Technology Leaders’ Network meeting on 26 September 2014 reiterated the need for Departments to publish implementation plans relating to open formats for documents. This plan by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is the response based on our current assessment of office productivity and web publishing tools available to staff in the FCO, both in the UK and overseas.

The move to open standards for documents published by government departments has benefits for government employees, for people reading our official documents and for the UK public as a whole.

For employees, open standards mean that collaboration with other government departments (or divisions within our own department) will always be straightforward, even if they are using alternative software packages. Departments and members of the public will also have the reassurance that archived documents will always be readable, as this is part of the standard.

Anyone wishing to access government information will not need to purchase or use specific software packages on their computers or devices to access documents.

The public as a whole will benefit from the level playing field that commitment to open standards will bring about.

This plan is in addition to and compliments the FCO’s Open Data Strategy.

2. Current processes

At present, PDF and HTML5 are used for the majority of FCO publications on GOV.UK. Word and Excel and ODF1.1 documents make up the remainder. In 2013 FCO committed to publish all data in CSV format in our Open Data Strategy and this is remains our commitment as its continued use is acceptable under the new policy. The GOV.UK content management system is used to create content in HTML5, CSV files are created using Microsoft Office 2007. They will continue to be published in this format.

The FCO currently has over 400 publishers to .GOV.UK situated all over the world, operating in different time zones, languages and technological cultures which presents a unique challenge to implementing changes to publication processes or formats.

Staff are currently provided with Microsoft Office 2007 and are able to generate and publish documents in PDF/A or ODF (1.1) formats. Office 2007 cannot generate ODF (1.2) documents. The FCO will specify a requirement that a future office productivity suite (word Processing, presentation, and basic spreadsheet software) must be compliant with the selected open formats so that staff members are able to save and publish ODF 1.2 files.

Content published on GOV.UK already meets HTML5 standards.

3. Plans

The FCO is committed to moving to the use of open standards.

Our plan is split into 3 parts:

3.1 Part 1 of this plan outlines where FCO:

• can continue to publish in formats that are currently being used
• will make immediate changes to formats of documents it is publishing
• will make changes to integrated tools required as part of the publishing process that may take longer to draw up and implement

3.2 Plans under current capabilities

By 31 May 2015 :

where possible, all new documents for publication on GOV.UK will be published in HTML5 or PDF. Those designed for end user editing will be published in open standards ODF1.1, some legacy forms will continue to be published in Word format. There is no requirement to convert previously uploaded files to comply with open standards. Historic documents will be made available in open formats by request, and depending on demand, they may be converted on ad hoc basis.

3.3 Part 2 of this plan relates to office productivity tools within the Department.

By 31 September 2015:

• FCO will have completed the Full Business Case for replacing the Department’s office productivity suite as part of the business case for the FCOs Technology Overhaul programme Under current plans, we expect the implementation of this aspect of the progamme to be implemented worldwide by the end of 2017, subject to funding and approvals being granted.
• as part of this we will also speak to suppliers of productivity software to investigate what solutions they are able to offer. We will also need to consider interactions with the current and future Electronic Document and Record Management (EDRM) system. This is due to be replaced, commencing in 2016 (due for completion worldwide by the end of 2017 subject to funding and approvals being granted), and compatibility with Open Formats is a requirement for any system the department will use

• in drawing up this plan, the department will engage with staff within the Department both when considering options on how to implement the Cabinet Office’s directive, and while implementing the chosen option. This user research will take the form of interviews/questionnaires about current software use as well as running pilots to test the preferred option before full implementation. We will also work on the conversion of documents used as templates.

• FCO will continue to engage with the Cabinet Office team, other government departments and with the vendor community
• We will introduce new office productivity suites as part of the FCO’s Technology Overhaul Programme that allow us to meet the standard in line with the natural replacement of our software and support contract, and expect rollout to have completed worldwide by the end of 2017, subject to funding and approvals

By 31 March 2016

• We will aim to have reviewed our global publishing model to ensure publishers have access to the software necessary to generate ODF 1.2 for publication on .GOV.UK
• Subject to the constraints of the FCO Technology Overhaul Programme we will endeavour to ensure that all documents published on .gov.uk are compliant ODF 1.2 or PDF/A format.

3.4 Part 3 of this plan relates to enabling open document formats with the Department’s integrated tools.

When considering the productivity tools that will be used in the Department, we will need to make sure that back-office processes are not adversely affected by a change in document formats. Work has already been done to identify any potential issues, and this will be taken into account when determining potential solutions, and when implementing the chosen solution as part of the FCO’s Technology Overhaul Programme.

Issues that affect small groups of users in the department will need to be investigated on a case-by-case basis. This includes the use of Excel with “add-ins” for statistical analysis, retrieving management information from databases and the use of legacy proprietary file formats.

These will be audited at the same time as the user research taking place, enabling FCO to begin longer term planning to transition away from the use of macros and scripting within the documents.

By the start of Q3 2016 when the Technology Overhaul programme begins the rollout of new office productivity suites, all the workflow risk will be mitigated or migrated.