IBM demonstrated the new capabilities, to be shipped later this year in a beta release, last week at the Deutsche Notes User Group conference in Karlsruhe, Germany. The final release of the software, code-named Hannover, will ship in early 2007.

Vijay Sonty, CIO of Broward County Public Schools in Sunrise, Fla., said the ODF plans for Notes will be a boon to the 20,000 teachers, 275,000 K-12 students and 200,000 adult education students his department supports.

"This is IBM's answer to Microsoft," Sonty said. "We won't have to rely on Microsoft Office. We can now have all students and teachers accessing all documents and collaborate more easily. To be able to access disparate documents is a big plus for us."

In addition, Sonty said, the new Notes version "will enable student-to-teacher collaboration, and because it's Web-based, it really helps from a distance-learning standpoint,"

Ken Kolb, information systems manager at Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company of Arkansas Inc. in Little Rock, said the new Notes client will allow the 900 Notes users at his firm to use fewer software programs.