"The code that we are showing today demonstrates our ability to deliver on the Workplace vision that makes customers more productive in the context of what they do every day," Michael Rhodin, general manager of Workplace, portal and collaboration products for IBM Lotus, said in a statement. "We plan to have this code in the hands of design partners and beta testers this fall, bringing us closer to the most open and real collaborative innovation platform ever available."

Ken Bisconti, vice president of IBM Workplace products, said the company is adding ODF to Notes to offer more choice for customers. "There has been a lot of resentment in the marketplace" from users who feel forced to upgrade to business productivity applications with new features they don't want, he said.

Several analysts said the new capabilities offer a more integrated work experience for users.

"The game-changer that ODF represents is that it allows you to retrieve information from a document without opening it," said Anne MacFarland, an analyst at The Clipper Group Inc. in Wellesley, Mass. "It allows businesses to be less clumsy in the ways they do business electronically," by allowing users to have fewer open windows on their desktops and by improving the exchange of information. "It's a first step in a new dexterity for business information."

Amy Wohl, an analyst at Wohl Associates in Narberth, Pa., said the new Notes approach is important because it will let users better share documents with others. In the U.S., that isn't such a problem because Microsoft Office is predominant, but in many other countries, people user a variety of applications, making interoperability an issue.