Microsoft Office Open XML
Encyclopedia : M : MI : MIC : Microsoft Office Open XML
The Microsoft Office Open XML, often denoted by its .docx file extension, is an export/import (non-native) file format to be used by the upcoming release of Microsoft Office, Office 2007. Microsoft has stated it will be an open standard, and has submitted it to the ECMA standardization process. Microsoft has claimed it will later submit the format to ISO. ECMA announced on December 9, 2005 that it had accepted Microsoft's proposal to document the format as a proposed standard. The ECMA technical committee developing the proposal is comprised of representatives from Apple, the British Library, Canon, Intel, Microsoft, NextPage, Novell, Pioneer, Statoil ASA and Toshiba.
Microsoft has claimed that Open XML will be an open file format. However, the only published detailed analysis of accompanying legal documents concludes that Microsoft has sent a mixed message to developers regarding licensing of the file format. Microsoft apparently has not responded to that article. A Microsoft spokesman has stated that Open XML will be subject to the same ["covenant not to sue"] as the Microsoft Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas. However, the wording employed in that document is far more restrictive of developer rights than the wording used in [covenant] provided by Sun Microsystems for Open Document Format (ODF); moreover, a public draft license for packaging conventions to be used with the Open XML formats has raised further concerns.
Microsoft's Open XML format is similar to ODF in that both use a ZIP container for packaging XML and other data files. Microsoft maintains that its primary goal has to be backwards compatibility with existing documents and full support of its extensive feature set, which ODF does not offer, according to Microsoft.
Notes
See also
External links
Microsoft documents and blog postings
- [Ecma International Standardization of OpenXML File Formats Frequently Asked Questions]
- [Microsoft Office Open XML Formats Overview]
- [Microsoft Office Open XML Formats Frequently Asked Questions]
- [Brian Jones: Office XML Formats]
- [Office "12" XML Schema Reference - PDC 2005 Preview]
Other viewpoints
- [Groklaw: Format comparison between ODF and MS XML]
- [ZDNet: Rosen approves Microsoft Office format license] ([Who is Rosen?])
- [eWeek: Microsoft Drops the Office Open Standard Ball]
- [Sun - Peter Korn: Why won't Microsoft join existing standards efforts?]
- [eWeek: Microsoft's Standards Are No Standards at All]
- [ZDNet: Massachusetts to adopt 'open' desktop]
- [ZDNet: Massachusetts warms to Microsoft Office standard]
- [eWeek: Microsoft's Office Standard Gets Green Light]
- [Enterprise Windows IT: Massachusetts Reconsiders Microsoft Office]
- [StandyWorld.org] - The Open Standards News
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.