Archive notice: This article was originally published on April 2, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
After more than 14 months of intensive further revision, the technical committee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) (http://www.iso.org) has completed the formal process for adopting Ecma’s draft standard (DIS) 29500 for Office Open XML (Open XML). A total of 86 percent of all national member representatives who participated in the review process, and 75 percent of the national member representatives directly active in ISO/SC34 (also known as P-members), support ratification of the Office Open XML document format specification. Office Open XML is thus now, like HTML, PDF and ODF, an open standard for the exchange of document formats under ISO and IEC provisions. Office Open XML had already been recognised as a standard by Ecma International in 2006.
“Technology users and governments benefit from this decision because they can choose the document format that best meets their needs,” explained Achim Berg, chairman of the management board of Microsoft Deutschland. “Constructive comments and observations from experts around the world made it possible to further optimise the Office Open XML standard during the ISO process and adapt it even better to the requirements of our customers and software developers. We will continue to work with standardisation bodies worldwide to improve interoperability between different technology platforms and thus promote innovation.”
“From the perspective of a medium-sized ICT company, the standardisation of Open XML at ISO is very welcome: the standard gives us a stable and secure platform for future developments and thus allows us to participate more effectively in the Office market,” explains Thilo Schuster, managing director of cit GmbH.
The ISO vote is also viewed very positively in the public sector: “We very much welcome the decision on the Office Open XML document format by the international standardisation organisation ISO,” says Franz-Reinhard Habbel, spokesman for the German Association of Towns and Municipalities. “Many German towns and municipalities rely on widely used solutions, such as those from Microsoft, that guarantee the greatest possible investment security, and on the compatibility of a future document format standard with existing documents. Turning the predominantly used document format into an ISO standard is therefore in the interests of most German towns and municipalities. Standardising Office Open XML gives towns and municipalities the opportunity to choose a standard that best matches their respective usage scenarios.”
$$$$
Broad Worldwide Support for Office Open XML
The open standard has already become widespread in the software industry and is used on a whole range of technology platforms — including Linux, Windows, Mac OS and Palm OS. A wide variety of software and system-platform providers worldwide, such as Apple, Corel, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft and Novell, are already developing solutions with Open XML. Independent studies have found that the use of Open XML is likely to increase further in the near future (Source: “What’s Up, .DOC? ODF, OOXML, and the Revolutionary Implications of XML in Productivity Applications³ by Guy Creese and Peter O’Kelly, Burton Group, 2008)
Companies and public authorities already working with Open XML can confirm the benefits of this open file format in data and file management, data recovery, interoperability with line-of-business systems and long-term document preservation. Open XML file formats are optimised for migrating existing Office documents, making it easier to transfer several billion existing documents into XML format. Separating the actual application data from their presentation in Open XML formats allows a wide range of data and data types to be mixed freely. This means organisations can use Open XML formats to transfer information from other applications and systems without having to convert it first. Office Open XML also gives developers the ability to incorporate business data into their documents at runtime or mark their documents with “tags” according to their own categorisation system to improve identification of the document contents.
