Microsoft opening up document format

Microsoft last week weighed in on the debate over open-document file formats, saying it would seek standardization of the XML formats it is developing for the forthcoming Office 12, as well as provide tools to convert existing Office documents to the new technology. The company also said it will not seek legal action against companies that build the formats into their products.

For users, Microsoft is trying to take the shackles off its desktop Office applications using XML. The company aims to separate the data from the applications so the data can be shared with back-end systems, such as ERP and CRM, or injected into business-process workflows. With the standardization efforts, Microsoft hopes the open formats will ease user concerns over long-term storage, management and retrieval of data.

The company and a group of partners, including vendors such as Intel and users such as Barclays Capital, said it would submit its Office Open XML document format to the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA). Microsoft and its partners then hope ECMA will submit its work to the International Organization for Standardization.

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Microsoft last week weighed in on the debate over open-document file formats, saying it would seek standardization of the XML formats it is developing for the forthcoming Office 12, as well as provide tools to convert existing Office documents to the new technology. The company also said it will not seek legal action against companies that build the formats into their products.

For users, Microsoft is trying to take the shackles off its desktop Office applications using XML. The company aims to separate the data from the applications so the data can be shared with back-end systems, such as ERP and CRM, or injected into business-process workflows. With the standardization efforts, Microsoft hopes the open formats will ease user concerns over long-term storage, management and retrieval of data.

The company and a group of partners, including vendors such as Intel and users such as Barclays Capital, said it would submit its Office Open XML document format to the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA). Microsoft and its partners then hope ECMA will submit its work to the International Organization for Standardization.

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced Open XML would be the default format for Word, Excel and PowerPoint in Office 12.

"From an enterprise standpoint, you don't want to store documents in a proprietary format," says Chris LeTocq, an analyst with Guernsey Research. "Who knows what you might be charged to read it 10 years from now."

LeTocq says Microsoft realizes it has to have an answer. "They have to be able to claim some degree of openness."

Microsoft already offers open and royalty-free licenses and documentation for the XML Reference Schemas in Office 2003, but recent events seem to be pushing it to go further.

The company is feeling pressure after a decision earlier this year by the commonwealth of Massachusetts to adopt a standard open-file format called OpenDocument by 2007 and efforts by IBM, Sun, Google and others to rally industry support for the XML-based format.

OpenDocument was developed by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS ), which has submitted its format to the ISO for standardization, the same organization Microsoft is targeting.

And Microsoft has a history of turning to ECMA for standardization efforts, including submitting its C# programming language at a time when Java was gaining popularity.

Microsoft says its Open XML move is not a reaction but a strategy.

"Standardization was part of our plan with Office 12 [formats] from the beginning," says Alan Yates, director of information worker strategy at Microsoft. "It was painful during the Massachusetts debate not to be able to say where we were headed." Yates said Microsoft was waiting for the Office 12 beta release and next month's ECMA meeting, as well as getting partners lined up.

The first beta of Office 12 was shipped two weeks ago. A second beta is planned for March, with final shipment slated for the second half of 2006. The beta includes add-ons for Office 2000, 2003 and XP so those applications can read and write the new OpenXML formats. Users can open documents created in older Office programs, say Office 97, and convert them into a current format and then into an OpenXML document. The beta includes a batch-converter tool.