Microsoft has failed in its initial effort to fast-track the Office Open XML (OOXML) document file format as an international standard but it will have another chance in early 2008.
The British Standards Institution has been taken to court by a group of Unix users in an attempt to get the standards body to recant its approval of Microsoft's Office Open XML document format.
The Office Open XML (OOXML) document format exists purely because governments demanded it, according to Microsoft, which is hoping the format will become an international standard by the end of this month.
The British Standards Institution has sent its response to the International Organization for Standardization on the subject of whether Microsoft Office Open XML should be certified with the ISO, but has refused to say whether it voted "yes", "no", or "abstain".
Standards body Ecma International has created a committee to standardise Microsoft Office document formats, handing the software giant a victory in an intensifying struggle over desktop software.
Office 2007 continues to be the focus of discussion here at Big Deal, but the most recent crop of reactions to my postings have shifted from the possible nuisance value of interface changes to the potential upside for OpenOffice, the open-source rival to the desktop suite crown.
This week Australia's Federal Government announced it had allocated $3.6 million in funding to 57 local research projects so that they could be commercialised, with many of them being web or IT-related start-ups.
Linux users can now run Office XP on Linux following the release of a commercial application that allows the package to run on the open source operating system.
You may not believe this, but Microsoft thinks we're biased...against Microsoft. But if reactions to our office suite review are anything to go by, our readers disagree.
As Microsoft unveils the next version of its flagship Office suite, we ask: is it revolution or evolution?
Michael Meeks is a distinguished engineer at Novell. But his current project may be his toughest yet. He is in charge of tackling interoperability between Novell's OpenOffice.org productivity suite and Microsoft Office. And as with anything relating to Microsoft, this involves more than just technology.
A distinction that Microsoft is making between professional and standard versions of Office 2003 means that many customers may not get all the features they've been expecting, including broad support for Web services.
As Australia and various other nations prepare to vote on whether Microsoft's Open Office XML becomes an ISO standard, the Redmond giant is attempting to downplay fears that OOXML adopters will be hooked into the company's technology.
Redmond-based group project manager of Microsoft Office, Gray Knowlton, told ZDNet Australia that OOXML provides higher levels of security. "One of the benefits we have with the OpenOffice XML formats is that we know when we read and write and document because we have an XML based representation of what's in that content -- we know what should and should not be there," he said.
Microsoft says it's opening its Office desktop software by adding support for XML--a move that should help companies free up access to shared information. But there's a catch: It has yet to disclose the underlying XML dialect.
Microsoft has revamped the online resource site for its Office software line, bringing together help resources, software add-ons and other content.
While Microsoft Office System is the most complete suite on the block, there's no compelling reason for everyone to upgrade.
You may not believe this, but Microsoft thinks we're biased...against Microsoft. But if reactions to our office suite review are anything to go by, our readers disagree.
Fed up with paying through the nose for programs? Need to repopulate a system with applications following a disaster? You need our guide to free and low-cost software.
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