Microsoft set to open office via XML formats
Published:03-June-2005
By BR staff writer
Microsoft has confirmed that it will move to XML-based file formats as the default option for its most popular Office applications in the next release of the Office suite, and that it has no intention of adopting the OpenDocument format recently adopted as a standard by Oasis.
The company will begin using Microsoft Office Open XML Formats for its Word, Excel, and PowerPoint applications, with the codename Office 12, which is due for release in the second half of 2006.
Microsoft will announce more details of the formats, which are expected to be published under a royalty-free license shortly before Office 12, over the next 12 months, beginning with its TechEd 2005 conference in Orlando, Florida next week.
The company claims that the new file formats will provide better data interoperability, improved security, and reduced file sizes, and that in moving to the XML-based formats it is responding to feedback from its customers.
"They want much better data integration capabilities," said Mike Pryke-Smith, Microsoft Office marketing manager. "A good example of that is the relationship with SAP," he added, citing Microsoft's recent joint development agreement with the enterprise software giant to provide a direct and transparent link between SAP processes and Microsoft's Office applications via a product known as Mendocino.
Improved integration with third-party applications is one of the proposed benefits, along with reduced data storage requirements due to smaller file sizes, which are enabled through the use of ZIP file compression technology.
Microsoft already supports XML with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint via the HTML file format support introduced in Office 2000, but is taking its support for XML a step further by making XML file formats the default option.
It has been widely reported that the new file extensions will see an "x" added to the famous .doc, .xls, and .ppt extensions, although Pryke-Smith said the company is not confirming the exact file extension details at this stage.
What it has confirmed is that users will still have the choice of saving files with the more traditional formats. The company will also release patches to coincide with Office 12 that will enable Office 2000, Office XP, and Office 2003 users to open, edit, and save files using the new formats.
The announcement of the new formats saw Microsoft repeatedly using the term "standard" to describe the XML-based formats. While they will be based on the XML 1.0 specification, a W3C standard, but the formats themselves will not be a formal standard, even if Microsoft is publishing them under a royalty-free license.
The company has previously declined suggestions that it should open up its file formats to an industry standards body, and Pryke-Smith again stated that Microsoft is unlikely to do so because it would rather keep control of the formats so that it can provide backward compatibility for the estimated 400 million Office users worldwide.
"Something that's unique to Microsoft is that backwards compatibility is important and the best way we can control that backwards compatibility is to maintain the management of the format," he said.
A potential alternative to Microsoft's formats emerged last week with the news that the Oasis standards group has approved the adoption of the OpenDocument format for office applications as an official standard.
Based on the XML schema developed by the OpenOffice.org open source applications community, OpenDocument will be used in the forthcoming OpenOffice.org 2.0, as well as Sun's StarOffice 8, which is due for release in the summer, but will not provide backwards compatibility with the existing OpenOffice.org applications.
Pryke-Smith said Microsoft would not be adopting OpenDocument, citing backwards compatibility concerns, but did say the company will watch to see how adoption of the standard develops. "We'll respond to customer demand on that," he said. "Our main focus is serving our existing customer base."
It is hardly surprising that Microsoft's file formats have become the de facto standard, given Microsoft's dominant position in the Office applications market, but things could slowly begin to change now that OpenDocument is an Oasis standard, particularly if it gets mandated in the public sector.
Dealing with Microsoft's proprietary standards has been a well-documented problem for OpenOffice.org and Sun's StarOffice, leading to early versions of their products too often being dismissed as incompatible with Microsoft documents.
With Microsoft's new XML-based file formats published under a royalty-free basis, that should potentially improve, that is if the two groups can avoid a new XML-based standards war.
