OOXML fails to get ISO approval

Written by Phil Cogar

September 5, 2007 | 15:08

Tags: #file-format #iso #ooxml

Companies: #microsoft

The International Organization for Standardisation has voted against giving Microsoft's Office Open XML format a fast track approval to becoming an international standard. Instead, Microsoft will get a second chance in March of next year by revising the proposed standard. Changes to the format itself could be needed which would then force an update of Office 2007, which uses XML as the standard file saving format.

The count came out as the following: out of 41 countries that had participated in the vote, 17 voted yes, 15 voted no and 9 were abstentions. That comes down to 53 percent of all participating votes as a yes when a total of 66.66 percent was need to give the format approval for a fast tracked standardisation.

"This preliminary vote is a milestone for the widespread adoption of the Open XML formats around the world for the benefit of millions of customers. Given how encouraging today's results were, we believe that the final tally in early 2008 will result in the ratification of Open XML as an ISO standard," said Tom Robertson, Microsoft's general manager for standards and interoperability.

Of course this isn't the only file format Microsoft is trying to push as a standard. The company is also looking to replace JPEG with its HD Photo format. I guess we'll just have to wait until next year to see which way either format falls on the standardised line.

Anytime you bring up Microsoft, it's bound to bring on a lot of hate and a lot of defending...so go ahead and tell us what you think about the big M controlling all of your file formats over in the forums or in the comment section below.
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