What is OOXML?
Office Open XML (OOXML), sometimes called Open XML, is an XML format that was created by Microsoft as a successor to the binary document formats used through Microsoft Office® version 2003, including .doc, .xls, .ppt. The OOXML format will allow more applications to work with the open documents. XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language, which refers to a simple text format. That it is extensible simply means that it allows designers to customize the tags within the language. One of the aims of this language is to help share structured data among multiple people. An OOXML file contains a collection of XML files compressed into a single file, which can be created and modified with Microsoft Office®. The files created in Office 2007 are not proprietary to Microsoft Office® as the OOXML format was standardized by the International Standards Organization (ISO) in April of 2008. This version of the format is the most recent, the original specification was standardized in December of 2006 by
Office Open XML (also commonly known as OOXML or OpenXML) is a powerful emerging specification for electronic documents and is the default file format for the popular Microsoft Office 2007 suite. Recently approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as an International Standard, OOXML was originally developed by Microsoft to replace the binary file formats that it had traditionally used for data storage. OOXML is a powerful example of the shift towards XML-based file formats, as well as open standards for data integration and interoperability. The immense popularity of the Microsoft Office suite assures the OOXML specification a large and growing rate of adoption for years to come. Now officially titled as ISO/IEC DIS 29500, OOXML has benefited greatly from the extensive documentation, review, and ratification of the technology, industry, and government representatives that made up the Ecma technical committee (TC45) that submitted it for ISO consideration.
