Microsoft scored a win in the standards game Wednesday with the announcement that its Office Open XML (OOXML) file format has been approved as an worldly standard. The announcement was made by the universal Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the worldly Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). ISO is a global network of standards-based bodies from more than 150 countries, and the IEC is the leading worldly standards organization for electronic technology.

Subject to Appeal

The vote due at least two-thirds of the votes cast by participating national bodies to be positive, and no more than a quarter against. Seventy-five percent of the participating members voted positive and only 14 percent voted negative.

The standard was originally rejected in the fast-track vote that ended last September, following more than 3,000 comments from the field. But the rules allowed a vote at a meeting, with a 30-day period in which the participants could modify their votes. That 30-day period ended Saturday.

However, final adoption is subject to formal appeals from ISO/IEC members by the next two months. whether an appeal is made, it will thereupon need more duration to be heard and resolved.

The new standard, called ISO/IEC 29500, addresses word-processing documents, presentations and spreadsheets as implemented by various applications and platforms. The stated objectives of the standard include the long-term preservation of documents created in the last 20 years.

OOXML vs ODF

The Office Open XML Specification was developed by Microsoft, which first submitted it to the information-technology industry organization Ecma worldly. It was approved by Ecma and published as ECMA standard 376. Ecma next submitted it to ISO/IEC under the fast-track procedure.

Tom Robertson, general manager of interoperability and standards at Microsoft, praised the decision as “a clear win for customers, technology providers and governments,” and said hundreds of independent software vendors and platform providers, including Apple, Corel, Sun…

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