Microsoft's next Office file format reaches final draft status

Redmond (WA) - Microsoft Blogger Brian Jones today announced that the final draft of Office Open XML, Microsoft's default file format in the upcoming Office 2007 productivity suite has been approved within the framework of the standardization body of Ecma.

Microsoft today took a significant towards a much broader acceptance of its Office Open XML file format, which will be the foundation of all documents that will be saved by Office 2007 applications. A group of twelve organizations - Apple, Barclays Capital, BP, The British Library, Essilor, Intel, Microsoft, NextPage, Novell, Statoil, Toshiba and the The United States Library of Congress - has approved the final draft of the specification and prepared it for submission to the General Assembly of Ecma (European association for standardizing information and communication systems).

According to Jones, the final draft specification was fine-tuned to resolve "potential interoperability issues" to "assist consumers in better handling their files."

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