Jaa

Microsoft Office Open XML File Formats announced

  • Artikkeli

It's a watershed moment for Office programmability: We have officially announced that the next version of Office will have a new open XML file format. A lot remains to be said, but I am going to stick closely to the the press release info (I have this aversion to disclosing confidential details, even by accident). We'll be doing a lot more disclosing at Tech Ed in Orlando next week. YEAH!

Read the press release, and pay particular attention to these statements by Sinofsky:

"The Microsoft Office XML Open Format introduces significantly enhanced XML formats for Microsoft Word and Excel, and the first XML format for Microsoft PowerPoint. The formats use consistent, application-specific XML markup and are completely based on XML and use industry-standard ZIP-compression technology.

The new formats improve file and data management, data recovery, and interoperability with line-of-business systems beyond what's possible with Office 2003 binary files. And any program that supports XML -- it doesn't have to be part of Office or even from Microsoft -- can access and work with data in the new file format. Because the information is stored in XML, customers can use standard transformations to extract or repurpose the file data."

This means a whole new world of XML-based development for Office productivity applications. Stay tuned as more info trickles out. As we proceed, I'll be talking about scenarios, architectures, and eventually I'll be putting up some examples. All in due time!

Rock Thought for the Day: Last Friday, I bought the new Billy Corgan solo project tune: Mina Loy (m.o.h) from iTunes (the only place it is available right now). I will be pre-ordering the CD.

Rock On

Comments

  • Anonymous
    June 02, 2005
    Got the same problem as mcDenis "The Excel XML Toolbox can only run in a version of Microsoft Excel that has XML support." using Microsoft Office Excel 2003(11.5612.5606)
    Professional Edition 2003
  • Anonymous
    June 02, 2005
    John,

    The Channel 9 video is a lot better than the press release. http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=73329
  • Anonymous
    June 02, 2005
    Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit (Mac BU) has said that Mac Office will support the new file format announced by the company for its Windows Office products.

    More.. http://www.nsorg.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=661
  • Anonymous
    June 02, 2005
    As an Database geek, I've faced one problem over and over and over
    again: How do I store Office Suite...
  • Anonymous
    June 02, 2005
    Hmm looks like i'll need to buy new office :P
  • Anonymous
    June 02, 2005
    What does this mean for solutions based on the current WordML format?
  • Anonymous
    June 02, 2005
    Scoble,
    thanks for the tip. I didn't know it was there (should have guessed that ultra-hip Channel9 would deliver!).

    I'll highlight it in a second post to give it more boost.

    I wonder what Brian's inbox looks like today?

    John.
  • Anonymous
    June 02, 2005
    Sorry, can you remove my last comment from posting in public?
  • Anonymous
    June 03, 2005
    As usual, Visio lags behind. Strange, because Visio was one of the first to take on an XML file format. No VSTO for Visio, and a difficult XML schema to work with.

    Do you have any positive news on Visio? It seems like Visio is on its own, always slightly distanced from the latest Office family developments.