OOXML - Office Open XML, Microsoft documents go to open format

The Open XML format is provided by Microsoft under a free and perpetual license. This is ECMA-376 standard.

It replaces the previously used XML and doc formats. It appears with Office 2007 and is designed to compete with OpenDocument, an open and free format popularized later by the free Open desktop machine Office.org. Since XLS wants to replace PDF, and Silverlight wanted to replace Flash (and erases with it).

Open XML Features and Benefits

The format written in XML is open, in other words, it is read directly by the person, in contrast to binary files read only by the program.
It is encapsulated in a ZIP file and compressed by more than 70%, remaining readable. Additional elements such as scripts and OLE are separated from the data. The format is divided into several specialized formats:

OpenXML is free and built on standard formats, XML and ZIP. Any software editor can use it. The open and readable XML format makes it easy to implement the format, unlike DOC, which required a long search for decryption, or rather guessing.

Open XML is compatible, which means that a file created by one application can be used by another application, another publisher. It can be used on another operating system, such as a Mac.

Thanks to ZIP, the format is much more compact. When a file is partially destroyed, it is easy to recover unaffected content.

Integration into applications is easier.

Compatibility with future applications is easier to maintain. The format can be easily expanded without questioning the existing one.

Microsoft Office Open XML vs. OpenDocument FreeOffice

Open Document (ODF), a free format competing with Open XML, is an ANSI standard. Indeed, compatibility-conscious Microsoft voted for it, also agreeing to the ISO. In contrast, IBM voted against standardizing the ECMA format of Microsoft Open XML, but with no effect.
Microsoft's Tom Robertson:

"We see ODF surfing has different need than other document standards that exist in the market, such as the Ecma Open XML formats."

Tradi: We believe that ODF meets different needs than other standard formats on the market, such as Open XML ECMA.

  1. Both formats are in XML.
  2. They are both compressed in ZIP format.
  3. OpenDocument is an ISO standard, while Open XML is ECMA certified, which, however, also makes it a free format. It is ISO certified.
  4. OpenDocument is close to XHTML, not Open XML.
  5. OpenDocument uses Web standards: SVG for images, MathML, XLink, Dublin Core for meta data.
    This allows you to use tools that are compatible with these standards.
    In Open XML, everything is, on the contrary, new.
  6. OpenDocument clearly separates data and presentation, which is less Microsoft style. This can be found in the comparison of XUL and XAML.
  7. Open XML includes a formula language for an Excel table that is not present in OpenDocument. It would also be faster to process through spreadsheets.
  8. Open XML references are defined in relation to the contents of the included XML file and are not directly inserted. They are easier to remove if necessary.
    The reference in the text is not directly included, the reference to the reference is actually included in the table.

In fact, the foundation promoting the Open Document format would like to change the format and switch to CDF W3C. It would be more open and better suited to the expectations of the developers. But that was in 2007. In 2007, the FreeOffice and Open Office file format was always Open Document. This does not prevent the W3C standard from finding other applications...

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