Microsoft nears OOXML approval

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Office Open XML (OOXML) has been given the preliminary thumbs up by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), thanks to a large number of the international standards body's members voting to support ratification of Microsoft's file format.

Although the "yes" vote was short of the required majority, many of the members who voted no, including the UK, indicated they would approve OOXML as a standard once some technical issues have been addressed.

Microsoft was naturally delighted with the result and welcomed the "invaluable technical comments designed to improve the specification".

"Technical experts around the world have provided invaluable feedback and technical recommendations for evolving the format," said Tom Robertson, general manager for Interoperability and Standards at Microsoft. "The high quality of the Open XML format will be improved as a result of this process."

Robertson said the "yes" vote is consistent with the decision of a number of IT companies, including Apple, Novell, Corel and Sun, to provide OOXML support in their software.

"This preliminary vote is a milestone for the widespread adoption of the Open XML formats around the world for the benefit of millions of customers," he claims. "Given how encouraging today's results were, we believe that the final tally in early 2008 will result in the ratification of Open XML as an ISO standard."

Fifty-one ISO members, representing 74 per cent of all qualified votes, backed OOXML ratification. The approval process requires a 75 per cent "yes" vote, so once the required changes have been made, OOXML will almost certainly be a standard by 2008.

The NoOOXML campaign, which had predicted a "no" vote, has yet to respond.

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