Microsoft Office applies for standard file format
By Robert F. Ludwick
The Rebel Yell (UNLV)
12/18/2006

(U-WIRE) LAS VEGAS — Microsoft has its sights set on another victory with its new Office file formats on the way to standardization.

Microsoft, the developer of the hugely-successful Windows operating systems, applied to have its Office file formats standardized.

If successful, the formats used in Office will be validated by the International Standards Organization, which will allow many governments around the world the opportunity to officially use Microsoft Office.

Many of the world's governments can only use formats that have been standardized by the ISO, which, in the past, meant that Microsoft's Office suite was illegal to use, because its file formats were not standardized.

The move likely comes due to the emergence of the OpenDocument format, which was recently standardized as well. The OpenDocument format is part of the OpenOffice suite of applications, which has been steadily cutting into Microsoft Office's market share.

The ECMA, a European group consisting of hardware and software developers that includes Microsoft, approved the Excel, Word and PowerPoint formats of Microsoft Office as industry standards.

With that move, the formats will be reviewed by the ISO, which is located in Massachusetts.

If the ISO validates the Microsoft formats as standards, they will indeed become global standards.

One member of the ECMA commented that it only made sense to standardize the file formats in Microsoft Office.

According to estimates, more than 90 percent of the documents in the world are stored in a Microsoft Office file format.

Copyright ©2006 The Rebel Yell via UWire

[ Back to Student Voices ]