June 2005 Archives

Two InfoWorld articles touching on Office 12 XML.

This one mentions PowerPoint and the overall big picture.

This one looks more at XML, interoperability, and backward compatibility. The gem was snuck into the last paragraph:

Versions of Office 2000, Office XP, and Office 2003 are compatible with the new software, which can be downloaded by users of those versions for free. After the software is downloaded, users can open, edit, and save new files with the new format from within those earlier versions of Office, company officials said.

That’s a relief.

Robert Scoble interviewed Brian Jones on the new Office 12 XML Formats. It’s on Channel 9.

The upcoming Office 12 (due out sometime in late 2006) will have all new file formats (press release) for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The new, default format is XML-based. They’ll have extensions .docx, .xlsx, .pptx. The existing legacy binaries will continue to be supported with the current file extensions of .doc, .xls, and .ppt.

Brian Jones is a program manager on the Word team. He’s got a great blog that discusses the new file format.

Other Resources

Office Open XML Formats Websites

• Microsoft Office Open XML Formats Overview
• Microsoft Office Open XML Formats Frequently Asked Questions
• Microsoft Office Open XML Formats Architecture Guide

Whitepapers

• The Microsoft Office Open XML Formats: New File Formats for Office 12

• The Microsoft Office Open XML Formats: Preview for Developers