Office 12, the next major version of Microsoft Office,
has reached a key milestone with the release of a beta version of
the software. But as users and developers start testing this early
version, Microsoft has been facing criticism of the new file format
Office 12 will use.
A key part of Office 12 is built-in support for data exchange
format XML and a new XML-based document format called Open XML.
Office 12, which will be launched towards the end of 2006, will
save documents by default in the Open XML format.
Jean Paoli, Microsoft's senior director of XML architecture,
said, "This vision was developed in response to the fact that
companies are often forced to adopt inefficient and duplicative
business processes because business-critical information frequently
ends up locked inside data storage systems, such as a database that
employees do not know how to access, or business productivity
documents, such as a long-forgotten spreadsheet stored on an
employee's PC."
Microsoft aims to make the Open XML format an industry standard.
It has gained the support of Intel and Apple Computer, plus users
such as BP and the British Library. An ECMA standard should mean
that Office documents will be more interoperable with third-party
software and legacy applications.
The company is expected to get Open XML recognised by standards
body ECMA, then register the format with the International
Organisation for Standardisation.
However, there has been an outcry in the open source community
as Microsoft prepares to submit its file format to ECMA. It is
facing criticism from groups such as the Free Software Foundation
and the Open Source Consortium, as well as backers of rival
XML-based file format Open Document Format (ODF), which include
IBM, Sun, Novell, Adobe and Google.
Criticism centres on the fact that the Office 12 Open XML file
format would be controlled by a single commercial entity. One
analyst said that, based on Microsoft's previous ECMA
standardisation efforts, it is not certain that Microsoft would
relinquish control of the Office formats to other companies, which
could mean that Office documents may not become as interoperable as
Microsoft suggests.
The Free Software Foundation has been particularly critical of
Microsoft over its involvement in a US government adoption of
Office document standards, which many are viewing as a test
case.
The user - the commonwealth of Massachusetts - decided to adopt
ODF largely because it was developed by a multiparty standards
organisation. However, at a government hearing Microsoft argued
strongly against the organisation adopting ODF, according to the
Free Software Foundation.
As Microsoft attempts to establish Open XML as a standard
document format, it is facing competition from the likes of the ODF
standard and Adobe's Portable Document Format.
Office 12 will offer native support for Adobe's PDF, but only
third-party support for ODF, potentially complicating matters for
IT managers.