OpenDocument vs Microsoft's Office Open XML

[Jean Hollis Weber <jean05 -at- jeanweber -dot- com>]

For those of you interested in the office document format
standards wars...

Background: the OASIS OpenDocument format became an ISO standard
(ISO/IEC 26300:2006) on 8 May 2006.

Microsoft’s Office Open XML specification (OOXML) was approved by
ECMA International on 7 December 2006. It is now being run
through the ISO process in an attempt to become a competing
standard for office documents. Numerous people (with a lot more
technical knowledge than I) have been blogging about its problems
for months.

Any doubts about the significant problems in the OOXML
specification should be dispelled by the impressive list of
objections in an article published on Tuesday on Groklaw:
"Deadline Looms to Express Concerns about ECMA 376 Office Open
XML", http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070123071154671

One participant (Rob Weir) commented:
"What they found is amazing… I have been reading the OOXML
specification, on and off, for a few months now, noting in this
blog [http://www.robweir.com/blog] the problems I’ve seen. I
thought I had a good grasp of the problems. But I was wrong. I
was just scratching the surface. The Microsoft guys think I have
been complaining too much. But it now looks like I wasn’t
complaining enough."

--Jean
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or 
printed documentation. Features include single source authoring, team authoring,
Web-based technology, and PDF output. http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

Now shipping: Help & Manual 4 with RoboHelp(r) import! New editor,
full Unicode support. Create help files, web-based help and PDF in up
to 106 languages with Help & Manual: http://www.helpandmanual.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- infoinfocus -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40infoinfocus.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.