By Martin LaMonica
Friday, December 08 2006 09:17 AM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,61973277,00.htm

A vote to make Microsoft Office document formats an international standard was approved on Thursday, according to a Microsoft representative.

At the general assembly of Ecma International in Zurich, Switzerland, Microsoft's Office Open XML--a set of specifications detailing the document formats in Microsoft's office--was certified as a standard.

In addition, the membership-based standards organization voted to propose Office Open XML to the larger International Organization for Standardization (known as ISO) for standards approval through its fast-track process, a Microsoft representative confirmed.

The vote to accept Microsoft's submission as a standard was expected. The ISO standardization process typically takes about nine months, according to experts.

IBM, which has been a vocal advocate of another standard called open document, or ODF, voted against making Open XML a standard. ODF was passed earlier this month as an ISO standard.

The certification from ECMA--formerly known as the European Computer Manufacturers Association--marks about a year of work for a technical committee set up to standardize Office Open XML.

These document formats are the default for Office 2007, an upgrade to Microsoft's productivity suite that was released to businesses late last month and expected to be available to consumers next January.

Novell, which participated in the Ecma technical committee, intends to support Office Open XML in its distribution of the OpenOffice open-source productivity suite. Corel, which makes the WordPerfect Office suite, intends to support both Office Open XML and OpenDocument.

The official results from the Ecma votes in Zurich on Thursday are expected to be released end this week.