seems to be a good deal of chatter recently about our support for the modified version of Open XML that resulted from the rigorous ratification process.  The best summary of the story I found is over on Oliver Bell's blog here so I won't retype it here. I guess people do just expect Microsoft to...

Skydrive comes out of beta Beta is over for http://skydrive.live.com and the new version increases the storage by 4Gb to 5Gb! I use this to put my presentations in on the right column on the blog - easy to imbed the link with the icon Interoperability announcements there is a lot to read about...

With the ballot resolution later this month, the temperature is high around the issues on Open XML.  On our side we believe that Open XML is solving a different problem to ODF and so we supported it through fast track.  IBM and others have decided to see this as a "war on standards"...

Office Quiz I'm liking Ian Moulster's quiz on Office 2007 .  How many can you get - even I struggled with some of them.  He's going to publish the answers next week.. Progress of Office Open XML We are busy preparing for the Ballot Resolution Meeting on the ISO Office Open XML ratification...

The Burton Group , a respected AR firm targeting the enterprise technologist, has published “What’s up .doc—ODF, Open XML and the Revolutionary Implications of XML in Productivity Applications” —a 35+ page examination of document formats, most notably ODF and Open XML. ...

Some blogs you wait a long time for and here is one.  Gray Knowlton , Group product manager in Office has started a blog.  Gray is a top guy, funny, very smart and with lots of good perspectives to share.  He is working on Office Open XML, the new open file format used in Microsoft Office...

While I'm talking about developers, it looks like the UK developer team are giving away Xbox 360s to partners that have Office Open XML solutions .  Surely every open xml developer already has an Xbox 360? Anyway if you have or are thinking about building a solution on Office Open XML, here is the...

At last, the Office mobile 6.1 update is here that lets us use the new file formats (open and edit xlsx and docx and just view pptx) on Windows Mobile devices.  It works on windows pocket pc 5 and windows mobile 6.  Download here . Jason aka mr mobile, has all the detail and this time managed...

I've spoken about IT Workplace before .  If you are interested in seeing an Office Business Application in action, have a look at Intelligencia - they allow people to do data analysis from Word.  This relies on Open XML to store the settings in the document. They have some new demo and video...

This afternoon I was presenting at the Office Business Applications architects council with the good looking chaps on the right here. I was talking about some of the stories I've come across from our customers and partners who are using Ecma Open XML in their solutions. I have 4 stories published recently...

sorry been a busy week but here's the wheat without the chaff - frankly I was bored by most of the stuff in my inbox this week but there a few glimmers here: Office 2007 sp1 has gone out to beta testers. Seems to be stable and does make things feel a bit pacier apparently. I have downloaded it but haven...

"Open battle will boost compatibility" writes the Guardian computer editor, Jack Schofield in a computer weekly article . Open XML will never win over ODF proponents: nothing would. However, the new formats are more open, more accessible and more standardised than the old binary ones. Pragmatists, at...

As James Senior beat me to saying , Microsoft has created an SDK for .net programmers to manipulate Open XML documents. The point is that whilst it is technically possible to write a .docx or an .xlsx using the Ecma spec, it requires a detailed knowledge of the tags. You'd need to be able to unpack a...

The upcoming version 7 of MindJet MindManager, the popular visualisation tool releases on 31 st May. One of its key selling points is the use of the new Microsoft Office Fluent user interface. I caught up with Rob Furnivall from MindJet (above and left) to get the inside track. Welcome, Rob, please...

30 th April - 1 st May 2007, Reading, UK This two day developer workshop focuses on Open XML, the new document format for Microsoft Office ( why you should care ). The new Open XML file format is compact and robust, enabling better data integration between documents and back-end systems. This new format...

Everyone seems to think that caring about standards is someone else's job but that is just the technical equivalent of political apathy. The debate over the ISO ratification of document formats might sound a dense subject for the mere mortal but make no mistake, it will affect you eventually. This week...

To quote Brian Jones : As I already mentioned, in the last face to face meeting in Trondheim, Norway we unanimously voted to approve the final draft of the Office Open XML spec as ready to submit to the Ecma General Assembly. The GA will then review the draft and in December there will be a vote...