That's what Microsoft has managed to do with Open XML, the format of the new Office 2007 program. Geneva-based ECMA has approved Open XML as a international data standard, AP reports.

Microsoft is trumpeting support for its Office Open XML document file format as an international standard from more than 300 companies and organizations on a new "community" Web site set up by the ...

Files created with the new Open XML format used by Office 2007 are actually ZIP packages that contain various XML files as well as images and other data.

Jones wrote that the so-called Office compatibility pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 is the second most popular download on Microsoft’s Web site, behind only Internet Explorer 7 for the ...

Microsoft has posted a message to its Mactopia site making two announcements: the Open XML File Format Converter Update to Office 2004 for Mac will be delayed until June (the second major delay ...

Version 1.0 of the Open XML Translator is available from SourceForge.net and work is underway on plugins for Excel 2007 and Powerpoint 2007.

The team is working on translation between ODF and Open XML for spreadsheets written in Microsoft Excel 2007 and presentations developed in Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, Matusow said.