Last week I gave a presentation to a group of CIOs on Office Open XML, the ECMA International standard (ECMA 376) currently going through the ISO certification process. (To give a bit of context, OOXML was originally created by Microsoft; it's an XML standard that competes with the Open Document Format (ODF) backed by OpenOffice.org and IBM.) In the course of preparing for the presentation and asking around for some helpful documents, I came up with this list. If you're trying to figure out OOXML, you may find it useful. (Before the religious zealots weigh in, this is a list of resources for understanding OOXML, not for comparing and contrasting OOXML and ODF, so it's meant to be one-sided).
- The "Office Open XML" entry on Wikipedia. This is useful because it's updated in realtime, so you can get the latest on what's happening, especially important during the ISO certification process. In addition, both proponents and opponents weigh in, so it's a quick guide to the affiliated religious wars.
- The specification on the Ecma International web site. The Primer, Part 3, is a good place to start.
- "Office Open XML Overview" by Tom Ngo of NextPage. An introduction (14-page PDF) to the standard.
- The OpenXMLDeveloper web site. A Microsoft-sponsored web site for developers. It has links to the ECMA International standard, as well as offers code examples and discussions.
- The OpenXMLCommunity web site. A Microsoft-sponsored web site for business people. While it not surprisingly spins the OOXML story positively, it also has some useful papers and studies that describe adoption rates and how OOXML can be used.
- Brian Jones' blog. A program manager at Microsoft focused on OOXML and its implementation within Office 2007.
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