TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Microsoft to Include .xml in Future Products

Microsoft to Include .xml in Future Products

Lisa Minter (lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com)
Wed, 1 Jun 2005 23:42:06 -0500

Microsoft to adopt XML for next Office version

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software
maker, said on Wednesday that it will make XML, a data format
increasingly used by businesses, standard in the next version of its
Office program due out next year.

XML, or extensible markup language, is used to transfer data back and
forth between different programs, computers and organizations.

The upcoming Office upgrade -- code-named "Office 12" -- will have new
default XML file formats for the Word wordprocessing, the Excel
spreadsheet and Powerpoint presentations programs, Microsoft said.

Last month, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said that Office 12 would
make it easier for workers to "focus, prioritize and apply their
expertise, visualize and understand key data, and reduce the amount of
time they spend dealing with the complexity of an information-rich
environment."

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, as well as other major software
companies, have been building XML capabilities into their products
over the last few years.

OpenOffice, a free software suite with document, spreadsheet and
presentation programs, as well as StarOffice, an $80 version developed
by Sun Microsystems Inc., both are XML-based as well.

Microsoft's current Office version retails for between $150 and $400,
depending upon the edition.

Betsy Frost, Microsoft's a senior marketing director in the Microsoft
business group that includes Office, said that the XML capabilities
will mainly benefit companies and corporate workers who need to tap
into a variety of different databases.

Microsoft said it would begin discussing details about the new XML
file format at TechEd, Microsoft's annual meeting for information
technology managers and developers in Orlando, Florida, next week.

The new default formats for Word, Excel and Powerpoint will change,
respectively, from ."doc," ".xls" and ".ppt" to ".docx," ".xlsx" and
".pptx," Microsoft said.

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.

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