Microsoft’s office 2007, besides having a different look and
feel, has also taken a major step toward international document conformance by storing
document contents in XML format (within a ZIP file). This is an improvement in many ways but if
you thought things were complicated before, they have now doubled.
XML, as a text based format, is much easier to open and
examine. Having it stored within a ZIP
is now old hat (Java programs are done this way all the time) and it saves
space.
But processing these files is now harder. Not only do these files have to be split
apart, any software available before that could handle them now needs to be
updated. You will need, in general, new
software to handle the files. And it
will be hard to issue edicts against the generation or dissemination of these
files because they will often be created and transmitted without the user’s
knowledge. How can that be?
Microsoft, in order to promote the adoption of this new
standard, has provided free plug-ins into old versions of MS Office that
automatically and pretty much invisibly handle these new file formats. A simple, free download from within Office
will accomplish that. And all new
versions of MS Office generate these new files by default. The only obvious
difference with these files is that the extension has the letter x as in
.docx. And if you receive and edit one
of these files, guess what extension it will have when you’re done? It’s a bit like a virus.
OK, simple fix. Have
everyone go to the Microsoft website and update your MS Office components. But if you’re an organization with say 500
users of MS Office, are you ready or willing to upgrade them all, even if it’s
free. Don’t you think there might be a
few problems in that process?
So these files are coming, and it’s very hard to stop
them. Right now, in dribs and drabs, but
soon major torrents. Can you ignore
them? Not if your business depends upon
MS Office documents.
What’s the answer? Get informed. Keep informed. Talk to your suppliers. Monitor how you’re impacted. Stay tuned. Maybe a universal viewer will be the answer for you?
Comments