Can it be true? Could Microsoft have listened to developers? Or is Microsoft worried about competition from Sun Microsystem's Open Office? Or are they worried about growning concern about how their proprietary formats are bad for the public good? Whatever the reason, it could be great news for people like me who need to convert Microsoft Office documents into HTML.

There are a number of articles, mostly critical, on the Web about the upcoming Microsoft Open Office XML. Whether the new format will be truly open or not is being questioned. Europe and the state of Massachusetts in the United States are moving toward the OpenOffice.org XML File Format (also called OpenDocument) and apparently will be avoiding the use of any proprietary format for public data. See OpenDocument on Wikipedia.

I've used Sun Microsystem's Open Office (free, open source) applications for a while now, which use the OpenDocument format and have found them very reliable as source files, simple because I can convert them into other XML languages, including XHTML.

If Microsoft really does follow suit and use an XML format as the default format for their Office documents it will be a great move. Even though I prefer to not use Microsoft Office, at least I would be able to more easily (in theory) convert their office documents when needed.

All I can now is keep an eye on the release of Microsoft Office 12.

If you want a ton on information on this in a single article (and who wouldn't?), then read Why OpenDocument Won (and Microsoft Office Open XML Didn’t).