Microsoft Corp. announced that it is adopting industry-standard Extensible Markup Language (XML) technology for the default file formats in the next version of Microsoft Office editions, currently code-named "Office 12."

The new file formats, called Microsoft Office Open XML Formats, will become the defaults for the "Office 12" versions of Microsoft Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint, which are expected to be released in the second half of 2006.

Microsoft will begin discussing details about the new XML file formats at the Microsoft Tech?Ed 2005 conference next week in Orlando, Fla.

"Microsoft Office Open XML Formats have the potential to make a hugely positive impact on workers' effectiveness and productivity without requiring a minute of additional training," said Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president of Office at Microsoft. "Customers have asked us for improved file and data management; improved interoperability; and open, royalty-free, published file format specifications -- without sacrificing backward compatibility. We're confident that by adopting XML-based default file formats, we are delivering the tools that will help IT professionals address these challenges, while enabling developers to integrate Office even further into their customized solutions."

Customers and the technology industry at large have moved rapidly to adopt XML as a core mechanism for structured data interchange. According to Microsoft research, more than 1 million developers are currently developing solutions using Office 2003, and more than one-third of them are using XML in their solutions. Gartner Inc. estimates that the use of XML-enabled e-forms will at least double through next year and that 40 percent of knowledge workers will use XML-aware content-creation tools by 2007.1 Forrester Research Inc. predicts that XML will become one of the dominant document formats for archiving data by 2008.

"Making XML the default Office file formats is, for me, the culmination of a 35-year dream," said Charles F. Goldfarb, the inventor of the markup language technology and author of "The XML Handbook." "In 1970 we had just one system that could share documents between an editor, a back-end database and a publishing package. Now Microsoft is enabling hundreds of millions of people to routinely create XML that can interoperate with every kind of back-end system and Web service. I foresee a whole new range of advanced information-sharing scenarios, with improved workflows and enhanced individual and organizational collaboration."

Compact and Robust File Formats

The Microsoft Office Open XML Formats provide smaller file sizes and improved recovery of damaged or corrupted files. They also help improve security through greater control of file content:

Smaller file sizes. Because they offer file sizes that are significantly smaller than comparable Microsoft Office 2003 files, the new formats will reduce data storage needs and costs for customers. Smaller files also take up less space as e-mail attachments or as downloadable files, so customers' bandwidth needs and costs are expected to decline as well. The smaller file sizes are enabled by a combination of industry-standard ZIP compressed files technology that automatically compresses each component within the file as well as the reduced overhead of an XML format.

Greater data recovery. The enhanced data-recovery capabilities of the new file formats include the ability to open and use the undamaged parts of a file when only one component -- for example, a chart or image -- is damaged, as can be the case with truncated e-mail attachments or damaged storage media. In addition, Microsoft Office Open XML Formats have technology to detect and attempt to fix corrupted files when workers open them. These capabilities are based on the formats' structures, which segment a file's data storage into discrete components that can be scanned, maintained and managed independently.

Improved security. This file structure also enhances security, because files with potentially hazardous code can be more readily identified and managed, and because personally identifiable information or confidential content -- such as document comments -- can be