Office To Support Open XML Format

Yesterday's big Microsoft news was that the next version of Office will ship with a completely new file format that will be XML and open (unlike the current XML option which is closed meaning you're not supposed to be able to fiddle with it). Current versions of Office will also support these new formats via software updates and convertors.

So what you ask?  Well, Rick Schaut of the MacBU (Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit) has an interesting blog post about how Office for the Mac is going to support these new formats too. Apparently this is the first major new enhancement for Office that is going to be launched at the same time across platforms.

Hopefully this new open format will lead to better integration between word processing suites (meaning that iWork and Office would be able to produce the same exact file type without skipping a beat).