Yep, times are a-changin at MS. I applaud their efforts and the positive feedback they will receive should continue to show them that this is exactly what their customers want from them. It's still a bit proprietary in nature, but I don't fault them for that... there are good reasons to protect a significant investment like office. But the XML format is a huge leap of faith by MS (and a complete 180 degree turn) and I couldn't be happier to see it. Some will say that Open Office forced them to do this, otherwise they wouldn't have. I don't care how it happened, I am just glad it did happen... and I find it somewhat in keeping with their announcement many years ago that XML was a big part of the future plans for MS. I can still see Balmer ranting about it in my head. <g>

>Quick summary:
>
>1. New Office file format will be pure XML streams compressed in a single file ZIP archive. Embeded OLE objects will now be represented in their native XML format vs. sealed binary streams. (BTW: This is the same technique used by Open Office)
>
>2. New file extensions will be old extensions + "X", DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, etc.
>
>3. New Office file formats apply to all Office apps (including InfoPath and Visio) except Access, Outlook and Publisher.
>
>4. New Office file formats will be available to both Windows and Mac users.
>
>5. Microsoft will ship software upgrades so new format is fully usable for Office 2000, XP, and 2003 users. WOW! :)
>
>6. New file formats can be licensed without fee.
>
>All in all, a very impressive annoucement. Great stuff!
>
>Details can be found at:
>http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=73329
>http://www.microsoft.com/office/xml/default.mspx
>
>Malcolm