Office Open XML file formats: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 07:11, 16 August 2013

Revision as of 23:35, 24 August 2013

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The [[W3C XML Schema|XML Schema]] of Office Open XML emphasizes reducing load time and improving [[parsing]] speed.<ref>{{Cite web| title=Software Developer uses Office Open XML to Minimize File Space, Increase Interoperability| url=http://www.openxmlcommunity.org/documents/casestudies/Intellisafe_OpenXML_Final.pdf | author=Intellisafe Technologies}}</ref> In a test with applications current in April 2007, XML-based office documents were slower to load than binary formats.<ref>{{ cite web | url=http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=480 | title=MS Office 2007 versus Open Office 2.2 shootout | author=George Ou | date=2007-04-27 | accessdate=2007-04-27 | publisher=ZDnet.com}}</ref> To enhance performance, Office Open XML uses very short element names for common elements and spreadsheets save dates as index numbers (starting from 1899 or from 1904).{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}} In order to be systematic and generic, Office Open XML typically uses separate child elements for data and metadata (element names ending in ''Pr'' for ''properties'') rather than using multiple attributes, which allows structured properties. Office Open XML does not use mixed content but uses elements to put a series of text runs (element name ''r'') into paragraphs (element name ''p''). The result is terse{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}} and highly nested in contrast to [[HTML]], for example, which is fairly flat, designed for humans to write in [[text editors]] and is more congenial for humans to read.

The naming of elements and attributes within the text havehas attracted some criticism. There are three different syntaxes in OOXML (ECMA-376) for specifying the color and alignment of text depending on whether the document is a text, spreadsheet, or presentation. Rob Weir (an [[IBM]] employee and co-chair of the [[OASIS (organization)|OASIS]] [[OpenDocument Format]] TC) asks "What is the engineering justification for this horror?". He contrasts with [[OpenDocument]]: "ODF uses the W3C's XSL-FO vocabulary for text styling, and uses this vocabulary consistently".<ref>{{ cite web | url=http://www.robweir.com/blog/2008/03/disharmony-of-ooxml.html | title= Disharmony of OOXML | author=Rob Weir | date=14 March 2008}}</ref>

Some have argued the design is based too closely on Microsoft applications.