Bits.Bytes.

One of the neatest things about Office 2007 is the XML file format that it uses to store data. This of course has a number of interesting ramifications, the most important ones being:

• Presentation and data are separated, which means
  • You can change the presentation at any time, using clever means like an IIS Module
  • You can change the data at any time and persist the presentation
• You can programmatically change the presentation and/or data without using word, which means
  • Server side document generation is finally scalable
  • You can leverage tools from any stack (Java, .NET, Delphi, etc) to achieve this

Yesterday and the day before I had an opportunity to attend a small seminar on OpenXML by Microsoft’s OpenXML Evangelist Doug Mahugh where in the limited time available he excellently channeled his knowledge to us and took us through the exciting range of just how OpenXML can be leveraged. Indeed, the future of office documents will be in XML.

Also spotted an interesting bug in Word 2007, but more on that in another post.

I also had a nice chat with Doug over a very filling lunch over Microsoft’s culture, innovation and relationships with the other big boys of the industry. It was interesting to say the least!

As for OpenXML … innovation is just waiting at the wings!