Microsoft Releases Pre 2007 Binary File Format Specs: related news

Microsoft Releases Pre-2007 Binary File Format Specs

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has released the specifications for the binary file formats used by pre-2007 Microsoft Office applications. They're accurate this time! Honest! While the documents are enormous (Word alone requires 533 pages; Excel runs over 1000 plus another 850 pages for the Office 2007 binary format), they hopefully will be useful to developers trying to create or extract information from Microsoft Office files (which despite their flaws, have been the de facto standard in many fields for some time now)."

Open XML Format SDK

The 2007 Microsoft® Office system introduces a new file format that is based on XML called Open XML Formats. Microsoft Office Word 2007, Microsoft Office Excel® 2007, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2007 all use these formats as the default file format. Open XML formats are useful for developers because they are an open standard and are based on well-known technologies: ZIP and XML. Microsoft provides a library for accessing these files as part of the WinFX technologies in the System.IO.Packaging namespace. The Open XML Format SDK is built on top of the System.IO.Packaging API and provides strongly typed part classes to manipulate Open XML documents.

Microsoft Format Plows Ahead as XML Protests Lose Steam

The protests surrounding Open XML have failed to gain sufficient international traction to stop the Microsoft file format from becoming an official ISO standard. Parties opposed to its approval have raised concerns about how the file format works, patent violations, and the overlap with Open Document Format, as well as the haste with which the format was given the green light.

Microsoft Format Plows Ahead as XML Protests Lose Steam

The protests surrounding Open XML have failed to gain sufficient international traction to stop the Microsoft file format from becoming an official ISO standard. Parties opposed to its approval have raised concerns about how the file format works, patent violations, and the overlap with Open Document Format, as well as the haste with which the format was given the green light.

Microsoft Format Plows Ahead as XML Protests Lose Steam

The protests surrounding Open XML have failed to gain sufficient international traction to stop the Microsoft file format from becoming an official ISO standard. Parties opposed to its approval have raised concerns about how the file format works, patent violations, and the overlap with Open Document Format, as well as the haste with which the format was given the green light.

Microsoft's Annual Report Reveals OSS Mistakes

mjasay writes "Microsoft's most recent annual report suggests that the company is increasingly coming to grips with open source, yet also seems determined to perpetuate myths about open source that poorly serve it and its shareholders. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has suggested before that 'free software means no free soda' for Microsoft employees; but this is perhaps the first time that Microsoft has managed to enshrine its ignorance in a public document. In the annual report, Microsoft makes two primary false claims about open source: 1) Open source companies don't invest in research and development and instead largely free-ride on Microsoft's patents and copyrights; and 2) Open source projects don't innovate and instead mimic Microsoft's products.

Microsoft and Apache - What's the Angle?

A week ago, we discussed Microsoft's contribution to the Apache Foundation. Now, Bruce Perens has written an analysis "exploring the new relationship of Microsoft and the Apache project, how it works as an anti-Linux move on Microsoft's part, and what some of the Open Sourcers are going to do about having Microsoft as a rather untrustworthy partner." In particular, he notes: "...Microsoft can still influence how things go from here on. If they have to live with open source, the Apache project is Microsoft's preferred direction. Apache doesn't use the dreaded GPL and its enforced sharing of source-code. Instead, the Apache license is practically a no-strings gift, with a weak provision against patent lawsuits as its most relevant term. Microsoft can take Apache software and embrace and enhance, providing their own versions of the project's

Microsoft file format approved as ISO standard

The format used by Microsoft Corp.'s Office 2007 programs to save documents will become an international standard after appeals against the move failed to gather sufficient support, the International Organization for Standardization said Friday.

Some Developers Leaving Google For Microsoft

recoiledsnake writes "We have heard about lots of talented developers jumping ship from Microsoft to Google, but is the trend beginning to turn? Dare Obasanjo (a Microsoft employee) writes about a few high-profile people picking Microsoft over Google — either making the jump directly, or choosing Microsoft after receiving offers at both. Sergey Solyanik is back to Microsoft and he primarily gripes about the culture and lack of career development at Google. He writes, 'Everything is pretty much run by [engineering] — PMs and testers are conspicuously absent from the process. Google as an organization is not geared — culturally — to delivering enterprise class reliability to its user applications.' Danny Thorpe, who was the key architect of Google Gears, is back at Microsoft for his second stint working on developer technologies rel

Official LittleBigPlanet Website: EU & Canada Pre-Order Details

To our European fans – Our counterparts in EU say not to worry, your pre-orders will be announced shortly. In all honesty, each SCE territory has different market challenges and consumer trends. In the US, pre-orders are emphasized a lot earlier in the product marketing messaging cycle. On the other side of the coin, some countries don't emphasize pre-orders as much (or at all). Also, Europe is especially tricky because there are so many different countries, and each country has their own pre-order programs - specific to their own retail partners and consumers. Then include "X" amount of business discussions, legal discussions, logistic issues, etc, add water, and then you have a pre-order campaign (or at least a quick snapshot of the pre-order process).

Microsoft Open XML Converter Arrives for Mac

Microsoft has released Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.0, a file translator that allows users to open, edit, and convert Open XML files created in Office 2008 for Mac or Office 2007 for Windows for use in earlier versions of the suite, including Office 2004 11.4 and Office v. X 10.1.9 or later.

Microsoft's Open XML Moves Forward as ISO Standard

Microsoft's Open XML format overcame its final stumbling block and is moving forward as an official ISO standard. The file format had been held back earlier this year by claims that the voting process was rushed and that Microsoft's specification information was incomplete.

Senior Microsoft developer dumps Redmond to embrace open source

Mike Gunderloy spent over a decade consulting for Microsoft, helping to build the Access and Excel versions of Microsoft Office 97 and 2000, as well as SQL Server, C#, and ASP.Net. A series of Microsoft moves, most particularly its "patent land-grab," has pushed Gunderloy away from Microsoft to the point that he's now "100 percent Microsoft-free" and has embraced a variety of open-source projects and programming languages.

Microsoft releases OOXML-to-HTML translator

Microsoft on Monday unveiled projects to improve data portability between Office 2007 and other document file formats, reports a story on Linxworld.Â

Create a maintainable extensible XML format

XML is a communication format for exchanging structured documents and data. Too often, an XML format is chosen arbitrarily and on the fly during development, without much planning or design. Design the right XML format up front, and you can meet the needs of everyone involved in the communication. If you don't, you're in for a long journey of format revisions. Learn how to design a format less likely to require change and agile enough to incorporate new requirements with the simple addition of new extensions instead of full changes.

YAHOO SPURNS JOINT MICROSOFT-ICAHN BID TO REVAMP FIRM, ACQUIRE SEARCH BUSINESS

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Yahoo Inc. said late on Saturday that it rejected a restructuring proposal from Microsoft Corp. and the investor Carl Icahn, and the Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet-services giant called on Microsoft to bid for the whole company. Yahoo said the Microsoft-Icahn plan, which it said would turn Yahoo's search business over to the Redmond, Wash., software giant and the rest over to the New York investor, was presented as a take-it-or-leave it proposition. "This odd and opportunistic alliance of Microsoft and Carl Icahn has anything but the interests of Yahoo's stockholders in mind," Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock said in a statement. Yahoo said that while it rejected the restructuring, it offered two alternatives: "It repeated its offer to sell the entire company to Microsoft for at least" $33 a share, and it "offered to nego

PR Guy Says Bloggers Should Shut Up And Take Press Releases

When we first started Techdirt, one of the things I said clearly on the site was not to send us press releases, as we had no interest in writing about them. Yet, so many PR people clearly chose not to read the site and they send them anyway. They don't read the fact that we don't want press releases -- and in most cases they clearly don't read the site because the press releases obviously are about stuff we never write about. And it just gets worse and worse. These days, my inbox is filled with more press releases than regular email -- and I don't post any of them. You would think that PR people would eventually recognize how inefficient it is to send these press releases -- but since it's so easy to just cc every email address in a press list, they never even think about it.

Microsoft: We must avoid simultaneous PC/Xbox 360 releases

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Microsoft Game Studios Europe Business Development Manager Peter Zetterberg has made some interesting comments about how PC and Xbox 360 games fit into Microsoft's business plan. According to Zetterberg, Microsoft needs to release titles for the Xbox 360 first to avoid cannibalizing sales of its own console:

Microsoft To Put Office Online as Equipt for Consumers

Microsoft will put its Microsoft Office suite online as Microsoft Equipt, joining Windows Live Mail, Messenger, OneCare and Photo Gallery. A one-year subscription for three home computers will cost $69.99. The Microsoft Equipt license bars business use and the Equipt suite does not include Outlook, which is popular among small businesses.

Get N64 Banjo free with Nuts & Bolts

Hot on the heels of the Microsoft's promotion to give away Fable II: Pub Games with pre-orders of Fable II, Microsoft and Rare have announced that gamers who pre-order Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts will get the classic N64 original for free. Best of all, the LIVE Arcade release won't be available to everyone until two weeks after the pre-order bonus release. By pre-ordering gamers will be able to take advantage of Stop N' Swop before anyone else, rewarding players with extra content in the N64 classic by gaining certain accomplishments in Nuts & Bolts.

Microsoft Opens Windows 7 Blog

Microsoft wants a discussion with customers and partners about Windows 7, its next-generation operating system. A new Microsoft Windows blog has been opened, and Microsoft plans two Windows events. Microsoft says it intends to listen to what the world has to say about Windows 7. An analyst said innovative features will also be needed.

Microsoft Says Google Is Years Behind on Privacy - Draws attention as IE8 enters new beta

Microsoft executive Peter Cullen says that Google might have some great products but that they are about ten years behind Microsoft in terms of protecting people’s privacy online. One cited example is the problem that Google has had with Street Views capturing photos of people that they don’t want online, a problem Google has dismissed by saying that anyone could take those same pictures and put them on the Internet. Cullen says that Microsoft has built privacy into its core design and that Google is going to need to do the same thing as it grows. In fact, Microsoft is trying to use its privacy tools against Google; the latest beta version of Internet Explorer 8 has a privacy mode that has the potential to keep even Google from collecting information to use in ad targeting.

Microsoft starts to talk: Engineering Windows 7 blog is live (Updated)

Microsoft has thus far been very tight-lipped on Windows 7; everything that we know about Vista's successor—which is very, very little—has been carefully disclosed to us by Microsoft. The software giant has already been heavily criticized for not having any public channels of communication open. Even Microsoft's own partners have complained that the company isn't telling them much, and they're the ones that really have to know the details so they can align their products accordingly. Anyway, it seems that the stance over at Microsoft is changing, but very slowly: the Engineering Windows 7 blog (E7 for short) is now live.

Microsoft, In Search Of Itself

Tags: PC, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Operating Systems, Software, Tom Steinert-Threlkeld

Microsoft Exec: Still Early in Search

SAN JOSE, CALIF. Speaking before hundreds of search marketing pros, Microsoft's Satya Nadella readily admitted Google is currently the gold standard in the market. Yet, like other Microsoft executives over the past two years, the svp of Microsoft's search, portal and advertising platform group vowed Microsoft would catch up.

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