Microsoft Opens Up Office Formats

Check out this Recent development as Posted at "Pranav ... Blogging":
Opening it all .... Office file formats are under OSP and YESOOXML

I am posting the same here :

Wow ... great one, here are the details

-Mapping documents in the binary format (.doc; .xls; .ppt) to the Open XML format

- Microsoft has officially placed its Office binary file formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt) under the Open Specification Promise (OSP) and make the documentation available for download (http://www.microsoft.com/interop/docs/officebinaryformats.mspx).

- Under the OSP, Microsoft irrevocably promises that it will not assert any Necessary Claims against anyone for making, using, selling, offering for sale, importing or distributing any implementation covered under this promise http://www.microsoft.com/interop/osp

- Microsoft has also sponsored a open source project on SourceForge (http://b2xtranslator.sourceforge.net/) to create software tools, offer guidance, and show how a document written using the Binary Formats can be translated to DIS 29500 (Ecma 376 - Office Open XML). The resulting translators will be available under the open source Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) license.

- Here are a few articles in InfoWorld, Redmond Developer News, ComputerWorld, and BetaNews

Thanks Pranav !