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ISO adopts OOXML format as international standard

The ISO has approved Microsoft's OOXML as an international standard.

By Peter Sayer, Paris | Wednesday, 2 April, 2008

The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has adopted an international standard based on Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) document format.

The standard was approved by 86% of all countries voting, and by 75% of those countries participating in JTC1, the joint committee of the ISO and the International Electrotechnical Committee that organised the vote, according to a number of sources. To pass, it required the approval of 75% of all countries voting, and 66% of those countries participating in the committee, known as P-members.

Among the organisations relaying the information were Microsoft and industry standards consortium ECMA International. Microsoft first sent its OOXML document format to ECMA for approval, where it was adopted as standard ECMA-376. ECMA then submitted its standard to the ISO where, after numerous modifications, it has been adopted as ISO standard 29500.

While the ISO has sent the ballot results to the national standards bodies, it does not plan to announce them publicly until Wednesday.

The results were first disclosed in a document sent to the OpenDoc Society mailing list in a posting by a Dutch technical standards committee member, Michiel Leenaars.

Of the 87 countries that voted, 61 approved, 10 disapproved and 16 abstained. Among the P-members, 24 approved, eight disapproved and nine abstained, according to the document.

The full results the document contained are as follows:


CountryStatusVote
ArgentinaAbstention
ArmeniaApproval
AustraliaP-MemberAbstention
AustriaApproval
AzerbaijanP-MemberApproval
BangladeshApproval
BarbadosApproval
BelarusApproval
BelgiumP-MemberAbstention
Bosnia and HerzegovinaApproval
BrazilDisapproval
Bulgaria Approval
CanadaP-MemberDisapproval
Chile Abstention
ChinaP-MemberDisapproval
Colombia Approval
Congo, The Democratic Republic ofApproval
Costa Rica Approval
Côte-d'IvoireP-MemberApproval
Croatia Approval
Cuba Disapproval
CyprusP-MemberApproval
Czech RepublicP-MemberApproval
DenmarkP-MemberApproval
EcuadorP-MemberDisapproval
Egypt Approval
FijiApproval
FinlandP-MemberApproval
FranceP-MemberAbstention
GermanyP-MemberApproval
GhanaApproval
Greece Approval
IndiaP-MemberDisapproval
Iran, Islamic Republic ofP-MemberDisapproval
IrelandP-MemberApproval
Israel Approval
ItalyP-MemberAbstention
JamaicaP-MemberApproval
JapanP-MemberApproval
JordanApproval
KazakhstanP-MemberApproval
KenyaP-MemberAbstention
Korea, Republic ofP-MemberApproval
KuwaitApproval
LebanonP-MemberApproval
Luxembourg Abstention
MalaysiaP-MemberAbstention
MaltaP-MemberApproval
MauritiusApproval
Mexico Approval
Morocco Approval
NetherlandsP-MemberAbstention
New ZealandP-MemberDisapproval
NigeriaApproval
NorwayP-MemberApproval
PakistanP-MemberApproval
PanamaApproval
Peru Approval
Philippines Approval
Poland Approval
Portugal Approval
QatarApproval
Romania Approval
Russian Federation Abstention
Saudi ArabiaP-MemberApproval
Serbia Approval
SingaporeP-MemberApproval
SloveniaP-MemberApproval
South AfricaP-MemberDisapproval
SpainP-MemberAbstention
Sri Lanka Abstention
SwitzerlandP-MemberApproval
Syrian Arab RepublicApproval
Tanzania, United Rep. ofApproval
Thailand Approval
Trinidad and TobagoP-MemberApproval
Tunisia Approval
TurkeyP-MemberAbstention
Ukraine Approval
United Arab EmiratesApproval
United KingdomP-MemberApproval
UruguayP-MemberApproval
USAP-MemberApproval
UzbekistanApproval
VenezuelaP-MemberDisapproval
Viet Nam Abstention
ZimbabweAbstention