Microsoft's Open XML file formats for Office 2007 have been approved by the Ecma International standards body, the company said. The formats will now be submitted to the International Standards Organisation (ISO) for consideration through its fast-track process to become an ISO standard. The move highlights the growing move towards interoperability among document formats.

Recently launched, Office 2007 introduces XML-based file structures as its default format for documents. However, increasing concern within some organisations over future access to documents stored in proprietary file formats prompted Microsoft to announce late in 2005 that it would have Open XML documented as a standard and made available under a royalty-free licence.

"With billions of Microsoft Office documents produced every day, we wanted to do everything we could to encourage the adoption of format standards that enable interoperability and expand the potential for product innovation," said Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft.

Earlier, Novell said it is adding bi-directional translation support for Open XML to the OpenOffice.org productivity suite it ships with Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop and Open Workgroup Suite. Corel, meanwhile, will upgrade its WordPerfect Office suite in 2007 to support both Open XML and the ODF formats of OpenOffice.org. The ODF formats were also published as standards by ISO at the end of November 2006.