# The history of the standardisation process of the proprietary OOXML format

DevFeed: [The history of the standardisation process of the proprietary OOXML format](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-history-of-the-standardisation-process-of-the-proprietary-ooxml-format-97510.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/10/23/the-history-of-ooxml-format/>)

Author: Italo Vignoli

Published: 2026-10-23T10:17:31Z

Content type: news

Language: en

Sources: [TDF Community](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/tdf-community-blog.md>)

Topics: [Software Process](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/software-process.md>), [vendor lock-in](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/vendor-lock-in.md>)

Tags: [format](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/format.md>), [history](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/history.md>), [iso](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/iso.md>), [open](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/open.md>), [process](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/process.md>), [standard](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/standard.md>), [standards](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/standards.md>)

## AI overview

The article argues that ISO/IEC 29500's approval was shaped by a flawed fast-track review of a 6,000-page specification, disputed national committee changes and an impractical amendment review at the 2008 Geneva meeting. It recounts technical objections, appeals and the narrow approval, then says Microsoft Office 2010 implemented the Transitional variant rather than the approved Strict variant; the article identifies Transitional as the variant used by Office, Microsoft 365 and several clones. It concludes that large firms' resources can dominate standards work and calls for broad stakeholder participation, rules limiting single-company influence, and serious commitments to transparency, reuse and interoperability.

## Source excerpt

All the posts we have dedicated to the OOXML format - and many of those we will dedicate to it in future - analyse the reasons why it is a proprietary format despite having been approved by ISO as a standard, open format. However, they do not address the reasons