ISO Adopts OOXML as International Standard

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has adopted an international standard based on Microsoft's Office Open XML document format, according to documents circulated by a member of a Dutch national standards committee.

ISO does not intend to announce the ballot results until Wednesday, but sent them to national standards bodies on Monday.

Of the 87 countries taking part, 61 approved the draft standard DIS29500, 10 disapproved and 16 abstained.

There's more work for ISO ahead, as it has yet to decide who will control future development and improvement of the standard.

"It would have been better for the world, probably, if it had gone back to the drawing board and come back as an ISO standard in two years, with all the work done," said Michiel Leenaars, the Dutch standards committee member who circulated the results.