Open XML links for 07-26-2007

We're having TechReady here in Seattle this week, which is a great chance to catch up with colleagues from around the world. It's also a very busy time, with sessions to be delivered and attended, other events that are taking place while everyone's here, and of course a party or two while we're at it. So due to the long hours I won't have time to do much blogging this week, but here are some Open XML items I've come across ...

The Open XML Translator Project has announced some new releases earlier this week. Now you can download early versions of the Excel and PowerPoint translators, and also get an updated version 1.1 of the Word translator.

Stephen McGibbon isn't normally one to let others tell him what to post on his blog, but he made an exception this week when Harley McGrew suggested that he take a break from his "rabid pro-closed format polemic" to comment on a recent meeting in Portugal. That same post includes a link to some interesting comments by Gary Edwards, and some information about document formats supported by Notes 8.

Linux World has more information about Gary Edward's perspective these days in "Game over for OpenDocument?"

Greg Thomas's "Mackerel in the Moonlight" explores how the debate around document formats is being colored by an anti-Microsoft sentiment, and he also offers some thoughts on long-term document storage in ""What is Past is Prologue."

After getting his book done, Wouter Van Vugt has found the time to do several post in the last week, including "Questions on Open XML," "Why I like the Comments, either yes or no," and "Working to a 'Approve with comments'." He also posted a bit about his book, "Open XML Explained" -- I'll have a lot more to say about that after the distribution plans are finalized in the next week or two. If you're doing Open XML development, you're going to want a copy of this book.

Over on the OpenXmlDeveloper web site, Gray Knowlton has posted a whitepaper entitled "Accessibility of Open XML" that has detailed information about how the Open XML formats support various types of accessibility functionality.

Mauricio Ordonez told me about an interesting Spanish-language post on Rodrigo Corral's blog that offers some thoughts on Open XML standardization. And even if you don't speak Spanish, Rodrigo's blog is worth checking out for the thought-provoking pictures he uses on some of the posts.

Speaking of imagery, I noticed this week we're starting to see the use of cartoons in Open XML posts. Have Julien Chable and Stephen McGibbon started a trend?

If so, I need to come up with a cartoon persona for my blog! Maybe some sort of Kojak variation ... hmm, I need to think about this.