Happy News for Open XML Developers

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Many of you may have already heard that Office Open XML was approved as an ISO standard! This is great news for all of us who have been developing solutions using Open XML. You can find all the details in Brian's blog. Also, Doug Mahugh provides great pointers to other bloggers that talk about this.

Getting Started with Open XML Development

For those of you who are interested in creating solutions using Open XML, you should know that we have plenty of articles, videos, and code samples available on MSDN that can help you get started. If I knew nothing about Open XML today, here's the top ten list of resources I would start with:

  1. Article: Introducing the Office (2007) Open XML File Formats
  2. Book: Open XML Markup Explained
  3. Training: Open XML Developer Workshop
  4. Article: Walkthrough: Word 2007 XML Format
  5. Poster: Open XML Developer Map
  6. Tool: Package Explorer
  7. SDK: Open XML Format SDK
  8. Article: Manipulating Word 2007 Files with the Open XML Object Model (Part 1 of 3)
  9. Article: Manipulating Excel 2007 and PowerPoint 2007 Files with the Open XML Object Model (Part 1 of 2)
  10. Article: Building Server-Side Document Generation Solutions Using the Open XML Object Model (Part 1 of 2)

You can find additional resources here:

Also, Joanna Bichsel and Doug Mahugh have compiled great lists of tips, resources, and pointers to Open XML developer documentation. You should check out their blogs!

Coming Soon - Open XML Format SDK: April CTP

Just as we speak, the Office Developer Documentation group (aka MSDN Office group) is busy building a new CTP for the Open XML Format SDK. While I was at the Office Developer Conference this year, many people asked about the future of this SDK and wanted to know if we were to release a Go Live license soon. The answer is yes! Based on customer feedback, the product team improved the June CTP version of the Open XML API. This release also includes support for cool C# 3.0 and VB.NET 9.0 features, such as LINQ Annotations. Watch Zeyad's and Eric's interview for more details.

So this month, not only we got the happy news that the Office Open XML was approved as an ISO standard, developers will also get a new release of the Open XML Format SDK. As soon as we publish the new SDK, I'll be blogging about what's new with the SDK and I'll be sharing more code samples so you can play with this new release.

Last but not least, for those of you who are eager to get started with Open XML, here's a cool video where Brian Jones shows how to build Word 2007 document using the Office Open XML Formats.

Happy times!