What Ooxml Transitional Tells Us About Format Sovereignty
4 hours ago
- #Digital Sovereignty
- #Open Standards
- #OOXML
- OOXML (ISO/IEC 29500) is split into two conformance classes: Strict (clean, modern) and Transitional (messy, legacy-heavy).
- Microsoft Office defaults to producing Transitional OOXML, not Strict, even in browser-based versions, making the messy variant the de facto 'standard'.
- Transitional OOXML codifies undocumented legacy behaviors and bugs from 1990s Microsoft Office versions, requiring reverse-engineering.
- The standard perpetuates known bugs like Excel treating 1900 as a leap year due to Lotus 1-2-3 compatibility.
- It includes obsolete graphics formats like VML alongside modern ones, forcing implementers to support both.
- This structure undermines long-term archival safety, procurement interoperability, and digital sovereignty for public administrations.
- OpenDocument Format (ODF, ISO/IEC 26300) offers an alternative as a truly implementer-neutral, complete, and open standard.