Open Office.org XML

Open Office.org XML

OpenOffice.org XML is an open XML-based file format developed as an open community effort by Sun Microsystems and other OpenOffice.org project contributors in 2000-2002. The open-source software application suite OpenOffice.org 1.x and StarOffice 6 used the format as their native and default file format for saving files. In 2005, the OpenOffice.org (since version 2.0) and StarOffice (since version 8) have switched to a new standardized file format - OpenDocument, as their native and default format. The OpenOffice.org XML format is no longer widely used, but it is still supported in recent versions of OpenOffice.org, StarOffice and other software.

OpenDocument format (ISO/IEC 26300:2006) is based on OpenOffice.org XML and these formats are very similar in many technical areas. However, OpenDocument is not the same as the older OpenOffice.org XML format and these formats are not directly compatible.

StarOffice developers and later OpenOffice.org project members adopted XML to replace the old binary StarOffice file format. The goal was to have a complete specification encompassing all StarOffice (later OpenOffice.org) components, and to provide an open standard for office documents. The draft version of OpenOffice.org XML specification was also known as StarOffice XML File Format.