CyberTech Rambler: OOXML’s Cryptic Tag Names Cause Problems

Lost In Translation « CyberTech Rambler

CTR was doing a demo with a customer, attempting to convince her to use an XML format to enable easier processing of her data. Since she had just purchased Microsoft Office 2007, which does not support ODF, he was trying to show her how easy it was to manipulate OOXML data by hand.

His failure was mostly due to his own errors and lack of preparation. (What? You don’t have time to read 6,000 pages to get ready for this? ) He does mention that the cryptic nature of the OOXML tags made his demo even worse than it could have been.

My question: how many times will this be repeated by those who try to deal with it?  Why not go with a simpler and easier-to-implement and easier-to-understand standard, ODF?

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