Standards Australia says it needs more time to examine the technical aspects of the proposal following an international meeting in Geneva last month at which more than 1000 issues were tabled.

It had been hoped that the meeting, attended by delegations from 33 countries, would agree on changes needed to make OOXML an ISO standard for documents. However no decision was reached and all parties now have until March 29 to make their position known.

Since the meeting reports have surfaced that the United States is likely to recommend that OOXML be ratified by the ISO (International Organisation for Standards). If this happens, it’s likely that many other delegations will follow a similar path.

The proposed standard, called ISO/IEC DIS 29500, is needed to ensure that documents remain usable even as software applications develop. Many organisations strike problems when older documents cannot be opened or edited by new software. Having a recognised international standard for how XML files are created and treated should overcome this.

In September last year Standards Australia abstained from voting on the same issue because of what it saw as a lack of consensus during the development process.

The approval of the proposed standard is a hugely political affair with considerable opposition from some quarters at anything that might give Microsoft a perceived market advantage.

Many feel Microsoft has been too aggressive in trying to force its standard through the approvals process without allowing sufficient time to address all issues raised by delegates.