The document format battle continues. ECMA International Tuesday said that the Office Open XML document format has been ratified by the ISO even though that standards body won't release official results until Wednesday.

The ECMA press release did not attribute the information to any source, but a follow-on release from Microsoft cited "documents available on the Internet," to conclude that OOXML, known as DIS 29500 at the ISO, received overwhelming support.

The ISO Web site still lists DIS 29500 as "under development." The group plans to release its official results tomorrow.

German and Norway have already confirmed their votes for approval, and the Web site OpenMalaysia, which is a supporter of OOXML-rival the OpenDocument Format (ODF), posted what it claims are the final results of the ISO voting.

ECMA, which approved OOXML in December 2006 as ECMA-376 Office Open XML, said in a press release that included quotes from Dr. Istvan Sebestyen, the standard body's secretary general, that DIS 29500 garnered 75% positive votes cast by the national bodies participating in the International Standardization Organization (ISO)/International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) JTC 1 vote. The release said only 14% of the votes were "negative." ISO approval requires at least 66.7% positive votes and no more than 25% negative votes.

E-mails sent to Dr. Sebestyen were answered with an automated out-of-office reply.

ECMA already has standardized OOXML and was the organization that recommended the format for ISO fast-track standardization.

OOXML failed to get approval in September during the first official ISO vote on ratification, but ISO rules call for a follow-up vote called a Ballot Resolution Meeting, which took place in February amid some controversy.  

Wednesday's official announcement from the ISO will conclude a long and contentious battle between supporters of OOXML and those that favor ODF. The ISO has approved ODF as a standard, giving it credibility among organizations that prefer standards-based technology. Microsoft is looking to land the same designation for its specification.

OOXML, as it was developed by Microsoft, is the default file format in Office 2007. The company, however, would have to add the ISO-approved DIS 29500 version in some later version to claim the software is standards compliant.

Tom Robertson, Microsoft's general manager of interoperability and standards, says the company will have to take a close look at the final specification before it can set a timetable to implement DIS 29500.

"We will look at this and get a communication out to the community," he says."We are absolutely committed to getting DIS 29500 implemented in our products."

Robertson also says the ISO ratification proves the standards process works despite criticism that Microsoft used politics and other means to influence other countries.

"Each national body has its own processes for determining what its position will be and we believe those processes were followed," Robertson says."The process has worked. We have seen improvement in the specification and because of that improvement there is wide spread support for ratification."

Robertson says the ISO early this morning communicated the results to the national bodies participating in the ISO vote, and that after reports of those results leaked that it obtained approval from the ISO to talk about the outcome.

Earlier in the day, reports surfaced attributed to the Dutch national standards committee that said the ISO had ratified DIS 29500. Michiel Leenaars, a Dutch standards committee member, says of the 87 countries taking part, 61 approved the draft standard DIS29500, 10 disapproved and 16 abstained.

Microsoft in its press release said 86% of all national body members supported ratification of DIS 29500.