Faced with increasing pressure from public bodies worried that storing documents in proprietary formats could lead to future problems Microsoft is submmitting its file formats to a European standards body.

Massachusetts recently cited concerns about its future ability to access documents as a reason to move away from Microsoft products. It is asking all agencies to move to applications supporting OpenDocument standards by 1 January 2007. Earlier this year Massacheutts got a special licensing deal out of Microsoft covering Word and Excel documents - more info here.

Microsoft is "fast-tracking" the application, according to the International Herald Tribune, which may result in the standard being accepted by the ISO next year - before Microsoft's next big Office launch.

The move is supported by several Microsoft pals including Apple, Intel, NextPage and the British Library.

More from Microsoft here and there's a Q&A here.€

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