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That's a really good question about compatibility. Microsoft released their OOXML code some time ago and have been updating it regularly since. It even supports build with mono. Doing a quality port of that should (theoretically) be relatively straightforward, and they have a great reference implementation to test against.

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No sources on this nor am I a developer on any of this, so take with the appropriate truck-load of salt. But, from what I remember from when the OOXML debacle was news, is that the OOXML that Microsoft published in the spec is not the OOXML they use for their format. For obvious, (old?) Microsoft interoperability hindrance reasons.

---Alex

OOXML doesn't exist. There is only the different formats put out by the four versions of MS Office that claim to do a format of that name. None of which are quite the version in any of the specs. You are in a twisty maze of OOXML variants, all somewhat bug-compatible.

(Oh, and they broke DOC in the process too. You know what happens when you save a DOC from a later version of MS Office? OOXML embedded in the DOC. And older MS Office and other programs that read DOC may have problems with it. http://vmiklos.hu/blog/doctok.html#comment-1282339963 )

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