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> The use of a ZIP archive to encapsulate XML files plus resources is an elegant approach to an application file format. It is clearly superior to a custom binary file format.

Why would it be superior? The biggest advantage I can think of is code reuse, but what else?

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Interoperability? If it's in a zip and in a human readable format even without the necessary application you can still dig into data. But it also helps when writing a new application as it only has to understand zip and xml, something virtually everything can handle.

As much as I hate xml this seems like a decent use for it.

Because the author ends up duplicating features of the zip format. Think of all the stuff that goes along with a ppt slide. Fonts, images, videos, sounds. You want to embed the original files anyway, because storing the content in your own custom format is pointless extra work. think how complicated a video file format is. It's a good fit for a file archive.

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