1 2 (3) 4 5 (6) (7)
ORG/INS1 
Clause No./ 
Subclause No./ 
Annex 
(e.g. 3.1)
Paragraph/ 
Figure/Table/Note 
(e.g. Table 1)
Type of com-ment2 Comment (justification for change) Proposed change Secretariat observations 
on each comment submitted

GH 8.3   ge
  1. OOXML will enable backward compatibility with volumes of archived documents
  2. The extensive nature of the proposed standard will accommodate a wide range of languages and cultures
  3. Governments and businesses will both benefit from the standard itself, as well as from the range of new products that implement the standard.
  4. Many Standards can co-exist
Incorporate technical issues raised by other stakeholders so as to enrich the standard.  
GH Section

3.17.4.1

Pg. 2522 te The restriction to only two date bases limits the range of serial dates starting from 01-01-1900, limiting the representation of historical dates. Allow a range of other declared date bases or allow explicitly negative date serial values to express dates prior to 1900.  
  2.15.3.6  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
te the autoSpaceLikeWord95 attribute refers to a behaviour present in MS Word 95 but not defined in the specification. Therefore it is impossible for a full  independent implementation to be made. Whether or not it is an optional attribute, it should be specified. The attribute must be defined or removed from the specification  
  2.15.3.26   te the footnoteLayoutLikeWW8 attribute is also unspecified the attribute must be defined or removed from the specification  
  2.15.3.31   te The lineWrapLikeWord6 attribute is also unspecified the attribute must be defined or removed from the specification  
  2.15.3.41   te The shapeLayoutLikeWW8 attribute is also unspecified the attribute must be defined or removed from the specification  
  2.8.2.16   te This section refers to the use of bitmasking in OOXML. Bitmasking is a programming technique employed in C and C++ to save space by encoding options in the binary representation of a number. Standard XML tools are unable to read them, making translation difficult. Plus XML provides better ways to do this Bitmasks should be replaced with a better means of representing those options which is readable by standard XML tools  
  Part4

Section 3.3.1.69

  te The hash algorithm used is neither secured nor is standardized. There is no evidence the said hash algorithm has been peer reviewed by security experts. It is better if SHA-256 is used as default algorithm which is secured, and more standardized. Use SHA-256 as a default hash algorithm for this clause(def: ISO/IEC 10118-3:2004)  
  Part4

Section

2.15.1.28

  te This description for this algorithm fails to specify the encoding of the input password. The fact the algorithm use a byte level manipulation makes it machine dependent. It is therefore important to make explicitly byte ordering assumptions made. Make byte ordering assumptions explicit both for the input password and the processing steps. This will allow cross-platform interoperability.  
  Part4

Section

2.15.2.32

  te The definition of this feature ignores other major browsers current use. This definition supports Internet Explorer and Netscape. How about Firefox, Opera? The portion that states that “all settings which are not compatible with the target web browser shall be disabled” makes production of standard-complaint output limited. The entire subclause on  optimizeForBrowser should be redone to reflect vendor-neutral ability of the standard.  
  Part 4, Section 2.15.3.6   te This is the "useWord2002TableStyleRules" element defined as, "This element specifies that applications shall emulate the behavior of a previously existing word processing application (Microsoft Word 2002) when determining the formatting resulting from table styles applied to tables within a WordprocessingML document." 
 
No further definition is of the expected behavior is given was given in the specification.
Define the intended behaviour. 
This is important for vendors who might be interested in having a full implementation of the standard.
 
             
      te Lack of support for RFC-3987. That means they do not allow Arabic characters in web addresses. Since Ghana is about a fifth Muslim, a decent portion of our population can be assumed to be at least basically literate in Arabic. This is therefore a problem OOXML should include support for RFC-3987  

ORG/INS = Organisation or Institution

2 Type of comment: ge = general te = technical  ed = editorial

NOTE Columns 1, 2, 4, 5 are compulsory.

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