DOCX
Office Open XML (OOXML) representation (.DOCX) is the default file format for documents created by Microsoft Word as of Word 2007. The format is based on XML component files in a container based on the ZIP format. It replaced the binary DOC format used in earlier Word versions.
History
This (along with the other Office Open XML document types PPTX and XLSX) was initially standardized as ECMA-376 in 2006. Three versions of ECMA-376 have been produced; the second version corresponds to ISO/IEC 29500:2008, approved as an ISO/IEC standard in April 2008. Changes to the standard between 2008 and 2012 were primarily corrections based on individual defects reported as implementation of the standard proceeded and required to ensure functional interoperability with existing applications. They do not introduce new functionality.
Format
Like the other "Open XML" formats, this file format actually consists of various files (mostly XML) compressed into a ZIP archive, with this fact obscured from the end user by the use of a different file extension.
References
- ECMA-376 specification
- ISO publicly available standards, including the latest ISO/IEC 29500 specification (as of November 2012, this is ISO/IEC 29500:2012)
- Office Open XML : Wikipedia
- How to open new file formats in earlier versions of Microsoft Office
- Forensics Wiki article
- Why it might be time to dump Word
