Here at windward we do Reporting with all of the Open XML Office formats. I personally implemented a parser and output engine for the PPTX file format. Since we work both in java and .NET we cant use the Open XML SDK, since that only works with .NET. Therefore I have a good understanding of all of the elements that make up an OOXML document. With this said, the new stuff that the Office team has added into 2010 seems sort of like a cop out, but given the situation I think they have done it in the best way possible. In 2007 there have always been <extLst> extension lists but they were never used, until now in 2010. The other way 2010 is adding content is an <alternateContent> block. The bottom line is that in either of those elements there will be a 2010 version of the OOXML and a 2007< version. The way it is expressed in the OOXML will vary but the basic idea is that if you make a document in 2010 and open it in 2007, it will do its best to make it look like the 2010 version, but any 2010 only formatting will likely not show up 2007. Also if you open a 2010 (xlsx, docx) in 2007 if you make any change anywhere and save it, all of the 2010 formatting will disappear. If you do that same transition but in powerpoint, all the 2010 formatting will remain even if you make changes to the file in 2007. The only way too loose 2010 formatting in powerpoint is if you edit the actual element that contains the hidden 2010 formatting and then save it. One thing the speaker demoed is the application of image effects to a static image. In 2010 it will render this effect on the fly, but it will also render a jpeg of that image so if you go down to 2007 it will still look the same, but you wont be able to change the effects on the fly. It seems like most of the new stuff coming in 2010 has to do with drawingML, which is something that word and excel hardly had in 2007, but powerpoint had a lot of. Chris said at the end of the speech that he would try to find out when the 2010 documentation will be available. Here is Chris Auld's Blog
Here are the documentation links for the 2010 office extensions
DOCX: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd773189.aspx

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