The days of being unable to swap a document created in one
program into another are numbered. China is promoting a new
document standard in which software everywhere will possess all the
general functions of unstructured documents.
The China Electronics Standardization Association established a
"docbase technical standardization working commission" on
Wednesday.
An official with commission said many electronic documents
cannot be exchanged because they are processed with different
software which are monopolized by large companies.
Han Jun, an official with the Ministry of Information Industry
said there was no "docbase technical standardization" in
international systems. China has proposed the motion for the first
time in the world.
He said docbase technology plays a vital role in the software
industry. Technical standardization should help promote innovation
in the country's software industry.
The aim of the docbase technical standardization process is to
provide users with all the general functions of an unstructured
document, including page description, RIP, font management,
information retrieval, storage, information security, document
organization, query and search etc. The software can also realize
document exchanges between different software applications.
Documents created in certain programs can be further edited using
other software.
(Xinhua News Agency April 5, 2007)