What: Microsoft positions Word 2003 as an XML platform

When: July 2003

FUDFactor: Word 2003 will put your company on the fast track to content automation nirvana.

FUDBust: With all editions of Office 2003, you'll be able to throw around WordML forms from day one. But do you really want a word processor to act as a data input interface? Remember what it was like to program WordPerfect macros and debug Mail Merge miscues through Reveal Codes?

To create portable Word-based XML forms, you'll have to invest heavily in XSLT (eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation) development work, or you'll find your users exchanging documents as readable as RTF source.

For those committed to Microsoft technologies, forget Word and instead investigate InfoPath 2003 (formerly XDocs). Capable of generating and interpreting various schemas, InfoPath will at least generate a portable presentation of your XML data via XHTML and CSS.

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