Robinson said that OOXML is heavily tied to Microsoft Office applications for Windows to the detriment of interoperability and portability.

"For example, Clipboard only supports Microsoft formats such as EMF and WMF. Support for Internet Explorer is there but not for Firefox, Opera or Safari."

He also said the format lacked cultural and linguistic adaptability.

"One of the main examples is the definition of a 'weekend' that would be incorrect in most parts of the middle east where you can have a weekend on Friday and Saturday, or even Thursday and Friday. So OOXML we believe should not be approved in its current form."

Robinson suggested that OOXML be resubmitted as a normal working item in JTC1 SC34, split into multiple standards, and have each part progress independently within the normal ISO processing stages.

"OOXML as a default in MS Office is important, but as a standard it is full of inconsistencies, omissions, inaccuracies, and errors. No standard is perfect, but OOXML in its current state does not even meet the minimum requirements for an ISO standard," he concluded.

Matthew Cruickshank, a developer of open source conversion software and part of the working group for New Zealand's E-government Web Guidelines, raised concerns on the necessity of basic accessibility features within OOXML.

His technical paper on this issue can be found here. He also co-authored the paper Can Other Vendors Implement Microsoft's Office Open XML?.