ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Office Open XML software

Office Open XML (OOXML for short) software is a special kind of computer language that is used by some programs, like Microsoft Office, to create and edit documents. Think of it like the code that makes your favorite video game work, only instead of controlling what happens on a screen, OOXML controls what happens on a word processor or spreadsheet.

So why is OOXML important? Well, it allows different kinds of software to work together better. Before OOXML, if you made a document in one program, it might not look the same when you opened it in another program. That was because each program had its own special code, called a file format, that could only be read by that program. But with OOXML, different programs can read and write the same file format, which means you can create a document in one program and edit it in another without losing any of the formatting or information.

Think of it like speaking the same language. If your friend speaks Spanish and you speak English, it might be hard to understand each other. But if you both learn to speak the same language, you can communicate more easily. OOXML is like a common language that different programs can learn to speak, so they can work together better.

So that's what OOXML is and why it's important. Hopefully that makes sense to you now, even if you're only five years old!