What Is XML?

One of the industry buzzwords used and often overused in the past few years is XML . Microsoft provides more XML integration into Microsoft Office 2003 than ever before. Microsoft provided very light support for XML in Office XP, although the implementation was so light that many chose to wait until Microsoft integrated XML more closely into Office.

One of the first places to use XML is to begin converting data files to an XML-based set of data. Microsoft Word 2003, Excel 2003, and Access 2003 recognize the XML format and enable you to save documents in the XML format if your application calls for it.

The entire XML concept is cloudy for many people. If you want to take a few moments to understand XML better, you can then determine, along with the computer-support staff at your business, whether XML and Office make a good fit for your applications yet. The rest of this appendix gives you a fast-paced but thoroughly introductory lesson on XML.