Microsoft has been accused of publishing "incomplete" specifications for its Office file format binaries.

The Word, Excel and PowerPoint file format specifications, which were previously only available from Microsoft by request, were published on Friday, together with details of an open-source Office binary-to-Office Open XML (OOXML) translator project.

The binaries were published in response to concerns among national bodies voting whether or not to ratify OOXML as an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard, according to Microsoft Office program manager Brian Jones. The national bodies were concerned that third-party developers may have had difficulties converting Office binary formats to OOXML, referred to in the ISO ratification process as "DIS 29500".

"To make it even easier for third-party conversion of binary format to DIS 29500, Microsoft agreed to... make it even easier to get access to the binary formats documentation by posting it and making it available for a direct download on the Microsoft Web site no later than 15 February, 2008," Jones wrote in his blog on Friday.

However, the file format specifications were criticised as being incomplete by third-party OOXML developer Stephane Rodriguez.

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