The vote, slated for Sept. 2, is one of the last phases of nearly five months of work by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) on a proposal to standardize Ecma-376 Office Open XML (ooXML). The specification is derived from Microsoft's Office Open XML, which is the default file format in Office 2007.

Ecma deemed Office Open XML a standard in December, and the ISO has been working on a fast-track proposal to consider doing the same. The issue has polarized the industry with detractors questioning Microsoft's true intentions.

The ISO has already approved the OpenDocument Format (ODF) as a standard, giving it credibility among organizations that prefer standards-based technology, and Microsoft is gunning to land the same designation for the specification it presented to Ecma.

Critics say with all the politicking going on from both sides that handicapping the Sept. 2 outcome is near impossible.

On Thursday, Microsoft admitted that an employee at its Swedish subsidiary offered monetary compensation to partners for voting in favor of Sweden supporting ooXML during the Sept. 2 vote.

But rather than resolving the issue once and for all, the vote will raise technical and other questions about the specification that the ISO, Microsoft and Ecma may have to answer at a special weeklong meeting slated for early 2008.

The Sept. 2 vote will be among the 140 ISO member countries, and it is from that process that questions will arise regarding technical and other aspects of ooXML, also known as DIS 29500 at the ISO.

Those questions will come from member countries that vote "no with comments." The subcommittees that work under the Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC1), which is responsible for information technology standardization at ISO, are not required to consider comments from countries that vote "yes with comments."

Microsoft has been encouraging skeptical countries to cast such votes and promising that their questions will be answered even though the formal process does not require those answers.

It is unknown how many countries will vote "no with comments," but Brazil for one has already said its "no" vote includes 62 comments. India and China also have said they will vote no with comments.

If the comments warrant the ISO's special Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM), it will be held Feb. 25-29, 2008, in Geneva, but there is no guarantee that it will be needed. And if it is, it could run much longer than a week depending on the number of comments.