Microsoft said allegations that it improperly influenced the vote on a new standard for digital document creation are unfounded and arise mostly from individuals and companies unhappy with the vote's result.

"People who didn't like the outcome are attacking the outcome," said Tom Robertson, Microsoft's general manager for interoperability and standards, in an interview Friday.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) said Wednesday that its members voted to approve as an open standard a new document format called Office Open XML that's derived from Microsoft Office 2007.

The result sparked an outcry from critics who claim Microsoft stuffed local voting committees with individuals supportive of OOXML.

For instance, the chairman of a Norwegian committee tasked with studying the format last week filed a protest against his country's decision to vote yes on OOXML.

Steve Pepper said 80% of his committee members felt that Norway should vote against OOXML, yet the country's national standards body overrode his group's recommendations. A copy of Pepper's letter has been posted on a Web site maintained by a Norwegian blogger.

Questions have also been raised about the voting process in Germany, Croatia and several other countries.

Robertson dismissed complaints about OOXML's ratification as sour grapes from anti-Microsoft critics. "The overwhelming majority supported ratification [of OOXML]," said Robertson. He noted that 61 countries, including the U.S., the UK, Germany, and Japan, voted to ratify the format as an ISO standard.

Norway's national standards body also denied any improprieties in its decision to vote for OOXML. In a statement, Standard Norge said criticism over the decision "was not unexpected." The group said it "also expected criticism" had it chosen to vote against OOXML.

The ISO said 75% of its member nations voted to approve OOXML as a standard. 14% voted against the format while the rest abstained, the ISO said.

Microsoft officials maintain that OOXML's ratification makes it easier for developers and end users to work with the format and documents created with it. "It's going to be one of the most popular, if not the most popular, data formats in use in years to come," said Robertson.

OOXML competes in the document marketplace with the Open Document Format, which previously won ISO approval. ODF is used in open source office productivity suites such as OpenOffice.org and IBM's Lotus Symphony package.

The ISO said that it will formally publish OOXML as a standard within two months, "Subject to there being no formal appeals from ISO/IEC national bodies."

The stakes are high. OOXML as approved by the ISO is closely related to the default format for Microsoft Office 2007 applications, including Word, PowerPoint and Excel. The ISO's imprimatur on OOXML could open the door to lucrative government, non-profit and educational markets for the package.

Critics have argued that Microsoft has failed to publish sufficient documentation about OOXML for it to be considered a truly open standard.

ISO member nations last year rejected Microsoft's initial request for OOXML approval. National bodies last week wrapped up voting on the company's follow-up request.