Office 2010 Document: TIFF Format Guidance

Following the release of Office 2010 Beta Build 14.0.4536.1000 in mid-November 2009, Microsoft has updated the documentation designed to offer guidance on customs tads associated with TIFF files that components of the productivity suite can produce. The Redmond company is offering for download the Office Document: TIFF Format Guidance, and although it mentions only Office 2007, Office 2003 and Office XP as the only versions of its Office System targeted by the documentation, the resource is also set up to provide information for Office 2010.

According to software giant, the Microsoft Office Document Imaging (MODI) software is capable of introducing custom tags into the Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) files it generates. Via the documentation offered through the Microsoft Download Center, customers will be able to access not only guidance but also a code sample, both describing the relation between MODI, TIFF files and custom tags.

“The Microsoft Office Document Image Writer printer driver which is part of the MODI software can also be set to produce TIFF files as output. According to the TIFF specification, TIFF files may contain “private tags” which include addition information specific to a particular application’s use of the format,” Microsoft revealed.

The Redmond company notes that there are a total of three custom tags that may be written into TIFF files by MODI, namely Tag 37679, Tag 37681 and Tag 37680. Customers will be able to find comprehensive details on all the tags mentioned above in the documents available from Microsoft.

“The easiest way to understand the properties that MODI can store in tag 37680 and how to read the properties is to examine the provided sample source code. The sample code makes use of Microsoft Windows APIs to extract the data from the file into memory and map a PropertySet object interface onto it. Developers who want to read this OLE property set storage on platforms other than Windows can use the previously mentioned specifications to write their own APIs that perform equivalent functions,” the company explained.

Office 2010 Beta 14.0.4536.1000 is available for download here.