Online Standards Development

What is it?

🥜 In a nutshell

The Online Standards Development (OSD) platform (formerly known as Online Collaborative Authoring/OCA) is a Word-like tool based on a product called FontoXML that technical bodies can use to draft their project deliverables. It will then flow through to following steps of the production chain.

❤ Benefits

The platform has many advantages for authors compared to traditional tools like Word, such as:

Features

• Normative referencing
• Guided structure, automatic numbering and quality checks according to the Internal Regulations
• Concurrent editing with clause locking & unlocking
• Tagging & filtering comments
• And many more...

Structure & quality

Because of the structure, it improves quality, and that makes life easier for everyone: experts, TC secretaries, the CCMC editing team and standards users.

Transparency & inclusivity

The access roles make it easier for working group leadership to accept and manage input from a large number of people. This means everyone on the team can see what's happening at all times and can easily make their voice heard.

Safety in the cloud

Working groups no longer need to save offline copies of documents, work on them separately, email them to each other, and struggle with merging changes. Now, all changes are made securely online, with features for locking and unlocking clauses so nobody overwrites anyone else's work, and nothing gets misplaced.

 

 

 

Access roles

Full Permissions Guide available 

The working group leadership team can choose who has which role depending on the team's preferred way of working, and this can be changed at anytime. The available roles are:

Direct roles – for people that are part of the drafting body assigned
As a … in the drafting body* assigned to the project (direct roles)		WG Drafting Bodies •Convenor •Convenor/Sec support team •Twinned convenor •WG Secretary TC/SC Drafting Bodies •Secretary •Twinned Secretary •Secretary support team •Chairperson •Chairperson support team	All OSD Contributors can be manually upgraded to OSD Author by OSD Leader (cf OSD roles below)	WG Drafting Bodies •Committee Member   TC/SC Drafting Bodies •Committee Member •Commenter	WG Drafting Bodies •Liaison representative •Document monitor •Technical programme manager TC/SC Drafting Bodies •Vice Chairperson •Liaison Representative •Committee Observer •Document monitor •Technical programme manager •CEN Consultant •Sector rapporteur
I will have this role in OSD …		Leader	Author	Commenter	Reader
I will be able to …	View content	✔	✔	✔	✔
	Add content	✔	✔
	Accept/reject tracked changes	✔
	Unlock own clauses	✔	✔
	Unlock others' clauses	✔
	Add/delete/move clauses	✔	✔
	Add/delete own comments	✔	✔	✔
	Reply to others' comments	✔	✔	✔
	Resolve comments	✔
	Export	✔		✔
	Manage author, contributor & reader roles	✔

 

 

Indirect roles – for people in the parent TC of the drafting body assigned ; or other structure within the same TC
As a … in the Parent TC or another structure of the same TC (indirect roles)		•Secretary of any structure within the same TC as the WG •Secretary Support Team of any structure within the same TC as the WG •Twinned Secretary of any structure within the same TC as the WG •Chairperson of any structure within the same TC as the WG •Vice- Chairperson of any structure within the same TC as the WG •Chairperson Support Team of any structure within the same TC as the WG
I will have this role in OSD …		Reader
I will be able to …	View content	✔
	Add content
	Accept/reject tracked changes
	Unlock own clauses
	Unlock others' clauses
	Add/delete/move clauses
	Add/delete own comments
	Reply to others' comments
	Resolve comments
	Export
	Manage author, contributor & reader roles

 

Get Started

💬 Training - Info sessions

Please see the list of upcoming sessions.

Any questions ? Contact production@cencenelec.eu

📢 Call for projects - Drafting stage

Is your project:

• A CEN EN, TR, TS?
• New or a revision (not an amendment or corrigendum)?
• Homegrown (not under the Vienna Agreement)?
• Not an Harmonized standard
• Preferably in stage 00.60 or 10.99?
• Ready for drafting to start?

If your project ticks these boxes, join the digital transformation! Fill-in this evaluation form to start drafting in the OSD tool.

 

If your project doesn't tick the boxes (e.g. CENELEC projects, amendments), then don't worry - we're working on getting the tool ready for you to use in the future. Please register for an info session or get in touch to learn more.

 

Please note that we are keeping number of projects at low volume as manual work is required. We keep the possibility to accept or not request.

🔨 Sandbox access

Want to try it out but not ready to sign up as a project yet? Request sandbox access.

Support 

Already on board ? If you need help :

- How to use the tool: Check out the knowledge base

- How to manage an OSD project specificities (Doc creation, submission, figures, etc.): Check out our CEN User guides 

- For IT issues (server down, outages, bugs, etc.) at helpdeskcentc@iso.org.

- For Business issues (processes, tool features, etc.) at production@cencenelec.eu

 

 Spread the word - Communication materials

• Slide deck: Introduce OSD project 

  Technical Committee secretaries and others are encouraged to use this short Digital Transformation slide deck to present to their groups. The "notes" on each slide will help guide you when presenting.

 

• Videos: Demo OSD tool

ISO has created a Youtube Channel with short videos demonstrating OSD features. 

 

 

 

 

💬 Info sessions 

• CEN Authoring (drafting stage):

Agenda: Project overview and timeline, Tool demo (Authoring and workgroup commenting only) and Q&A

Target audience: Existing or prospective projects (TCs members), other interested people

Date & time	Registration link
Wednesday 2026-01-15 10 to 11 am CET	Register
Monday 2026-02-25 2 to 3 Pm CET	Register
Slides Recording

• CEN Member commenting (Enquiry and Formal Vote stages):

Agenda: Tool demo and Q&A

Target audience: CEN Voters and their support team, CEN Centralized Voters, CEN National secretaries and their support team.

Date & time	Registration link
Thursday 2025-11-20 10 to 11 am CET	Register
Wednesday 2025-12-17 3 to 4 pm CET	Register
Recording and slides

🔔 Status update

Last updated: 2025-09-09

CEN DELIVERABLES

	Phase 1 - Authoring & Editing  (00.60 to 40.10)	Phase 2 - Member Commenting  (40.20 to 50.10)	Phase 3 - End to End process (50.20 to 60.60)
CEN Homegrown Standards EN, TR,TS (hEns excl)	Already available  215 projects opened since project start 146 still active in drafting stages	Already available 13 projects active in Enquiry stage or Enquiry comments resolution stage	Already available 3 projects in Formal Vote stage
CEN Harmonized Standards hENs	2026

CENELEC deliverables

Timeline to be confirmed - dependency with IEC

ISO & IEC collaboration

The project is being led by ISO & IEC, and we are making sure that CEN and CENELEC requirements are incorporated (eg: EU Directives Annexes ZZ and ZA). You can also take a look at the counterpart ISO project page and IEC project page.

 

❓ Frequently Asked Questions