Re: [tdf-discuss] Do not support writing to OOXML format

FYI for those that aren't aware. Microsoft office 2010 supports ODF 
format for opening and saving documents now.

On 12/31/10 1:12 AM, BRM wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----
>
> > From: Barbara Duprey<Barb@onr.com>
> > <snip>
> > > We need to force MS to support ODF - as others have  pointed out ODF is
> > quickly
> > > becoming the world standard at least at the  government level - which means
> > in a
> > > few years most organizations that  support governments will need to support
> > ODF
> > > too, and a few years after  that organizations that support those
> > organizations,
> > > and so forth. MS  has lost the file format battle to ODF - it's just time
> > before
> > > OOXML  (especially) and their legacy formats are gone.
> > Unfortunately, MS now  claims that it *does* support ODF, reading and writing
> > files with the ODF  extensions. But users attempting interoperability will soon
> > discover that the MS  implementation is not really compatible with other ODF
> > implementations (most  notably in spreadsheet formulas, but not just that). I
> > think the MS plan here is  to say that *they've* got the true standard
> > implementation and everybody else is  wrong. Since that (basically proprietary)
> > version of ODF is now distributed as  part of MS Office, it's just about
> > everywhere, so they have the numbers on their  side. That seems to leave
> > everybody else once again playing "catch-up" with MS,  which can then simply do
> > as it pleases with the standard, being the 600-pound  gorilla in the room.
> > Interoperability issues will than be charged against the  non-MS implementation,
> > making it "safer" for organizations to stay with MS. Am I  being unduly
> > pessimistic here?
> True, they do have a plug-in available to support ODF, but (last I checked) it
> is not part of the default install - you must install it separately, and it only
> supports Office 2007 and later, while they pushed OOXML support out to Office
> 2003 and possibly earlier versions too.
>
> However, they do not (again at least last I checked) let you save it via the
> normal means, e.g. Save/Save As dialog, and you cannot make it the default.
> They also follow only the 1.0 or may be the 1.1 version that made it through ISO
> refusing to do anything that is not in the ISO version, and then doing it in a
> rather broken manner.
>
> However, they are not the 600-pound gorilla in the ODF market given the dozens
> of implementations that more or less agree on how most things should be done.
>
> For instance, unlike all other implementations (again last I checked) MS wrote
> the value of the cell to the normal location for an ODS spreadsheet while
> writing the formula to a MS Office specific namespace - whereas everyone else
> write the formula to the cell location and not application specific namespaces.
> Effectively making MS Office ODF files non-interoperable with everyone else. I
> think they may also drop all other application specific data too; or may be they
> were kind enough to leave that intact, don't remember on that front. Conversely,
> I think there is likely enough interoperable software out there that it can be
> easily pointed out that MS has the broken implementation in such cases.
>
> Ben


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