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

Þann fös 31.des 2010 01:28, skrifaði Wolf Halton:
> I have to use office2007 at work and I watch hundreds of core users (college
> students) struggle with my formatting requirements for homework assignments.
> Most of these are using the company-supplied computers, with office 2007,
> most of the time.  Word allows reading and writing odf format. It tends to
> mess up fancy document formatting, but the most complicated document
> formatting these users do is adding a page number.
> The IT department set it up, so I don't know if the Plugin took manual
> set-up.
>
> If we could set up docx to save automatically to doc, that might be cool for
> us but don't you think that would just annoy core users of ms office? Most
> core users of any program just want to use it to perform some task. They
> don't care about these format battles.
>
> If we could make a couple of award-winning big-budget movies where format
> license was the pivotal plot device, we might have hope of including the
> core user in the controversy. I am not sure that deliberate exclusion coming
> from the "let's get them before they get us" vibe in this thread is going to
> work how we want.
>
> Once all European governments and half of Aisia go to open formats, maybe we
> just stop accepting ms formats at all.  This is how ms office got their
> crushing grip on general business formatting, isn't it. Before Windows, the
> average university or (US) government core user was using WordPerfect on
> DOS. Over the next 5-10 years we will probably see a sea-change to *nix,
> cloud and open formats, but the focus of LO may have to shift to a SaaS
> delivery model to meet the challenges of that change.  If the documents are
> shared primarily over the network through a browser, it will be very simple
> for those service providers to specify odf if we make the reasons clear
> enough, or if we are the providers of those services.
>
> Wolf Halton

Couple of things here:

I've been working on a fairly big Win/MSO --> LTSP-*buntu/OOo conversion 
in a 1500+ users school environment. So far it's been without major 
hiccups, you only have to repeat and tell each individual that OOo 
really CAN open .docx (provided one saves it first from the webmail 
client to the home directory or any other writable location) and that 
OOo CAN save the resulting file in .doc for further processing at home. 
This is primarily a 'computer literacy' problem and maybe setup of mail 
clients.
While you're at it one can also mention the ODF-plugin for their copy of 
MSO :-)

The main problem has been formulas in MSO-2007. Apparently there are two 
ways of entering formulas; one consists of using MSO Equation Editor 
which apparently renders/saves aproximately correct MathML. The other 
(default) way is direct insertion via MSO Equation, wihch is not even 
readable by MSO-2003 (only as a bitmap). If this could be adressed, many 
institutions/schools would have better time while changing sides.

Apparently some (rare) equations don't transpose correctly to Calc, and 
some exotic .ppt transforms don't translate correctly to Impress. But 
first of all are the macros which give problems. Probably there will 
never be a perfect automatic way for converting those, I see it rather 
as a business opportunity for VBA/macro gurus.

But I think that in a corporate context, a batch program for converting 
.doc and .docx to ODF would get some support and would/could ease the 
conversion. After all those years, there's a pile of .docs sitting on 
most PCs in this world. And having all the files in a same/similar 
format is an issue for many I've heard from.

Just thoughts.

Sveinn í Felli

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