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On 1/1/2011 6:50 PM, Craig A. Eddy wrote:
Barbara,

First, ODF IS the ISO standard - honestly made so without the dirty
tricks that MS used to stuff the committee and force it to approve
something that wasn't ready to be used by anyone.

I recognize that, of course. But like it or not (and I'm definitely in the "not" camp), OOXML can also claim to be a "standard" after the ISO shenanigans.

Second, MS refuses to support any ODF except the one that is actually an
ISO standard.  That makes their version of ODF suspect as to its actual
compatibility.

Exactly. That's why I don't recommend sending OOo/LibO ODF to MS-only shops, the XP formats are more interoperable. And the way MS chose to implement what is actually in the standard seems to have taken advantage of the details that were left unspecified to force incompatibility with existing ODF implementations, even if both adhered strictly to the existing ODF specification.

I don't suggest using the same tactics on MS as it is using on Open
Source Software.  Doing to others as they do to you is NOT a recommended
tactic for honest people or organizations (though it's too often been
used, in my arrogant opinion [There AIN'T no such thing as a humble
opinion]).

Is that what you think it would be to implement the OOXML "Strict" formats? I sure don't see it that way -- we would simply be supporting an ISO standard, however it was arrived at. The fact that we could possibly do it before MS does is not "doing to others as they do to you" IMNSHO. I just think it would be great if LibO became the reference implementation!

By being able to read .doc and .docx formats LO demonstrates it's
willingness to at least reach out to MS and its customers.  Therefore,
LO ends up being the good guy.

Craig
Tyche

Right. That's why I think it's a good move to read them. The issue is about writing the Transitional formats. Do you think we have to do that to claim the moral high ground?

On 01/01/2011 03:29 PM, Barbara Duprey wrote:
On 1/1/2011 11:07 AM, Zaphod Feeblejocks wrote:
Hi Sveinn,

Sure, but how about conservation and readability by future generations
(when there's no more Microsoft knowledge around and nobody knows
anymore how to decrypt all the nuances of.doc + .docx files) ?
Fair point.

But: most users do not care.  Not exporting to Word will make it look
like LibO is faulty.

I have to save in MSO formats to share work with others.  At work, we
have an MSO policy.
While I can use whatever I like on my desktop, I have to save
spreadsheets in MSO formats
because Excel 07 kills ODS formulae.  If I prepare a document as ODT,
the few Word 2003
dies-hards complain I am refusing to inter-operate.  I do still assign
student work to be
submitted as either .doc or .odt and mark students down for using
.docx (they failed to read
the instructions).  They are also marked down for not using proper
spacing and a serif font.

I don't want to see the .docx format spread any further and advocate
using ODT as the
default.  However, not having the option to export as .doc and .docx
will cause users to
wonder if they want to promote LibO.
I don't think anybody is saying LibO should drop .doc export -- just not
try to export to the OOXML "Transitional" formats. In theory, MS will go
to OOXML "Strict" in the 2014 (or whenever) release, and that should by
then be a truly open format, if the comments submitted to the standards
committee are properly worked off. Meanwhile, exporting to the
"Transitional" form for new documents is specifically deprecated in the
ISO standard; doing that really plays into a possible MS strategy to
continue to ignore the "Strict" version forever, maintaining the
proprietary lock-in while claiming to be open.

Several of the comments here suggest a middle road, allowing the save
but with a message clarifying the limitations of the format (and perhaps
recommending use of the XP formats if interoperating with an MS-only
shop; their ODF support is not truly interoperable at a reasonable
level, the older formats come closer). That seems reasonable, at least
for editing documents that are received in these formats -- I'm not
convinced it should be allowed for new work, though. At the least, the
SaveAs dialog should label the format using the word Transitional. It
probably makes sense to start working towards OOXML "Strict" export as
soon as that is a reasonably stationary target, though. Wouldn't it be
great if LibO were the first implementation compliant with the ISO
standard? And if the other FOSS implementations also headed there, we
could beat MS at their own game!

It must be arrogant for them to send you a format you don't support.
Also, if the Win 7 users don't know what format the documents are in,
why does it matter if it's returned to them in a .doc format?
Think you hit the nail on the head, pal.
Those who ignore any notion of a file format, will do it both ways,
always, anyways...

Office on-the-web only saves in docx.  Office 2013/4 will quite
possibly drop .doc export,
just as Word 6/95 export was dropped from Word 2003 - after a failed
attempt to drop it
from 2000.  MS can do this because they are the market leader.  To
fail to offer even
rudimentary docx export would damage LibO's market penetration.

my thoughts anyway!

zf



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