Office 2003 and XML

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Posted by ryuzaki0 on Thursday March 13, 2003 @04:46AM from the just-what-you-expected dept.

zachlipton writes "Internet World is reporting that initial reports from Office 2003 beta testers don't look good for those hoping to share documents with non-MS systems using the XML file format. Gary Edwards, the OpenOffice.org representative for the OASIS XML file-format group is quoted as saying "although it's still early in the review process, it does look as though XP XML has been so seriously crippled as to be useless to anyone but the big content management and collaboration system providers." Apparently, all formatting and presentation information is removed from the XML. Furthermore, Office's new collaboration featres will only work with users who are also running Office 2003 (requiring Windows 2000 or 2003) that are connecting over XP servers." So Microsoft will continue its efforts to lock-in users with proprietary formats, and hopefully the rest of the world will produce an XML standard document format without them.

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At some point..... by i_want_you_to_throw_ · 2003-03-13 04:48 · Score: 5, Insightful

Microsoft will have to learn IBM's lesson about transforming from a company that makes standards, to one that contributes to them.
They still don't get that their attempts to "embrace and extend" the whole damn internet isn't going to work.

The rest of the world WILL produce an XML standard document format without them, thank heavens.
1. Re:At some point..... by ccp · 2003-03-13 05:32 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Why not?
  
  If your clients tell you to bend over, you bend over? You seem to have a very sad life. Grow some spine, explain things to them, and you'll be surprised about how many of them get it.
  
  And, in case you wonder,
  
  I'm not a student.
  I own a business.
  And yes, I'm doing rather well even with principles.
  
  Cheers,
Style Sheets by FattMattP · 2003-03-13 04:50 · Score: 5, Insightful

Apparently, all formatting and presentation information is removed from the XML.
Good. That's the point of XML. Formatting and presentation goes in style sheets.

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Re:Separating Content from Presentation a Good Thi by gorilla · 2003-03-13 05:00 · Score: 5, Insightful

There is a big difference between seperating presentation from content and removing the presentation totally.
Re:Duh. by t0ny · 2003-03-13 05:18 · Score: 5, Insightful

How do you figure this is anti-trust? This is simply a company who has the dominant product protecting their lead. And quite honestly, I dont see anything wrong with that, as long as they confine their practices to their product (ie. they arent making Office the only suite that can run on windows)
Have you ever played a game like Civilization or Alpha Centari? You would be amazed at how much those games make you understand politics. Once you are in the lead, you do anything you can to protect that lead. And why would you expect the real world to be any different?
But this isnt a game, this is business. And since businesses are SUPPOSED to make money, they need to make sure people continue to buy MS Office. And making an office suite that shares documents with all the various third-tier office suites just doesnt do that. Why should my company buy MS Office if the documents it produces are exactly the same as those of FreeBeerOffice? Now, if FBO cannot do things MSO can do, then there is an incentive...

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Re:Separating Content from Presentation a Good Thi by Azghoul · 2003-03-13 06:09 · Score: 5, Insightful

Your use of the tired "Bzzzzt" exclamation at the beginning of your post completely overwhelmed any potential interest in whatever it was that you were trying to say.

Please, next time try to avoid the condescending tone, people might respond more constructively.