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Panther's TextEdit to Open MS Word Files

Posted by pudge on from the now-ms-can-freely-dump-office dept.

2muchcoffeeman writes "Further signs that Jobs and Gates probably won't be vacationing together anytime soon: New Damage has what looks to be screenshot proof of Panther's TextEdit.app opening a Microsoft Word .DOC file. Panther beta users who have tried this report at MacSlash that it works, to a point. So what's next? Is Apple now going to bring back the late, great MacWrite Pro?"

9 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Re:PDF by danrees · · Score: 3, Informative

    Because when you use shift-cmd-3 (full-screen) or shift-cmd-4 (area) to take a screengrab, Mac OS X uses PDF for its output.

  2. Re:PDF by djward · · Score: 5, Informative

    PDF is the default screen capture format in Mac OS X (10.2), and I assume in Panther as well.

  3. Freeware app that gives similar functionality by xyrw · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's a link to a freeware app that already enables Cocoa applications to do a similar thing, but with text only: AntiWord Service. It works on Mac OS X 10.1.5 and higher.

  4. Re:PDF by Kvorg · · Score: 5, Informative
    They used pdf because it is the easiest format on the MacOSX, of course. The Quartz layer is running DisplayPDF, a subset of PDF (analogous to the relationship of DisplayPS of the late NeXTStep, and regular PS): that is what gives the smooth and fast look of vector graphics and permits for blazing fast GL-accelerated PDF rendering. It also means PDF is a very basic part of the system (see Quartz reference and Quartz 2D library ("Quartz 2D gives you access to powerful features such as path-based drawing, advanced color management, anti-aliasing, Bézier curves, PDF generation and playback, and transparency"). So PDF is the default MacOS format, these days.

    A good slashdotter would peek in the file and notice this:

    Producer: Mac OS X 10.3 Quartz PDFContext

    It would have been kind of cool if the window would be rendered in vector graphics, in the reality, and directly displayed to PDF. A vector desktop still seems to be a dream, or did I get something wrong?

    --
    -Kvorg
  5. Re:This might work, but then again maybe not... by figleaf · · Score: 4, Informative

    Word/Excel formats didn't change in Office XP.
    Powerpoint formats haven't changed since Office 97

  6. Re:PDF by tyrione · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Quartz Extreme Rendering Engine original Display Postscript for Openstep now takes advantage of Postscript Primitives in PDF, plus direct hardware rendering to the GPU via other custom APIs to produce an advanced UI that renders line by line in real-time, smoothly with anti-aliasing built-in, plus never a loss of window viewing when one is moving them around the desktop.

    I had no idead EPS could manage and update Postscript coordinate points from Global to Local, on the fly?

  7. Re:Apple is stepping up by Jucius+Maximus · · Score: 4, Informative
    "Safari rocks. Of course MS gets scared and stops making IE for Mac."

    Safari was just an excuse. MSFT was planning on discontinuing IE for the mac for a long time now and Apple knew it. MSFT will use a backwards version of the tactic they used to oust netscape from the browser market. They will use their browser monopoly and IE features integrated into Longhorn OS to marginalise the OS market. You'll need Longhorn to access web services (banking, bill payment, etc.) that Microsoft plans to make "essential" and exclusive to windows users. That way they attack Apple and any other OS rivals simultaneously. Damn those MSFT busienss strategists are smart...

    Why? Because it makes sense.

  8. NSText by rohanl · · Score: 5, Informative

    When I read the parent, it occurred to me that this is much more than TextEdit being able to read Word files.

    TextEdit is a very simple program. Apple even supply the full source for it in the developer tools under /Developer/Examples/AppKit/TextEdit

    All the real work is done by standard Cocoa classes NSTextView and NSTextStorage. If TextEdit understands Word files, it means that they have added the support to these standard classes. That means that *ALL* cocoa applications will inherit this functionality.

  9. Re:NSMicrosoftDoc by robbieduncan · · Score: 3, Informative

    I went one better for you. I compiled and ran the version of TextEdit supplied as example code with XCode on Panther. It was able to open a .doc file. I can confirm that it is using NSTextView and NSTextStorage (not custom subclasses) to do this. So it looks like all Cocoa apps using text views will be able to provide basic .doc file handling for free. Very nice :)