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MS Office XML Format Now In TextEdit
computerdude33 writes "Apparently, Apple heard of Microsoft Office changing to XML formats. If you have OS X 10.4.2, you can save documents in TextEdit in Word XML Format. They are saved with a *.xml extension, and are riddled with references to Word. Here is an example of one of these documents."
I don't really see the problem with "bloated" xml, when the files are zipped by default. Instead of smushing your efficiency requirements in with your readability and standardization requirements (and screwing all three), you first handle readability and standardization and then rap it in a standard efficiency layer. The upshot is, not only are the files often *smaller* than the old Word equivalent, but I can also hack through them using a couple of standard perl packages that have come with linux, OS X and cygwin for years.
Where's the downside?
So a simple two word text file has the following 33 XML tags pasted here with the greater and less than signs removed...
.doc format (20,000 bytes).
What is your point? Oh lord, this file is 1200 bytes long, for "just two words of text."
I created the same two-word document and saved it in several text-based formats that preserve the formatting. HTML (2700 bytes), RTF (3600 bytes), PDF (16,600 bytes), and of course, Word
The XML version is smaller than all three, and I dare-say, easier to parse and manipulate with a 3rd party program.
Yeah, if you don't want any formatting information stored with your text, use plain text. But otherwise, XML seems to be as good a format as any of the other markup doc formats commonly used in Office.
Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.