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Microsoft to Support ODF via Plug-In
Apache4857 writes "It appears that Microsoft has finally caved. BetaNews is reporting that Microsoft is sponsoring an open source project to enable conversion between Open XML in Office 2007 and OpenDocument formats. The project, hosted on Sourceforge.net, made its initial release today. The Word 2007 conversion utility is expected to ship ship by the end of 2006, and similarly conversion utilities for Excel and PowerPoint are expected early next year." See the announcement in Brian Jones' blog (Jones is the Microsoft program manager responsible for Office file formats).
The correct url is http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2006/07/ 05/657510.aspx the link in the summary was missing the trailing x.
Now governments can mandate all documents be in ODF format without being accused of abandoning their disabled constituency, and Microsoft will have to compete on its features and performance rather than vendor lock-in.
That's not the responsibility of the file format.
That's the responsibility of the app used to read/write that file format.
And with an Open standard for file formats, there's no reason that anyone could not write an app that did direct file-to-speech with no need for a visual display (as is currently the case).
Well, at least the project is open source so other developers can take it and run with it. This version is not what the PR people would like you to believe. Check out this doozy of a quote from the sourceforge forum:
.NET Framewok 2.0 and Word 2007) or through the command line tool, which only requires .NET framework 2.0. "
1 531122&forum_id=579283 )
"With the first release (0.1 - prototype), you can only convert documents from ODF to OpenXML. This can be done either with the Word Add-in (which requires both
( http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
This add-in is certainly a step in the right direction. But opening and saving files with this add-in is not as convenient as if the format was supported natively.
Here is an example of the problems that the users will face when using it (from the project home page):
Basically, this add-in will encourage you to convert your ODF documents to OpenXML, but if you really insist and if you really want to save (sorry, export) as ODF, then it will let you do that as well. You will just have to re-type or re-select the file name.
-Raphaël
Microsoft has not caved as TFA says. Now they can compete in new markets where they were being gradually squeezed out. Now organizations can say that they support open standards while still using Microsoft Office. I am sure that they will do a half-hearted job of supporting ODF, and people will grow frustrated with how "limited" it is compared to the native XML file type. They will not realize that only Microsoft's implementation is limited. As a result they might start using the latter for things that are saved locally, undermining ODF efforts.
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
They can just create enough caveats and special properties in the -internal- Office document structure that export to ODF will simply break the documents, or require painstakingly cautious convertion to some primitives. PNG IS supported in MSIE 6.0 fully, including alpha channel, but the implementation is so much pain in the neck for developers to implement in webpages, that they simply don't bother. (you need to create a style sheet including MSIE's 'filter' CSS extensions, and apply an 'alpha' filter to the image.)
Same can happen here - want to save ODF? Here's the microsoft way:
Pick "plugins" menu.
Open "plugin manager".
Open "active plugins tab".
Check checkbox by "ODF exporter plugin".
Click OK.
pick "export" menu.
click "export to plugin".
Are you sure you want to export the document to a plugin? Some document properties may be lost in the process." Click yes.
"Plugin export wizard".
"List of available plugins". Click ODF exporter.
Click next.
"What would you like to do with the file after export? Save to file, Send by Mail, Copy to Clipboard, Paste as new document" Pick "Save to file". Click Next.
"Where would you like to have the file saved?" - file selector. Pick file destination.
"Warning! Plugins contain 3rd party software which may append viruses and malware to your documents! Are you sure to proceed?" Click yes.
"The chosen plugin is covered by the following license:" (textarea - GNU). Do you agree? Pick "yes", click Next.
"MS Office is ready to export your document to a plugin. Click Finish to begin the export process." Click Finish.
A progressbar appears while the open source plugin actually processes the file. A moment later a requester "You have successfuly exported the document to a plugin. Click OK to return to MS Office."
Loading ODF document could look very similar.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
This is bollocks. The translator is BSD licensed, you just go there and fix it if necessary.
All in all, this is very good news for Open Source, and a chink in the mighty Microsoft FUD machine...
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
Installation
Double click the MSI file to install the Add-in for Word 2007.
If installation is successful, you should see a new "ODF" entry in the "File" menu in Word 2007. It allows you to either import an ODF text file or export your current working document as an ODF text file (note that during development process, those functionalities might be temporary unavailable).
Important note: The ODF file opened by the add-in is converted into Office OpenXML (Office 2007 new file format) and imported into Word as a read-only file. If you want to save it as ODF, you have to use the "Export as ODF" button and provide a new file name (that can be the same as the current file name).
If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
Well, since the project is BSD licensed, what's to stop you from fixing it?
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
MSOffice97 was good enough for you when you bought it.
If your needs have changed it's only ok that you get a new version.
Of course, you could use OpenOffice 2.0, that works great indeed with MSOffice97 documents, and writes ODF natively.
Your average Government worker will be trained in this and follow the procedure in a totally mindless fashion.
Or it will be like the POSIX fiasco. At a certain point in history, government purchased opererating systems were required to support POSIX, which is an actual independent standard that various Unixes created after Unix fragmented. The theory was, you could write to POSIX, and your stuff would compile on any Unix, which generally works in practice. So MS tacked some POSIX support onto Windows NT.
Of course, no one actually wrote any programs that used POSIX. The government would purchase NT boxes and write Win32 programs, not POSIX ones. They were just required to purchase POSIX operating systems, not actually use POSIX.
Likewise, I'm imagine the government require programs that support ODF, but everyone uses the Word format to save and transport files, thus completely defeating the purpose.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?