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Open XML Translator for Microsoft Word Available
narramissic writes "The first phase of a Microsoft-funded project to create software that can convert Microsoft Word documents between Open XML and Open Document Format (ODF) has been completed. As a result, the Open XML Translator is now available for download in version 1.0 from SourceForge.net. A ComputerWorld article details the history of the project, discussing the work of companies like CleverAge and AztecSoft, as well as community efforts to bring this project to realization."
Please no clippy, please no clippy...
"It looks like you're trying to convert to a non-Microsoft proprietary format. I can't let you do that, Dave"
Tell me something...it's still "We, the people"... right?
And how's this related to Linux? It is just a ODF - OpenXML convertor for Windows.
The first phase of a Microsoft-funded project to create software that can convert Microsoft Word documents between Open XML and Open Document Format (ODF) has been completed.
Unfortunately, when you run it, it starts off with, "Hi! It looks like you're trying to convert a Microsoft Word Document! Would you like some help?"
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Anyone else feel chills? Remember how good the Import/Export of .WPD files was in Word? I'm guessing that this will be of similar quality. At least it's OSS. But I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for this to bridge the gap between ODF and OpenXML. Best is to use OpenOffice and save as .DOC if you have to.
Here's the Microsoft Press Release about it.
"Please describe the scientific nature of the 'whammy'" - Agent Scully
Can I ask, since the article doesn't seem to really explain -- what good is this? I know converting to XML is supremely important _in theory_ so that your documents can be easily parsed and used among other software applications - but say for example:
I have a document
I convert it to XML
then what? Is this excellent news in theory, or is there a demand for this?
I honestly don't know, I'm not claiming there isn't. Please tell me.
---
this isn't xml
Ace
The idea is that it would let Microsoft Word users do the conversion, and save their documents in ODF, rather than leaving them in DOC and requiring OpenOffice users to do the conversion.
The big difference is which format the documents get stored in. If they're being stored in DOC, then you're still mostly at the mercy of Microsoft; it's easy for someone to open the document in some new version of Word, save it, and silently move it into some new MS-created "binary blob" format, breaking backwards compatibility.
So basically, a converter would let states like Massachusetts start to move away from DOC as the de facto standard format for electronic documents. They'd probably still use it as an editing format, because I don't see them tossing Word for OO.org anytime soon, but it would help get rid of the huge "silos" of DOC stuff that's sitting around, getting silent migrated from one version of Microsoft's formats to the next.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Surprised? Seems Microsoft just see this as another way to infect the better platforms with their CLR, an attempt to start the countdown on the patent timebomb.
If you're writing cross platform code at least have the decency to use C, C++ or Java, requiring a CLR is insulting.
I just tried to use it, and here's what I got:
This is not a winning document. Better luck next time.
Insisting on "correct" English is like saying that there is only one, definitive recipe for chili.
What's the point if the add-in doesn't allow ODF to be set as the default file type, or even used via the Save As menu?
Hopefully the Word "interop" API actually allows for this sort of thing to be properly integrated.
A while back a state IT Department (I think Massachusetts) decided to only use open-source document formats and talked back and forth with Microsoft. The head of the IT Department (or something similar) privatly asked some of Word's programmers, who said an odf/xml feature would be trivial to add, but MS flatly refused to make a plugin for Office to convert to odf/xml, even though it meant losing the state's patronage.
Microsoft is really determined to strangle open formats.
The government can't save you.
CIO = "What is this 'ribbon' thing I keep hearing about?"
IT Admin = "Boss, we dont need the ribbon, its just Microsoft hype."
CIO = "Have you seen the ribbon? Bring me the ribbon!"
IT Admin = "Khaaaaaaaannnnn!"
I can't wait to see what Vista does with this. "Premium content detected, doc files are proprietary content I have notified Microsoft about your attempt to circumvent the DMCA. Please stay where you are and make no sudden moves".
Try reading Microsoft's documentation for OOXML. It's 6,000 pages long. Seriously. This is a great Microsoft PR stunt - yes, you've gotten your data in to XML format, but the XML format is so complicated that only the Microsoft programmers who wrote it can actually understand it. Part of the point about XML is interoperability. There's no way that sane people are going to read a 6,000 page Microsoft specification and write an XSLT to convert Microsoft OOXML in to a simpler and saner format. In short, this will not mean any competition with Microsoft. They buy PR in the geek community by saying "Office is going XML! Open data! Whee!" and making an XML format that's so complicated that nobody would ever use it. That's a pretty smart move. And it's a pretty dumb move on the part of ECMA. Congratulations on just giving your dignity away by signing off on a specification that's about nineteen times longer than War and Peace...
No document in living history is ever going to be so complicated that it needs to be in a format that's specification is 6,000 pages long. Part of the point about XML was that we should be setting up simple, domain-specific markup languages and extending already existing markup languages. OOXML is bad because it's needlessly complicated and obscure. Having visited the OOXML website, I'm missing a lot of things I expect. First, I'm missing schema. If these guys are serious about XML, where are the XSD/RNG schema? Secondly, where are the cross-platform translators - ie. XSLs? I'm missing some kind of high-level summary of how I'm supposed to parse the XML. If the only way of doing anything with OOXML is a closed, black-box Microsoft converter, then we still haven't really got anywhere.
Well, I'm breaking the cycle. All my documents are going to be either ASCII or a standard, non-obscure XML format like XHTML. Or something home-brewed and simple that can be easily transformed using XSL and XSL-FO. Screw Microsoft's phony attempt at interoperability. The Internet is interoperable by design. (X)HTML is interoperable by design. Let's prove to them that we mean interoperability by sticking to simple, sensible, semantically-based and scalable principles.
catch (HumourFailureException e) { e.user.send("You, sir, are a humourless idiot."); }
It's open source. If there is some piece of code that causes it to produce bad ODF files, you can fix it yourself, and make the fix available for anyone else. If they refuse to merge it back into the the main branch, you can fork it and then fix it, and again make it available to anyone else.
As for the profit motive, more and more governments are starting to talk about mandating non-proprietary file formats. Microsoft doesn't want to include this in Word, obviously, but if a city, state, or even national government decides it wants to use ODF, Microsoft doesn't want to be the only Office suite on the block that can't handle it.
http://www.mhall119.com
Just ask yourself, what profit motives does Microsoft have in making this work?
I'll second that emotion.
This initiative is at odds with Microsoft's decision to use Open XML for the Office suite. If they really think folks are going to be stuck with Open XML-format Office documents that they need converted into ODF (say, for distribution reasons) what is it that stops them from saving the documents as ODF directly out of the Office app?
I think Microsoft is feeling a little shaky on this issue. They've had great success historically using their own document formats - in particular, the lack of backwards compatibility between Word formats, which should have served to infuriate their user base when it realized they were being forced to upgrade just so they could open up Word docs sent to them by folks using a newer version of Word. Instead, this lack of compatibility brought Office upgrades *forward* into the next quarter. What a great scam, Steve! Thanks, Bill.
As other readers have noted, though, there are enough indicators out there (the on-going Mass. debacle, for one) that it seems MS is afraid of being left holding the incompatibility bag, so they're hedging their bets by supporting the creation of these translator modules.
All this just serves to leave them looking indecisive, IMHO. If they really give a shite about their users being able to share files, they'd jump on board ODF.
Are there functional advantages in Open XML compared to ODF?
[17] Leary, T., White, C., Wood, P. R., Bhabha, W. D., and Wirth, N. Lambda calculus considered harmful. In Proceedings