Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google Docs Ditching Old Microsoft Export Formats On Oct. 1

Posted by timothy on from the file-formats-rule-the-world dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Google today announced a huge change for Google Apps, including its Business, Education, and Government editions. As of October 1, users will no longer have the ability to download documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in old Microsoft Office formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt)." The perils of cloud computing; LibreOffice will probably be the best conversion utility at that point. Apropos: Reader akumpf writes with an essay about the dangers of letting our data and our tools be hosted by the same provider.

13 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. And 90% of the reason to use Google Docs... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    is now gone. We used it at work because so many of our customers could read what we created. By requiring the strange .XML.ZIP format from Microsoft that isn't widely supported, we, like most people, will have to switch to another product if we want other people to be able to open our documents.

    1. Re:And 90% of the reason to use Google Docs... by JDG1980 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We used it at work because so many of our customers could read what we created. By requiring the strange .XML.ZIP format from Microsoft that isn't widely supported, we, like most people, will have to switch to another product if we want other people to be able to open our documents.

      Are you or your customers still running Office 97?

      Every version of MS Office from 2000 onward supports the new XML formats if the Compatibility Pack is installed. And if you've been interacting with anyone who uses Office 2007 or above, you will probably already have been receiving documents in these formats, since that is what newer versions of Office default to when you save.

    2. Re:And 90% of the reason to use Google Docs... by obarthelemy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Many people still use the old formats, if only because they already have lots of documents in those formats. Also because there's not much reason to change, and there are always outliers that won't handle the new formats well.

      --
      The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
    3. Re:And 90% of the reason to use Google Docs... by Pieroxy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      MS Office in JAVASCRIPT? Holy cow, I need to see that.

      Wait... Are you sure there's not a few million lines of C# running on the server as well?

      --
      Write boring code, not shiny code!
    4. Re:And 90% of the reason to use Google Docs... by mystikkman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Every version of MS Office from 2000 onward supports the new XML formats if the Compatibility Pack is installed

      Customers send doc files and expect you to read them since almost everyone else uses Office. Sending a reply back to your clients or people at other companies saying, "Hey, install this addon and send it back in DOCX format" will only make *you* seem to be incompetent and a waster of time compared to your competition using MS Office.

      You can convert the doc and xls files locally, but isn't the whole point of using Google Apps to avoid having to have a copy of Microsoft Office? If you need to purchase a copy of Office to read the old formats anyway, you might as well not go the Google Apps route at all.

    5. Re:And 90% of the reason to use Google Docs... by mabhatter654 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But many places use the docs with VB6. THAT is the problem. First, these are HUGE systems that automatically accept .doc files. Second, after VB6 Microsoft's tools went .net and working with the office formats got a lot harder... You're talking 90% rewrite.... Or buy into the mess that's Sharepoint and hope you can hire somebody to make that work.

      If somebody spun up a Distro with WINE at XP level, DOC and VB6 compatibility some companies would eat that up.

    6. Re:And 90% of the reason to use Google Docs... by jimicus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Have you ever used Google Docs?

      There is no such concept as "create documents in MS Office formats" in Google Docs; your sentence doesn't make any sense. You create a document or a spreadsheet, give it a name and that's it - exactly how or where it's saved isn't something you as the user worry about.

      It only becomes necessary to worry about it when you need to get the document out of Google Docs and give it to someone else.

      This isn't necessarily the end of the world because, as Google have pointed out, there is a compatibility pack available from Microsoft which allows older versions of Office to open .docx files.

      There is, however, one minor issue which appears to have entirely gone over Google's head. The only time anyone's likely to use this export facility is when you're sending the document to someone outside your company and whose computers you have precisely zero control or influence over. If they don't have the compatibility pack installed, the generally accepted polite thing to do is re-send in a format they can open. It is not to ask to speak to their IT department and tell those guys how to do their job.

  2. Re:And by ThorGod · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yep! This just doesn't make sense. Google continues to be *the example* against anything and all things "cloud".

    --
    PS: I don't reply to ACs.
  3. No need really by goldgin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I make it a habit of installing the free compatibility pack on my office 2003 installations to open docx and similar "new gen" documents. Works like a charm on the majority of documents.

  4. Re:And by M0j0_j0j0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The problem is not the drop, is the time-frame. like i wrote below

    The problem is they announce a functionality drop 1st October on the 26th of September.

  5. Re:Why drop functionality? by JDG1980 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Was it expensive to maintain this functionality? It seems like the .doc format shouldn't be changing much these days, making it fairly cheap to keep around. Was the difficulty that Google is adding a bunch of features that aren't supported by those formats (doesn't seem likely?). Did they have to pay a licensing fee to Microsoft to use them? There must be a reason to remove them, simply deleting them because they're old doesn't make much sense, especially if people are still using them.

    I don't think there's a license fee. If there was, MS would have tried to go after the open-source implementations at some point in the past. In fact, I believe that a couple years ago, the European Union required MS to release documentation on their legacy binary Office formats to the public.

    What this is about, I suspect, is QA costs. Having these export formats means that every time substantial changes are made, the legacy export features must be tested. And they have to be tested with a substantial variety of documents to make sure nothing breaks, if Google wants to provide a solid experience. (Businesses would be very unhappy if they exported a PPT and the slides were all messed up because, say, one particular type of vector image wasn't properly ported back to legacy mode.) So Google can't just leave it in, since it might break at any time in the future, and as long as it stays in, it will suck up time and effort that could be spent on more important things. They decided that with everything from Office 2000 on up supporting the XML formats, it was time to pull the plug on legacy export. (Legacy import, AFAIK, should continue unaffected.)

  6. Peril by fm6 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Not a peril of cloud computing. This is a peril of outsourced cloud-based applications. That leaves you at the mercy of the outsourcee. If you manage the cloud application yourself (license it and deploy it on your own private or public cloud) you still control it.

    Anyway, what's the big deal? Why would somebody on Google Docs need to import or export a .doc file? The .docx format has been the default since Word 2007, and MS provides filters for this format for all versions of Word back to Word 2000. So if you're sharing documents with somebody, and they can't handle .docx files, somebody needs to tell them that Bill Clinton is no longer president.

  7. Re:The formats being ditched are Office 97-2003 by jrumney · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What do upgrades to Office get you except the latest shiny icons and a lighter wallet? For crying out loud, it's office software!

    The *ahem* awesome bar. 'Nuff said.