[CentOS] Re: DocX support in OpenOffice

Fri Oct 19 22:25:02 UTC 2007
Craig White <craig at tobyhouse.com>

On Fri, 2007-10-19 at 15:02 -0700, Scott Silva wrote:
> on 10/19/2007 12:43 AM Morten Torstensen spake the following:
> > Scott Silva wrote:
> >> The big problem is when you install Office 2007 the default save 
> >> format is docx. And if you set to to the older versions you get a 
> >> warning dialog that you will lose features, become impotent and bald, 
> >> etc...
> > 
> > As a reference for this thread, check this:
> > 
> > <http://www.sun.com/software/star/odf_plugin/>
> > 
> > MS Office can now support ODF. Since many more people use OpenOffice 
> > than Office 2007, clearly this is the way to go <bg>
> > 
> > //Morten
> See how Sun helps Office share, but does Microsoft help OpenOffice do the same?
> I'm sure someone will reverse engineer the docx formats, and it will work 
> until Office 2011 comes out! ;-P
----
well, in theory Microsoft Office XML is published and no reverse
engineering is necessary.

in reality, it's several thousand pages, not available on Linux and
still has some undocumented legacy code buried within. I don't know if
their 'Royalty Free License' restricts the usage in conjunction with GPL
software but I think OOo is not GPL.

As for Office 2011...Office and Windows are their cash cows and their
revenue needs dictate what they do.

In reality, they really needed to move off their old, undocumented
formats into an XML based format.

My collection of notes on MS XML...

A plugin for Microsoft Office users (Windows) so that they can open/save
ODF (Open Document Format) files...
http://www.sun.com/software/star/odf_plugin/

Something a bit simpler...a viewer application for any OS...
http://www.opendocumentfellowship.com/odfviewer

Download page for Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for older versions
of Microsoft Office
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en

-- 
Craig White <craig at tobyhouse.com>