Re: [MLUG] What do you think of MS ODF support?

[Michael <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

It all depends on proper specifications with no room for multiple 
interpretations and strict tests provided to prove compatibility. HTML 
for example was designed to be a lose 'easy' text formatting format 
which has led to many problems as different browsers and developers can 
claim to be compatible even while doing things differently.

M$ Office isn't a standard because it's never been well defined and it 
keeps changing. The Open Document formats shouldn't have those problems.
> As many of you may know now, Microsoft has had some input in providing 
> technical support for making an Office 2007 XML <-> OpenDocument Format 
> plugin for the upcoming Office 2007 and later it will support earlier 
> versions of MS Office. There has been a lot of debate (some is captured here: 
> http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,202560,00.html ) but I was curious as to 
> what other people who actually deal with and use ODF files and programs- such 
> as you fellow Linux users- think about this. 
>
> I personally think that it is good that I can send out my native ODT and ODS 
> files and they can be opened by people who can't install or can't be bothered 
> to install OpenOffice- but I think that the conversion will be roughly like 
> trying to make MS Office-format documents in OpenOffice- fine for 
> unsophisticated things but it can cause formatting incompatibilities and the 
> same mantra of "you should have used $MS_OFFICE_PROGRAM and this wouldn't 
> have happened" will continue to be heard for users who choose not to use MS 
> Office.
>
> BTW, the link for the converter plugin itself is here: 
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/odf-converter
>   


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