Supporting OOXML in LibreOffice [LWN.net]

Supporting OOXML in LibreOffice

Posted Jan 11, 2011 9:45 UTC (Tue) by marcH (subscriber, #57642)
In reply to: Supporting OOXML in LibreOffice by DOT
Parent article: Supporting OOXML in LibreOffice

> 3. Write OOXML 'pretty well'

> This last option gives us the worst of both worlds: it further establishes OOXML as the standard format, and it further establishes MS Office as the only office suite that supports the standard format perfectly.

Probably correct, but also a purely political perspective disconnected from people who need to get their job done now.

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Supporting OOXML in LibreOffice

Posted Jan 11, 2011 19:39 UTC (Tue) by DOT (subscriber, #58786) [Link]

Not at all. It's actually a purely practical (egoistical) perspective. I am not in a position to use MS Office, so I want to be able to use LibreOffice without headaches. If everybody uses MS OOXML, and only MS Office supports that perfectly, I'm going to be in trouble for using LibreOffice.

It would be even better for me to be able to say "sorry, I can't open docx files, please save it as odt", than always having to warn people that my changes might screw up the document.

Supporting OOXML in LibreOffice

Posted Jan 12, 2011 12:17 UTC (Wed) by marcH (subscriber, #57642) [Link]

> It would be even better for me to be able to say "sorry, I can't open docx files, please save it as odt", than always having to warn people that my changes might screw up the document.

Then just say it.

If OOXML support in LibreOffice is not good enough for you/your documents, then just do not use it and refuse OOXML documents. Do not bore your colleagues with your free software life and just tell them: "sorry, I can't open docx files, please save it as odt". They will thank you for this language approximation, way less extreme than trying to entirely remove the feature from the product!

Other people than you are happy with a "pretty good" only support. Yet other people are not happy but still want to see the feature to test it and report bugs and monitor its progress... generally speaking there are a number of well-known reasons to ship imperfect features; no need to elaborate here.

I think the only reasonable thing you can ask is a better labelling of the feature.

Supporting OOXML in LibreOffice

Posted Jan 24, 2011 8:51 UTC (Mon) by richardbrucebaxter (guest, #72540) [Link]

The problem is that .odt is not cross compatible either (at least using the inbuilt MS ODF filters). If OpenOffice manages to read a document saved in MS Office ODT format perfectly, when when it comes to sending back the modified .odt file to Microsoft Office, it is very likely not represent the original (formatting, drawings, etc). The same applies for .doc cross compatibility (and certainly for .docx compatibility - even Microsoft Office cannot make a docx out of a .doc without corrupting it; drawings, fonts, etc).

At this time, the only professional solution for implementation is to make a clear distinction between compatible and "semi-compatible" (which for anything but Standards/ISO neglected electronic office document formats is called "incompatible"). It would be better for any document processor (MS or open source) to be very clear with the user that at this time that they are not compatible with any documents produced by competiting document processors, regardless of the file format they are saved in.

Any document processor should at this time should be seen as either a viewer, or a one (and only) time exporter/importer of documents created using a different document processor. And its suitability as a one time importer or exporter is subject to a human being willing to fix up all of the inconsistencies.

The suggestion regarding OO/LO supporting both ISO OOXML and MS OOXML sounds reasonable - if only to make a point.

The clearer everyone is about the real level of document interopability that currently exists today and the circumstances which have lead to this (failure of Standards organisations and governmental support for electronic standards) the better. Alternatively, we should start encouraging the production of multiple gauge railway lines in society.