Re: MS Word and complex documents
A quote:
"OpenDocument, which OpenOffice.org uses, is approved by OASIS - the standards body for XML data formats in business; OASIS is sponsored by all the leading names in IT, including Microsoft. In addition, OpenDocument was submitted to the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) on 30 September 2005 for ratification. OpenDocument is a genuine vendor-neutral, open-standard specification free from intellectual property encumbrances. All developers are free to work with it."
Apart from it's native OpenDocument format, OOo can open and save documents in:-
Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP (.doc)
Microsoft Word 95 (.doc)
Rich Test Format (.rtf)
All the Starwriter formats (essentially the same as OOo)
Text (.txt)
Text Encoded (.txt)
HTML Document (.html)
Aportis Doc (Palm) (.pdb)
DocBook (.xml)
Microsoft Word 2003XML (.xml)
Pocket Word (.psw)
No one is asking Microsoft to abandon their beloved proprietary formats (ironically, one of the reasons why Microsoft clings to it's own proprietary variant of XML is because this contains embedded binary code to make it easier to read the old MS formats), but merely to permit the creation of OpenDocument data.
Microsoft could very easily have added support for OpenDocument as well as it's own proprietary MSXML format in Microsoft Office but chose not to. They wish to retain control of the office document standard and replace a truly open format with their own semi-open one. A great pity, since Microsoft Office is an excellent suite, but too bad for Microsoft.
The world is headed towards truly open formats for document storage for very sound business reasons. For many years Microsoft have "owned" most of the world's documents and profited greatly thereby, but times change and governments (like Massachusetts) and businesses (and users) are increasingly unhappy with this arrangement.
With closed formats the continued readability of a document base is essentially dependent upon the health and mercy of the owner of the proprietary format, which cannot be guaranteed. Many many users like Ghengis are fed up with the upgrade treadmill and the difficulties of exchanging documents.
The times are a'changing and Microsoft can either recognise that it's days of rich picking are over and make a bit less profit, or be steadily marginalised.
This doesn't help Ghengis, but it's worth thinking about.