
Why not just build the ODF/OOXML translator into MS Office?
And save the bother of anyone ever needing to do the conversion manually.
Microsoft yesterday announced an alliance with vendors as the first step towards its brave, new world of interoperable software. The company said existing partners, DataViz, Quickoffice, and Novell were all working on the new "Document Interoperability Initiative" to test incompatibilities and to make it easier to shift …
Its an XML version of what various Microsoft products spit out when you hit the save button.
As such only MS* is really in a position to support the standard and then only patchily -- how many documents have you had screwed up after upgrading to Office lastyear.
This standard is just a (very succesful!) attempt to derail the true open document format.
So, we should give up on the standard we have and adopt M$'s superb "standard" (standard?) because with all that all we wanted was to have a chair when M$ starts discussing the OOXML 2.0!?
So it is a kind of bargain? We give you a ISO stamp and you "open" your file format.
André Caldas.
The current brouhaha with OOXML is only on whether it should be allowed to use the fast track. Saying NO doesn't mean it will never become an ISO approved standard, it just means that it will have to undergo more rigorous review prior to being approved.
Although I guess that given the current state of said proposed standard, that's equivalent to saying it will never be approved.
Everything msft does is to protect itself from OpenOffice.
That's why they'll never do native ODF in MSOffice, nor any other standard (unless forced to).
For them a converter is by far preferable because users never bother to check what they 'save as', and just use the default. A converter looks like it might solve the problem but really its just an attempt to get them off the hook, because most users will not have it. This stuff needs to be a default, not an occasional option!
Did anyone else notice that the windows eeepc will be bundled with MSWorks (spit)? Why not OpenOffice like the Linux version? That's to protect MSOffice by keeping OpenOffice and ODF out - that's why!
ISO should reject all MSFT efforts and just force ODF formats on them at pain of huge fines by the EU.
And that goes not only for ODF (word processor), but also ODS (spreadsheet) and ODP (presentation)
End of Rant
Perhaps MS means "approximator", rather than "translator". Have you worked with their "translator" for .docx files? Crap. And that's their attempt to "translate" their own format from Office 2007 format to an earlier Office version!
Fortunately for everyone, they should soon be abandoning their attempts at "standardizing" desktop applications in favor of pushing the bulk of their programs onto the web, where more-focused minds have greater sway with regard to "interoperability".
Microsoft certainly doesn't - they may have an application which is closer to OOXML compliance than any other, but it's certainly not even loosely compliant. Furthermore, there are Microsoft execs who have stated that Microsoft will not be incorporating any changes to OOXML made by ISO into their product.
Add to this the number of tags in OOXML which are not defined well enough for anyone to implement without significant help from Microsoft. *Can* anyone besides Microsoft develop a compliant product? Based on the amount of assistance Microsoft has given to competing interests in the past - for example, their infamous joint venture with IBM on OS/2 - I sincerely believe the answer is 'no'.
As such, all this interest in OOXML really mystifies me. No products currently support it, no products will support it in the future. Why make a converter that will translate ODF files into it, when nobody's going to be able to read any files written in it (apart from this converter - if it's actually even compliant. Which it won't be.)
I don't think ISO would release a v2 of the MS "standard" without MS defining it. So it doesn't really matter.
Mind you, if ISO allow the current state of MS "OOXML", then they sort of open the way for many more "open" "standards" to be made ISO standards without actually having any details.
And this is an IT site... Your subject line should have been "Unforeseen Consequences"...
Sorry OOXML is just a ZIP file with a XML page as a database and a tex document. No jumping for joy here. This document is too boring for words. M$ should actualy try and develop something someone has not done already and stop selling stupid ideas like this. It just leaves it open of spyware and what else. Another Failure. How long beofre some virus now infects the xml and every time you open a document you get Malware advertising in your DOC!!!! Stupid.