Re: [libreoffice-users] Should LibreOffice even support Microsoft secret formats?

On 09/10/2011 04:08 PM, Anthony Papillion wrote:
> I agree, but is not supporting saving in secret formats really isolating them from the rest of the 
> world? Especially if the other software can read the open format, wouldn't it be preferable to just 
> tell them 'don't worry about it, you're compatible' and leave it at that? Besides, I'd think that 
> creating a plugin that helps Microsoft Offices users read .odf files is a lot easier than 
> constantly playing catchup with the secret Microsoft formats.
When you have a deliverable in a MSO format, then you must deliver in an 
MSO format. This is often not negotiable.

If I spend you a document and then tell you "yeah, now here is a list of 
steps to download and install a plug-in that I sure hope works on your 
version of MSO and operating system", well, you just the non-technical 
people.

I know people that still use Word Perfect, so then we would need an ODF 
reader for them as well.

Even well established products have issues when they do not support 
legacy formats. As an example, look at Apple when they released their 
latest video editing software and did not support previous file formats.

MSO even had issues when there was no support for the DOCX format 
between other versions.

The only company that I have seen successfully do this is Photo Shop. I 
understand that if you have photo shop deliverables, then you really 
need to use exactly the same version as that used by the client. Pretty 
much everyone else that does this seems to have problems in the market.

--
Andrew Pitonyak
My Macro Document: http://www.pitonyak.org/AndrewMacro.odt
Info:  http://www.pitonyak.org/oo.php


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