Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Defending ODF against OOXML in the UK

I haven't followed the entirety of this thread, but I live in a world which 
is (sadly perhaps) dominated by M$.

Here in the U.S., Asus is running commercials about how good their netbooks 
are because they run "Office" (as opposed to Google Apps online with a 
Chromebook). In other words, they portray *real* computer users as using 
*real* programs like M$ Office. Now, I don't particularly like the 
commercials, but they indicate to me how mainstream M$ Office has become, 
almost to the point of blending brand names with product times (Word is to 
word processing as "Kleenex" is to facial tissues.) Again, I don't like it, 
but it's a reality I live with.

I often have to write documents that are sent to colleagues who are using 
M$. What I write *must* be readable by their chosen program. They are not 
going to listen to an LO evangelist proclaiming the gospel of ODF. Heck, 
half of them can't even figure out how to put page numbers on the bottom of 
their pages, let alone learn an entirely new office suite with totally new 
concepts (page styles anyone?).

For most of my word processing work, I save my documents as .ODT. When I 
need to share with an M$ colleague, I convert it to .DOC (rather than 
insisting that they use LO, which they simply won't do). It *generally* 
works okay, but numbered lists and bulleted lists get messed up a bit, just 
because of the different ways the two programs deal with those things.

Having used PCs since my first Commodore 64 thirty years ago, I have long 
given up on any hope of seeing a true "standard" file format. Different 
programs perform tasks differently, and those differences are reflected in 
the information that gets stored in the native file formats. So, I don't see 
any hope of a true standard until all programs work the same way. I had 
great hope for RTF, but that bombed. Load an RTF file into four different 
word processors, and you'll see four different documents.

Virgil

-----Original Message----- 
From: Pedro
Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2014 11:26 AM
To: users@global.libreoffice.org
Subject: [libreoffice-users] Re: Defending ODF against OOXML in the UK

nabbler wrote
> Good summary, worth more than 2 ¢! :)

;)


nabbler wrote
> > The problem here, as I see it, is that ODF is still in it's infancy. E.g.
> > only recently ODF (under LibreOffice 4.1) started supporting font
> > embedding
> > which is an essential feature for anyone working with vector graphics,
> > custom presentations or simply elegant text documents. MS supports font
> > embedding since Word 6.0 (back in 1993!!!)
> > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/188324
>
> Isn't this issue affected by the fact that different operating systems
> have different default fonts? If so, it would explain the relative
> ease that the mono-platform m$ can solve this "problem".

Not really. PDF which is an ubiquitous file format also has had support for
font embedding for years. All modern OSes support TrueType and OpenType
fonts. I think this is mostly related to the copyright licenses of the fonts
which is more problematic in editable files than in fundamentally
non-editable files (like PDF)


nabbler wrote
> and ignoring m$ fans (some paid by m$ perhaps?) would help by reducing
> that evolution time...

It's complicated :) If you want to attract large companies who want to
migrate, at least the Import filter needs to be nearly perfect. I think the
developers are wise enough to know when to ignore cheap CEOs who just want a
replacement for their Office suite for free while still demanding to have
perfect MS format Export...

In any case LO (or any ODF based suite) can not afford to become an island.
Not even Microsoft can :) That is why they pretend to support ODF (while at
the same time most ODF files not created/modified in MS Office are either
"corrupted" or will be "missing features"...)

At the end of the day: it's better not to be a fundamentalist ;)

Take care!



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