Re: [libreoffice-users] Table presented totally wrong.

Hi :)
Both Google docs and LibreOffice are consistent with each other and any
version of either on any platform.  Likewise with OpenOffice,
Calligra/KOffice, Lotus Symphony and almost all others.  Even newer
documents prepared by the latest releases of those can usually be read by
older versions of any.

This is in stark contrast to documents written in MS Office and using their
newer 'format' (really several different "transitional" formats but all
given the same name).  Documents written in MS Office 2007 often have
problems opening in MS Office 2010 or 2013, at best they open in
"compatibility mode".  Hence why so many people have taken to using PDFs to
share documents in the last few years, or at least 1 reason for it.


It helps to use the native ODF 1.2 (Extended) format in any of the non-MS
office programs or office suites.  The 1.2 (Extended) is backwards
compatible with the older 1.1/1.0.  Newer programs can read the older
formats so easily it's almost natural.  No need for any "compatibility
mode".  The full ODF specification is thoroughly documented as implemented
in all the different programs by all the different companies, etc and
contains no proprietary blobs so there is nothing to make it difficult for
people to create new software that can implement the full specification as
used "out in the wild".

The ODF 1.1 or 1.0 was set as an internationally agreed standard by the ISO
committees after extensive field-testing and deliberation by members of the
independent OASIS committee.  OASIS remains independent by allowing each
company, government or other organisation to have a set maximum number of
members so that no company, government or organisation is able to dominate
the proceedings.  Several hundred organisations etc from around the world
take part in preparing, writing and field-testing the specifications to
make sure the format is easy to implement in as many real-world scenarios
and on as many real-world machines as possible.

The ODF 1.2 (Extended) as used in many programs and suites is, in effect,
field-testing to prepare for the next iteration of the ODF standard.  That
is likely to take many years during which;
1.  Many organisations etc will be using the same 1.2 (Extended) as each
other
2.  It is easy to switch any of the programs back to 1.2 or even back to
1.1/1.0


The only organisation which seems to have any trouble at all with
implementing any ODF specification seems to be Microsoft.  By being unable
to implement their own or anyone else's formats consistently it seems to
force people to constantly buy the same version of MS Office that is used
by people they work with, and to buy newer versions at the same time as
each other.  Currently many companies are buying the 2010, so that is what
other people need to get.  However newer computers are sold with 2013 so
some of them will need to buy 2010 although at the same time it creates a
push to buy the 2013 even though organisations have only just bought the
2010.

It is interesting that the new Microsoft formats came out just after their
older formats finally seemed to stablise such that everyone else was able
to consistently implement them.  It also came out just after MS lost the
court-case about their RTF format, for which they had promised full
interoperability but actually seemed to deliver about the same level of
that as their newer format.

People who insist on using DocX, XlsX and the other OOXML formats are
effectively insisting that people only ever use Windows (that's the only OS
that suffers from so many viruses and security issues, right?) and buy the
same version of MS Office that they used.  So, take a stand and insist on
being given files in a format that is consistent with ISO formats.
Regards from
Tom :)





On 11 September 2014 20:40, Paul D. Mirowsky <p_mirowsky@bentaxna.com>
wrote:

> Hello Stef
>
> Are you suggesting that you are standardizing on LibreOffice Templates or
> Microsoft Word Templates.
>
> Templates are unique to each system.
>
> Did you save your LibreOffice Writer document to a Microsoft Word format?
> If PDF is ok, you could "export as pdf" and send that.
> If the person you are sending your document has LibreOffice, it will look
> exactly the same.
>
> I applaud your thoughts about bringing LibreOffice to the Tweede Kamer der
> Staten-Generaal.
>
> Some help might be required and you can try and contact the following.
>
> The user group at
> Home » Dutch NL Project
> https://nl.libreoffice.org/
>
> Linux Professional Institute Central Europe: Home
> http://www.lpice.eu/nl/home.html
>
> Nederlandse Linux Gebruikers Groep
> http://www.nllgg.nl/
>
> There is also Thom Holwerda, Editor at OSNews (I just like the way the guy
> thinks.)
> His basic info is at http://www.osnews.com/user/uid:5/
>
> LibreOffice document standards:
> The easy explanation is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument
> For the deepest understanding of the format go to
> http://docs.oasis-open.org/office/v1.2/OpenDocument-v1.2.html
>
> Documents are not allowed to be attached in this user group mailing.
> Try sending to http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/Dutch-f1816654.html
>
> Sorry I can not help you further.
> Paul
>
>
>
>
> On 9/11/2014 2:15 PM, Stef Bon wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I got a template.docx of my education institution, and tried to open
> > it using LibreOffice.
> > I found out too late - after I sent it, I got comments of receiver - that
> > writer
> > did show the table totally wrong.
> >
> > Until now I was convinced LibreOffice is a good alternative for MS
> > Office, but I doubt it very much now. I had to use the (Microsoft
> > Windows) computers on the school with a recent MS Office to get it
> > right.
> >
> > I've been talking with members of parlement about the use of open
> > source by the government, and was convinced it's a right thing. Now
> > I'm not so sure anymore.
> >
> > I think it's not a very exotic table. It's a table in a table.
> > One note: I've tried Google Docs also, and that did not do it right
> > either.
> >
> > Attached you find the Template, and where there should be information
> > under the column "Lesplan", but it's not shown at all.
> > Also attached you find the complete new document based on the
> > template. I added text, but the first column I left unchanged. You see
> > ther are different rows there, which are ignored in the original
> > document (Template)
> >
> > I hope you can solve this,
> >
> > Stef Bon
> > Voorburg
> > the Netherlans
>
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