[libreoffice-users] SkyDrve: A Tool for Forensics around MS Office <-> LibreOffice conversion issues

I notice that many LibreOffice experts and users do not have MS Office installed but need to deal 
with Microsoft Office files (imported or exported), especially when attempting to resolve an 
interchange or conversion problem.   

There is a relatively easy way to examine MS Office documents.  One is to install one of the 
supported viewers (which requires a platform on which the viewers run).  Better yet, put the 
Microsoft Office document up on a free Windows Live SkyDrive account.  Not all features are 
available under the in-browser editing option, but the in-browser viewing of Microsoft Office 
documents is superb.

I just verified that with a couple of documents I had been conducting DOC/OOXML <-> LOffice/ODF 
forensic work on.  You can use SkyDrive in the browser to make screen shots or you can even arrange 
to share a file selectively with other users.  Yes, you need to take a deep breath and get a 
Windows Live ID.  And I don’t know how many different browsers SkyDrive works smoothly with.

 - Dennis E. Hamilton
   Individual OASIS ODF and OIC TC Member

PS: One missing feature of SkyDrive is a way to download an uploaded DOC in another format (namely, 
DOCX).  Being able to see the OOXML equivalent is often quite helpful in understanding how a Word 
feature is handled without having to dissect the binary format.

PPS: I have not experimented with Google Docs for this.  There the problem is that one has to deal 
with whatever the feature loss is when going to the internal Google Docs format, especially if 
trying to get from one external format to another.  It might work well enough, I just haven't 
needed to find out.




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