Text 19423, 74 rader
Skriven 2006-07-13 09:26:00 av MARTIN ATKINS (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av ALAN ZISMAN
Ärende: File formats
====================
-=> ALAN ZISMAN wrote to MARTIN ATKINS <=-

 AZ>> (This will almost certainly happen when the next
 AZ>> version, Office 2007 is released early next year-- it uses a new,
 AZ>> XML-based file format: DOCX, as default... and MS almost certainly
 AZ> not make translators available for versions like Office 97 which 
 AZ> is still relatively widely used).

 MA> Bundled word processors are at the mercy of the software company's
 MA> policy regarding update but since they are both Win products the
 MA> documents should be interchangeable.

 MA> If not they can always use RTF. ;)

 AZ> Yes, there are common formats and work-arounds, but that requires
 AZ> teaching them to users and then for the users to be disciplined in
 AZ> saving their files-- neither of which are likely on a mass scale. 

Using and understanding document formats is part of a Word proccesor
operators job. Even if you took it back to start level education it
is possible to have a class room full of pupils with their own 
computors and all using different word proccesors. ;)

 AZ> The
 AZ> current MS Office beta, while having DOCX as the default file format,
 AZ> at least allows users to replace that with an alternative (including
 AZ> *.RTF or *.DOC); hopefully this will also be a 'feature' of the release
 AZ> version. 

It's been a feature of most stand alone processors for years (or has it?).

AZ> But in an organization, that requires making the configuration
AZ> change in each of potentially a large number of setups.

But my answer to that is why would you want to upgrade the whole network
at once? A word proccesor operator is supposed to know about different
formats. So for me it's not the individual terminal that needs 
reconfiguring but the entire office staff. :-}

 AZ> OpenOffice.org 2.x similarly changed its default format to the new Open
 AZ> Document format-- which MS announced yesterday will be supported on MS
 AZ> Office as well... 

I've got OpenOffice 1.1.5 and hope to have the new one soon. I can't
say how well it can handle other formats because i don't have any way of 
testing it. It seems to support a fair few though through out the suite.

 AZ> in the 1980s there were lots of word processors with
 AZ> lots of incompatible file formats; we have the potential to be moving
 AZ> back to the chaos of that era-- especially if companies like MS only
 AZ> provide import file filters for recent editions of their software,
 AZ> leaving, say, Office 97 users in the lurch.

Import filters are ok provided it has export filters as well. ;)
Why would 97 users be left in the lurch? Just because Microsoft
use a new doc format it doesn't make all other processors redundant.

Microsoft would like you to believe it does so they can pursue
their "Upgrade or die" propaganda. Office 97 will be as usable
tomorrow as it is today.  

I don't know about MS but OpenOffice appears to be going down the
road of making it's applications as compatible with as many other
Office products as possible. I don't think they care whether 
Microsoft support the standard or not. After all if you had the latest
and greatest MS word processor that by design only understood MS 
formats then MS format is what i would send you. It may not be in 
the new format but in an older version. Then you reply with a 
common format that we both understand. A word processor operator
that cannot get to grips with any brand of modern word processor
within an hour i would sack before coffee break. ;)
    
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