Open Document Plugin for Word 97-2007 proves Microsoft wrong

Filed under: Windows, Office, Productivity, Microsoft

Open Document Plugin for Word 97-2007 proves Microsoft wrong

by Grant Robertson Jan 28th 2007

Why can't we live in a magical world where the document you email on this end can be opened on the other end, regardless of whether the recipient runs MS Word or OpenOffice or any other standards based word processor? Want to know a secret? We could. ODF, the Open Document Format is an XML based file format designed to do just that. Microsoft claims they can't guarantee ODF can handle the full and rich feature set available in MS Word, and have balked several times at making Word fully compatible with the open format. In fact, Mike Champion, of Microsoft's XML team says "there is not an official standard for one that represents all the features supported in the MS Office binary formats and can be efficiently loaded and processed without major redesign of MS Office." In line with that logic, Microsoft has proposed yet another document standard which would be incompatible with ODF, ECMA 376.

Developers at the Open Document Foundation have managed to prove Microsoft wrong. They've released a plugin for MS Word versions 97-2007 which allows Word to open and save in the ".acme" format, an ODF compatible format which can retain all the information contained in any ".doc" file, without losing formatting and, more importantly, without a "major redesign of MS Office." They've essentially destroyed Microsoft's argument as to why they can't fully support ODF, and in the process given us the basis for a universally compatible document format with actual working support across platforms.

You can download the "Acme 376 Compatibility Kit" from the Open Document Foundation and, if you're not cross-eyed from the long and tedious explanation of why we don't live in a universally compatible world, you can read more on this nerdy but uniquely important battle in several places around the web.

Tags: Acme 376, Acme376, ECMA 376, Ecma376, ODF 1.0, Odf1.0, Open Document Format, OpenDocumentFormat, Word 2000, Word 2003, Word 2007, Word 97, Word2000, Word2003, Word2007, Word97

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Gardiner Westbound said 3:14PM on 1-28-2007

Microsoft is fighting a rear guard action on several fronts to retain its monopoly. I find MS Word and OpenOffice are very compatible. Power users who avail themselves of every obscure formatting device in MS Word may have some issues, but the vast majority of users don't.

EngadgetSucks said 4:11PM on 1-28-2007

Who cares? Everyone I know uses Microsoft Office and that's the file format we exchange files in. XML word processing documents are for catchphrase-addicted losers.

Peter said 5:13PM on 1-28-2007

EngadgetSucks - Wow, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. You might, but not everyone uses Office.
It's also about exchanging information with other applications. With an XML format, I can take a Word document or a spreadsheet and import the actual content into a database or some other back-end application. XML isn't just a catchphrase, it's about the power to use the content anywhere.

Tek said 5:57PM on 1-28-2007

I like the new Office 2007 Ribbon. As a non power user of Word I've already found that the Word documents I create take me less time and look better.

It ain't the storage format that counts ... its the actual tool used to create the documents that counts.

Office 2007 is better.

Eric Eggertson said 12:39AM on 1-29-2007

Interesting. I haven't been following ODF. Will it allow you to post Word docs on a web site, and let people download and view, regardless of whether they have Word?

Mike said 6:56AM on 2-01-2007

Yeah, why don't we save bitmaps and everything else to XML? Because XML is slow and stupid. Write the code to actually read that file format and be done with it, or stop being lazy and do an Export.

I like how you guys people blame Microsoft for not doing something for your free loading backsides, then when they do you blame them for wanting to take over the world. Fanboys.

Scott said 6:42PM on 2-05-2007

This isn't about changing the software you use, it's about the format that it is stored in. It is the same thing as saving a document to s sheet of paper. Microsoft does not have the right to own the only storage format that is acceptable. In the end Microsoft is going to lose because they can't hold a monopoly on the storage format.

Mike talk about slow, Microsoft is notorious for making bloated code! Why are you defending them? Do they pay people like you to sit in sites like these and brag them up? You obviously don't enjoy the freedom of choice in software, do you.

tapas kumar said 5:43AM on 2-12-2007

http://www.teachmeit.com/MS/MSA/content.asp

SPM said 8:12AM on 3-06-2007

>>>In fact, Mike Champion, of Microsoft's XML team says "there is not an official standard for one that represents all the features supported in the MS Office binary formats

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