As mentioned in the previous post Microsoft Office 2007 Service pack 2 (SP2) would include support for OpenDocument Format (ODF) and would be released 28th April and here it is – Microsoft Download. SP2 is a 290MB download so you do not want to be on a slow internet connection when you are getting it. Of course there are other features in SP2 but we are just looking at the ODF support. All features can be seen here.

From the Microsoft information page:

OpenDocument Format (ODF) support SP2 lets you open, edit, and save documents in version 1.1 of the ODF for Word) , for Excel , and for PowerPoint . Users of these Office programs can now open, edit, and save files in the OpenDocument Text (*.odt), OpenDocument Spreadsheet (*.ods), and OpenDocument Presentations (*.odp) formats.

What does this mean?

These means that users of software that users the OpenDocument Format  (OpenOffice.org, GoogleDocs and many other office applications) should be able to share, collaborate and edit documents with users of Microsoft Office (this has not be possible as standard before). This should be a very positive step forward in the adoption of Open Standards and should help the UK Government action plan.

New functionality will allow you to save and open documents in OpenDocument Format.

What are OpenDocument Formats (ODF)?

OpenDocument Format is the way an Office application like a word processor can save a document.  An example of a proprietary format is .doc which has been used for many years for Microsoft Word. The difference between .doc and ODF is that the  technical specification is freely available (from OASIS here) for anybody.  So anyone can implement ODF into their application.  Although there are more formats SP2 covers the format for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation programs. The file formats extensions are as follows:

.odt for word processing (equivalent .doc in Word)
.ods for spreadsheets (equivalent .xls on Excel)
.odp for presentations (equivalent .ppt in PowerPoint)

Why are Open standards and Open Document Formats so important?

Open Documents are the best way to able to share and collaborate on documents across multiple systems and multiple platforms . If everybody is using the same open format it should not matter what software they are using (Microsft Office, OpenOffice, Google Docs etc) or even what operating system they are using (Windows, Mac, Linux etc). This is far better than everyone trying to use their own proprietary format and then having problems when trying to share documents. The second very important benefit is that it future profs our documents. In 50 years time when we find some electronic documents that we want to see they may be held in a proprietary format that we have no access to (maybe the company has long gone out of business or we simply have no rights to view the documents). If documents are held in an open format then, with the required skills, we should be able to see these documents easily again.

The Future

This is hopefully the start of a new era in open standards support by Microsoft which will be continued in the soon to be released Windows 7 and Office 10. Only time will tell.

Below A few screenshots on the ‘Save as’ option of Excel, Word and PowerPoint:

Excel ODF support

Word ODF support

Powerpoint ODF support

]]> http://outserveblog.com/2009/04/29/open-source/opendocument-format-support-in-microsoft-office-is-here/feed/ 2 http://outserveblog.com/2009/03/15/open-source/microsoft-supports-odf-opendocument-format/ http://outserveblog.com/2009/03/15/open-source/microsoft-supports-odf-opendocument-format/#comments Sun, 15 Mar 2009 21:59:25 +0000 Phil Oakley http://outserveblog.com/?p=147 It has been widely publicised that Microsoft Office 2007 will support OpenDocument Formats (ODF) from Service Pack 2 (which is expected to be released in the first half of 2009).

What may not be so widely known is that Windows 7 (the latest version of Windows which was available as a free beta) ships with a copy of WordPad that supports ODF as standard as the screenshot shows below:

This can only be seen as a positive step in the wider use of open formats and hopefully in Microsoft support for ODF.

By far most recommended changes to try to speed up OpenOffice.org is to alter your settings under Tools>Options>Openoffice>Memory

My setting are shown below:

Undo number of steps 20
Graphic cache
Use…120MB
Memory per object 20mb

Cache for objects 20

Full details can be found here:

http://www.zolved.com/synapse/view_content/28209/How_to_make_OpenOffice_run_faster_in_Ubuntu

Also under Tools>Options>Openoffice>Java you can untick use JRE as it is not required for lots of functions (you can always turn it back on).

It all this does still not produce a fast enough file it may be worth looking at Abiword an open source,  fast and lightweight alternative Word Processor which is available for Windows and Linux

I know how he feels, we sometimes get so used to a certain interfaces that we can struggle with even the smallest change. OpenOffice 3 and its earlier versions have a classic spreadsheet layout and most Excel users (version 2003 and prior) will find the interface instantly recognisable BUT where is, our old favourite, the Autosum button. In Excel this was the Sigma sign normally to be found on the standard toolbar at the top.

With OpenOffice.org Autosum is still the Sigma sign but is on the Formula Bar (when you are clicked in a cell) and of course just with Excel you can type straight into a cell e.g. “=sum(cellref1:cellref2)”

Screenshot below shows the AutoSum button in OpenOffice.org:

Autosum Button on OO.o

Full release details from Openoffice.org:

This release fixes a number of minor issues reported with OpenOffice.org 3.0, released on October 13th last
year. Although minor releases normally do not include new features, there are two points of interest: enhanced support for grammar checkers, and an increase in the number of words held in personal word lists to 30,000.

A full list of all the issues fixed may be found in the developers’
release notes at http://development.openoffice.org/releases/3.0.1.html

OpenOffice.org 3.0.1 is available now from http://download.openoffice.org
in over 90 languages and for all major platforms. For the availability of further languages and platforms please check http://download.openoffice.org/other.html

The next release of OpenOffice.org to contain significant new user
features will be OpenOffice.org 3.1, scheduled for general availability at the end of March.

But every now and again new versions of software come along that can affect many people and that can take a product mainstream. The best example of this was probably Windows 95 and both Word and Excel both had landmark versions that saw them over the ‘tipping point. (there are many reasons for the Word and Excel success including price and distribution but both products required to be at a level of maturity and usability for popular widespread adoption).

For many followers of software the upcoming release of OpenOffice.org 3.0 is possibly just such a release and there is a belief that this could be the tipping point for OpenOffice.org leading to worldwide adoption from schools and colleges to homes users and businesses of all sizes.

At this point it is worth explaining what OpenOffice.org is. Without a large marketing budget Openoffice.org is not the most well known. Openoffice.org (sometimes known as ooo the .org is always shown as someone else owns the trademark to ‘open office’) from Sun Microsystems is an open source equivalent suite of products to Microsoft Office or other office suites (yes there are few others still left). Where Microsoft has Word Openoffice.org has Writer where Microsoft has Excel OpenOffice.org has Calc. For many these two programs cover 95% of their software use but Openoffice.org also has equivalent presentation programs and a database. It does not include an email and calendering application although there are many alternatives to Outlook but does offer programs for drawing and mathematical formulae.

For the ‘iPhone generation’ this is not a release full of the latest whiz bang features and cutting edge innovation (c’mon this is office software) but the final product appears a more complete office suite that could have all the functionality for the majority of users. OpenOffice.org has been the office suite of choice for most Linux distributions for some time and a version for Windows has had a reasonable adoption but up until now there has not be a native Apple Mac version, yes you could install it with some messing around or you could even use a Mac modified version called NeoOffice. Now finally with the release of version 3.0 there is a full Mac version (intel only not power pc) and it should not go unnoticed that the most popular software purchased for Mac’s is Microsft Office. Until the recent release of iWork for the Mac there was no popular complete office suite apart from Microsoft Office. With so many new and young users of Mac’s OpenOffice.org have a real opportunity, after spending a lot their money on the hardware not everybody wants to spend more money on Microsoft Licenses.

The other compelling reason to look at OpenOffice.org is formats. OpenOffice.org 2.x could read and produce .doc, .xls and other proprietary Microsoft formats and this should be improved in in version 3.0 plus the addition of being able to read .docx, .xlsx and .pptx (which is more than Microsoft office 2003 user can do as standard) Openoffice 3 will not be able to produce in these ooxml formats but in my opinion that is a good thing. One of the greatest benefits of using open source software is also adopting open formats the default format forOpenOffice.org is ODF (OpenDocument Format) each program has its own ODF format Writer has .odt. Calc has .ods etc. With the release of Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 Microsoft’s own office suite will support ODF. This means that an OpenOffice.org user will be able to exchange documents, edits and updates with a Microsoft Office user all using an open standard format, this really is a great step forward. Of course there are many other products that support ODF, not just the two mentioned, from web applications such as Google Docs and Zoho to office suites including IBM Lotus Symphony and WordPerfect Office.

With full cross platform support, fully open source, really useful open formats supported by the major players and a Firefox-like extensions-ecosystem has OpenOffice.org’s time come? Only time will tell. I hope so.

Outserve helps its clients assess their approach to office software and office document formats. If you think your business could benefit from looking at free and open source software such as OpenOffice.org please contact us.