Comments on: How Does OpenOffice 3.0 Beta Handle Microsoft Office Files?

By: InTheLoop

InTheLoop — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:10:32 +0000

OK. I finally got the bugs submitted:
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=91881
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=91882
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=91883

By: tripleii

tripleii — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:05:51 +0000

Hardly surprising. This is the ECMA submitted format, not even the “improved” format. It can’t be implemented cleanly. The only saving grace is simply that is someone is stupid enough to use the current XML like format (instead of setting of for the older binary formats), they will work as well when MS implements the new revised format.

Something that would be interesting to see is how good or bad Office 2007 exports to the old binary formats. Do you lose formatting opening with Office 2003?

By: T. J. Brumfield

T. J. Brumfield — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:03:21 +0000

> Text does not always wrap to the next line at the same point.

Where you using the same fonts?

There are also reference documents that make for easy testing.

http://katana.oooninja.com/w/reference_sample_documents

By: Marius

Marius — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:14:46 +0000

My understanding is the Microsoft will switch to OpenDocument format anyway. So I believe it would be better to check MS Office for compatibility with OpenOffice.

By: InTheLoop

InTheLoop — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:22:49 +0000

Thanks for the suggestion to file these as bugs. I definitely will, assuming they have not already been filed. I hope to file them today, but I am finding OpenOffice’s “IssueTracker” rather difficult to use.

Roland - I will certainly consider following this article up with some that look at OpenOffice > Office and at other parts of OpenOffice/Office. Let me know if there is anything in particular you are interested in.

By: Roland

Roland — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:06:22 +0000

I want a product that can manage both in MS or Open Source. How about documents, spreadsheets, etc to be convert to MS office?

By: rittmey

rittmey — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:00:14 +0000

Please file your findings as separate bug reports. That’s exactly what a beta is for, after all

This is especially important since a lot of people in the community do not have MS Office themselves. So I guess these kind of reports are not that often.

Good to read about the current state though. Good news!

By: InTheLoop

InTheLoop — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 23:25:13 +0000

Hussam - You mean Office 2007 .docx? Thanks. Corrected.

By: Hussam Al-Tayeb

Hussam Al-Tayeb — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:07:51 +0000

The bullet issue also shows when importing MS Office 2003 .doc files.

By: manny

manny — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:21:55 +0000

you should really report those bugs are see if they have been reported.

also not having the same fonts messes up lots of things.