Office Opens Up
Posted by Kevin Horrocks on 21 May 2008 - 18:34 · 42 comments & 10822 views
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Full name: Kevin Horrocks
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Forum name: Horrocks
Contact: via forum PM
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(5 replies)
#1 Posted by EduardValencia on 21 May 2008 - 18:39
- Well this is very good,any complaints on this one?
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#1.1 Posted by MioTheGreat on 21 May 2008 - 22:14
- I'm sure Adobe will bitch about it.
Microsoft had XPS/PDF saving abilities in Office 2007 during the betas. They removed it after Adobe threatened them, or something. -
#1.2 Posted by +TCLN Ryster on 21 May 2008 - 22:21
- (MioTheGreat said @ #1.1)I'm sure Adobe will bitch about it.
Microsoft had XPS/PDF saving abilities in Office 2007 during the betas. They removed it after Adobe threatened them, or something.
They didn't remove it entirely. They merely disabled access to it. There is a standalone download available (since 2006) from Microsoft Downloads that re-enables XPS and PDF saving support.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;DisplayLang=en -
#1.3 Posted by trip21 on 21 May 2008 - 22:23
- (MioTheGreat said @ #1.1)I'm sure Adobe will bitch about it.
Microsoft had XPS/PDF saving abilities in Office 2007 during the betas. They removed it after Adobe threatened them, or something.
They actually offered it as an add in for the RTM version from the office website as well, I don't think it lasted for very long though -
#1.4 Posted by MioTheGreat on 21 May 2008 - 23:36
- (TCLN Ryster said @ #1.2)(MioTheGreat said @ #1.1)I'm sure Adobe will bitch about it.
Microsoft had XPS/PDF saving abilities in Office 2007 during the betas. They removed it after Adobe threatened them, or something.
They didn't remove it entirely. They merely disabled access to it. There is a standalone download available (since 2006) from Microsoft Downloads that re-enables XPS and PDF saving support.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;DisplayLang=en
I'm aware of that. I have them installed.
I think that was the agreement they made in order to keep Adobe off their backs. -
#1.5 Posted by Smigit on 22 May 2008 - 06:32
- (trip21 said @ #1.3)It's still available(MioTheGreat said @ #1.1)I'm sure Adobe will bitch about it.
Microsoft had XPS/PDF saving abilities in Office 2007 during the betas. They removed it after Adobe threatened them, or something.
They actually offered it as an add in for the RTM version from the office website as well, I don't think it lasted for very long though
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(2 replies)
#2 Posted by
markjensen on 21 May 2008 - 18:42
It's about time for ODF! Microsoft is (was?) part of the OASIS group that came up with the ODF standard, so it always seemed odd to me that they chose not to support it. And, it has been a few years, so I guess "about time" is my official response.
Quite a surprise, I might add.-
#2.1 Posted by EduardValencia on 21 May 2008 - 19:18
- Yep agreee,i was surprised too,better interoperability. However it wan't a MS initiative,good to know that the goverment and customers voice was heard.
This is very positive to many people. -
#2.2 Posted by tiagosilva29 on 21 May 2008 - 22:44
- Gonna rain on your parade, Mark. A comment on OSNews sums up all that I think of this:
No, not necessarily.
A broken implementation is worse than no implementation. MS are experts at that. They will bend the UI so that you would only *ever* want to import an ODF, and always save to OOXML for any hope of sanity. (...)
My stance with Microsoft in these days, for _anything_ they say is:
I'll believe it when we see it and not a moment before.
Quoted for truth.
Microsoft is also in W3C and other organizations/consortia. It really doesn't mean a thing.
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#3 Posted by buletov on 21 May 2008 - 19:03
- Well, their plugin for ODF is out for some time now, I think that this is natural evolution of their, we must admit, great product.
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#4 Posted by kouhii00 on 21 May 2008 - 19:06
- hopefully no corporate jerk will kill it for the community..
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(2 replies)
#5 Posted by jgrodri on 21 May 2008 - 19:13
- with pdf built into office, I expect Adobe to lose quite a bit of their lower end market.
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#5.1 Posted by +TCLN Ryster on 21 May 2008 - 22:22
- Like I said above, Office 2007 has had the ability to save as PDF free of charge since it was released in 2006. You just had to download the free add-on from Microsoft downloads.
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(2 replies)
#6 Posted by C_Guy on 21 May 2008 - 19:24
- Microsoft wanted to include PDF support in Office 2007 originally but Adobe freaked out. Somehow Apple can get away with it in OS X no problem, but putting it in Office is a horrible crime!
Or.... was a horrible crime
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#6.1 Posted by EduardValencia on 21 May 2008 - 19:26
- Yep i prefer .PDF been opened by adobe reader or acrobat,separate from office,but well if it supports it ,that's ok.
I love adobe,specially 8 series,and continue to use it
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#6.2 Posted by kaiwai on 22 May 2008 - 01:01
- (EduardValencia said @ #6.1)Yep i prefer .PDF been opened by adobe reader or acrobat,separate from office,but well if it supports it ,that's ok.
I love adobe,specially 8 series,and continue to use it
So we've actually finally located that one person who likes Adobe reader; let me guess, you also like Vista and Norton products?
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(7 replies)
#7 Posted by +Black.Mac on 21 May 2008 - 19:45
- the ODF/PDF feature has been an available plug-in for a while now.
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#7.1 Posted by kaiwai on 22 May 2008 - 01:01
- (Black.Mac said @ #7)the ODF/PDF feature has been an available plug-in for a while now.
From Sun Microsystems, not Microsoft. -
#7.2 Posted by +Black.Mac on 22 May 2008 - 02:30
- (kaiwai said @ #7.1)(Black.Mac said @ #7)the ODF/PDF feature has been an available plug-in for a while now.
From Sun Microsystems, not Microsoft.
um...no the PDF plug-in has been on MS servers since late 2006 -
#7.3 Posted by kaiwai on 22 May 2008 - 05:33
- (Black.Mac said @ #7.2)(kaiwai said @ #7.1)(Black.Mac said @ #7)the ODF/PDF feature has been an available plug-in for a while now.
From Sun Microsystems, not Microsoft.
um...no the PDF plug-in has been on MS servers since late 2006
Excuse me, you said ODF/PDF. THERE WAS NO ODF PLUGIN ON THE MICROSOFT WEBSITE IN 2006 - DO YOU UNDERSTAND? DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH? DO YOU REALISE THAT ODF AND PDF ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS?! -
#7.4 Posted by Code.Red on 22 May 2008 - 05:41
- (kaiwai said @ #7.3)Excuse me, you said ODF/PDF. THERE WAS NO ODF PLUGIN ON THE MICROSOFT WEBSITE IN 2006 - DO YOU UNDERSTAND? DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH? DO YOU REALISE THAT ODF AND PDF ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS?!
Oh jesus, calm down. -
#7.5 Posted by +rm20010 on 22 May 2008 - 07:44
- (Code.Red said @ #7.4)(kaiwai said @ #7.3)Excuse me, you said ODF/PDF. THERE WAS NO ODF PLUGIN ON THE MICROSOFT WEBSITE IN 2006 - DO YOU UNDERSTAND? DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH? DO YOU REALISE THAT ODF AND PDF ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS?!
Oh jesus, calm down.
^^ times two
He meant XPS/PDF. Sheesh. -
#7.6 Posted by +TCLN Ryster on 22 May 2008 - 07:59
- (Code.Red said @ #7.4)(kaiwai said @ #7.3)Excuse me, you said ODF/PDF. THERE WAS NO ODF PLUGIN ON THE MICROSOFT WEBSITE IN 2006 - DO YOU UNDERSTAND? DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH? DO YOU REALISE THAT ODF AND PDF ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS?!
Oh jesus, calm down.
Kaiwai, get a grip!!. He never said the ODF plugin was on the Microsoft Website, he said the PDF plugin was. He was responding to the previous comment that said the ODF and PDF plugins were on the Sun website when only the ODF one is, so it seems it is YOU who cannot understand and cannot speak English. -
#7.7 Posted by +Antaris on 22 May 2008 - 08:45
- (kaiwai said @ #7.3)(Black.Mac said @ #7.2)(kaiwai said @ #7.1)(Black.Mac said @ #7)the ODF/PDF feature has been an available plug-in for a while now.
From Sun Microsystems, not Microsoft.
um...no the PDF plug-in has been on MS servers since late 2006
Excuse me, you said ODF/PDF. THERE WAS NO ODF PLUGIN ON THE MICROSOFT WEBSITE IN 2006 - DO YOU UNDERSTAND? DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH? DO YOU REALISE THAT ODF AND PDF ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS?!
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(1 reply)
#8 Posted by +imis on 21 May 2008 - 20:08
- i can not believe that micro soft(king of arrogant ) has listen to someone. i guess sun will rise from west tomorrow.
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#8.1 Posted by +TCLN Ryster on 22 May 2008 - 08:08
- What?
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(2 replies)
#9 Posted by computergeek83 on 21 May 2008 - 20:21
- but wait until the year after next, Office 2009 will introduce .odfx file format that is only compatible with MS products, MS isnt doing this for the betterment of the world, their doing this to retain market share and in the long run will probably just hijack the odf format for their own purposes.
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#9.1 Posted by Jugalator on 21 May 2008 - 21:54
- Have MS hijacked an open file format recently? .doc was their very own, and not the best of analogies if you're talking of hijacks.
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(1 reply)
#10 Posted by theyarecomingforyou on 21 May 2008 - 21:43
- Will this support the saving of files in those formats or is it simply to open them?
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#10.1 Posted by acxz on 21 May 2008 - 22:09
- Saving. Essentially it's installing this plugin, but with ODF support included as well.
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#11 Posted by El Sid on 21 May 2008 - 23:28
- Wow, support for standards.
Look out kids, Lucifer is buying Ice skates!
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(1 reply)
#12 Posted by ajua on 21 May 2008 - 23:45
- I hope that they as well make some kind of standalone reader for XPS, i found the format great. The problem with PDF is that for most newer features you have to stick with Adobe Reader, which really is a faulty program that is slow to show pages and kills the joy of reading papers by having to wait for some page to continue scrolling once in a while.
The format support is becoming more standard nowadays in all fields if computing, they can only get better with time. -
#12.1 Posted by kaiwai on 22 May 2008 - 01:05
- (ajua said @ #12)I hope that they as well make some kind of standalone reader for XPS, i found the format great. The problem with PDF is that for most newer features you have to stick with Adobe Reader, which really is a faulty program that is slow to show pages and kills the joy of reading papers by having to wait for some page to continue scrolling once in a while.
The format support is becoming more standard nowadays in all fields if computing, they can only get better with time.
What new features? I've yet to come across a PDF that isn't supported by Evince.
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(3 replies)
#13 Posted by MulletRobZ on 22 May 2008 - 01:24
- And how long will it take for ODF to replace Word as THE mainstream text editing program, seeing how Microsoft's propietary format has been the de facto format for years?
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#13.1 Posted by kaiwai on 22 May 2008 - 02:30
- (MulletRobZ said @ #13)And how long will it take for ODF to replace Word as THE mainstream text editing program, seeing how Microsoft's propietary format has been the de facto format for years?
*.doc is being replaced with OOXML, not ODF.
Wher eon earth did you get the idea that Microsoft is going to ODF when there has been so much news about OOXML? -
#13.2 Posted by +rm20010 on 22 May 2008 - 02:32
- Hmm?
"And how long will it take for ODF to replace Word as THE mainstream text editing program...."
Either you meant a free suite like OpenOffice.org or the document format. In either case, not anytime soon. Hell, .docx isn't even the de facto format yet.
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(1 reply)
#14 Posted by hardgiant on 22 May 2008 - 04:44
- PDF just plain sucks, I was trying get data down to two pages for printing and could not get the right formatting. There was no way to remove the garbage I did not want to print. I tried convertors and Adobe Acrobat 8.1.2 and still could not get the two pages that I wanted.
In the end I had to use the screenshot tool and the printed text did not look good. -
#14.1 Posted by markjensen on 22 May 2008 - 14:25
- That is completely NOT a fault with the .pdf format. Now, if you wanted to say that Adobe's PDF creator tool sucks, then you would have a point.
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#15 Posted by Tha Bloo Monkee on 23 May 2008 - 13:27
- Great news! One of the annoying things about using OpenOffice was having to save it as a different format (.rtf usually for simple documents) when I had to send someone a document or open it elsewhere (like school), where they didn't have OpenOffice.
For the record though, it won't be on installed on everyone's computer overnight tho, so it'll take some time before you can send an ODF to anyone and they'll still easily be able to open it. (You know how some people are with computer's, "I can't open it!"
"We have heard from customers and governments that they would like to see us do this. Now is the time to announce this support. It's also important to announce this now because we want to get involved in the maintenance of ODF," said Tom Robertson, general manager of Interoperability and Standards at Microsoft.
By monitoring the community needs, Microsoft hopes to expand Office to be format friendly for all users.