OpenOffice support for MS 2003-2007?

[SonicSteve]

Just wondering if anyone knows if openoffice may soon/ever have compatibility with MS Office 2003 formats.
So does anyone know?

[jrusso2]

I think the Novell version of open office already has support for Office 2007 formats

[starcraft.man]

I think the Novell version of open office already has support for Office 2007 formats

Novell version of open office? Last I checked OpenOffice was backed/developed by Sun Microsystems, there been a buy out I don't know about?

I assume however that you are referring to the ooxml format? Best to ask them (http://www.openoffice.org/index.html) (you should probably ask on their forum or search it). I really don't know, nor do I think many sun devs/community OO coders check here >.>.

[WalmartSniperLX]

Novell version of open office? Last I checked OpenOffice was backed/developed by Sun Microsystems, there been a buy out I don't know about?

You do realize openoffice can be modified and therefore many distributions have their own modified version of it

[starcraft.man]

You do realize openoffice can be modified and therefore many distributions have their own modified version of it

Right, my bad. I have to get used to how all this open source stuff works/develops. I did a bit of research and Novell does have its own version of OO which it has modified to include full support for OOXML it seems.

I am a bit confused though about this format, did Novell only get to create this support due to their licensing deal with MS? That would seem to be in violation to what's stated on the wiki page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Open_XML) of it where its stated that its an entirely open format (at least MS says it is, though its under what they call "free and perpetual license"). Can someone explain this a bit clearer... it seems very strange. If OOXML format was free to be used by any OSS app, why didn't Sun and the OO coders release their own plugin to add this functionality (where as it seems novell has done so here (http://download.novell.com/SummaryFree.jsp?buildid=ESrjfdE4U58~)). Additionally, their released plugin I seems only to be for windows and SUSE linux, I assume they have included code that detects what you are running, why didn't they release it for everyone. I just don't like how that's gone about...

In any case, I don't see any problem with the .odt format that OO already uses, its already been accepted by numerous standards organizations world wide, and it is really free to be implemented.

Thanks to anyone who clarifies this, I'd like to understand more about it...

[Andrewie]

Right, my bad. I have to get used to how all this open source stuff works/develops. I did a bit of research and Novell does have its own version of OO which it has modified to include full support for OOXML it seems.

I am a bit confused though about this format, did Novell only get to create this support due to their licensing deal with MS? That would seem to be in violation to what's stated on the wiki page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Open_XML) of it where its stated that its an entirely open format (at least MS says it is, though its under what they call "free and perpetual license"). Can someone explain this a bit clearer... it seems very strange. If OOXML format was free to be used by any OSS app, why didn't Sun and the OO coders release their own plugin to add this functionality (where as it seems novell has done so here (http://download.novell.com/SummaryFree.jsp?buildid=ESrjfdE4U58~)). Additionally, their released plugin I seems only to be for windows and SUSE linux, I assume they have included code that detects what you are running, why didn't they release it for everyone. I just don't like how that's gone about...

In any case, I don't see any problem with the .odt format that OO already uses, its already been accepted by numerous standards organizations world wide, and it is really free to be implemented.

Thanks to anyone who clarifies this, I'd like to understand more about it...

That was part of deal, Novell's Open Office (which is pretty much normal open office with a few patches) gets full office 2007 support, and office 2007 gets full open document support. Novell's releasing anything that they can up stream so if the current rumor is true, we MAY get 2007 in the upstream openoffice

[testube_babies]

There are two possibilities:

1) http://www.zamzar.com

2) http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=386385

[Anthem]

Novell's OOo is actually Ximian OOo, which has been superior to the Sun branch for ages.

[starcraft.man]

2) http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=386385

Hmmm, looks like people already got the plugin working... I guess that answer's the OP's question and mine. So guess its already been worked. I don't like it though, I'll stick to my free formats.

[DoctorMO]

Can someone explain this a bit clearer... it seems very strange. If OOXML format was free to be used by any OSS app, why didn't Sun and the OO coders release their own plugin to add this functionality

If I was an upstream developer I wouldn't want to touch the format, not only is it not in ISO yet thus a number of patents may still be lingering via ECMAs legals. but it's a rubish format which is specific to Office 2007. a 5 year old raised by wolves on the moons of abidos could have written a better document standard in crayon that what Microsoft has seemingly done is a memory dump of their documents once loaded.

I'm sorry but the format isn't good enough and should be scrapped, if anyone wants extra features that ODF doesn't provide then they should get together and extend ODF until it does; providing a format specific to Office bugs is not a real way to go and I wouldn't recommend any company that cares about it's files to use the format.

[theicyj]

Sweet, the guide here:

2) http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=386385
worked like a charm!