Openoffice compatibility problems

[emrys]

In my job I share lots of word and excel documents with windows users and end up having compatibility issues way too often.

The .docx format is unusable and .doc a nightmare when tables, figures, formulas or any other not trivial format is involved.

In my opinion, this is the single most important problem for windows users trying ubuntu. At least, it is for me (ubuntu user since Hardy) and the people I "converted" along this years (most of them returned to Windows because of this).

I started a Ubuntu Brainstorm idea to try to bring the spotlight to this important issue: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/20877/

I do think this is a more critical issue than most that keep devs busy and if we don't solve it, bug #1 will remain open.

[tvtech]

In my job I share lots of word and excel documents with windows users and end up having compatibility issues way too often.

The .docx format is unusable and .doc a nightmare when tables, figures, formulas or any other not trivial format is involved.

In my opinion, this is the single most important problem for windows users trying ubuntu. At least, it is for me (ubuntu user since Hardy) and the people I "converted" along this years (most of them returned to Windows because of this).

I started a Ubuntu Brainstorm idea to try to bring the spotlight to this important issue: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/20877/

I do think this is a more critical issue than most that keep devs busy and if we don't solve it, bug #1 will remain open.

open office officially supports the .doc format from 2003, including basic VBA macro support. .docX does not work fully it is a specialized format and uses microsoft proprietary nonsense. Advanced formatting does not transfer, they are working on this for openoffice 4.0 but you should really address this issue in their forums. While conanical supplies open office and provides security updates for the version it supplies it does not develop it, sun microsystems does. THEIR FORUMS ARE THE ONES TO ADDRESS THIS, not ubuntu brainstorm.

[emrys]

open office officially supports the .doc format from 2003, including basic VBA macro support. .docX does not work fully it is a specialized format and uses microsoft proprietary nonsense. Advanced formatting does not transfer, they are working on this for openoffice 4.0 but you should really address this issue in their forums. While conanical supplies open office and provides security updates for the version it supplies it does not develop it, sun microsystems does. THEIR FORUMS ARE THE ONES TO ADDRESS THIS, not ubuntu brainstorm.

As long as Canonical is devoting resources towards improving all aspects of the desktop (Gnome, KDE, Linux Kernel, etc.) and given that Openoffice is a Critical application, I think this is a perfect place to discuss how we (the community and Canonical) can improve Ubuntu and its default office application.

[emrys]

open office officially supports the .doc format from 2003, including basic VBA macro support.

The .doc format is officially supported but that doesn't mean too much when it is practically unusable in strong sharing environments. I don't know if tables, forms and formulas are considered advance formatting or not, but it is a fact that there are huge compatibility problems with them.

You learn to avoid those problems not using certain formating options and so on, but that is a bad way to deal with the problem...

[emrys]

I recently used IBM Lotus Symphony and, although it has lots of problems on its own, it does a better job in terms of compatibility. At least with some documents.

[ErikEhlert]

Well, aren't there other OpenOffice programs for when you don't want the file to be saved as .doc, it contains spreadsheet information, and it will still open in Excel? I am sure OO has a spreadsheet program somewhere included.

[emrys]

Well, aren't there other OpenOffice programs for when you don't want the file to be saved as .doc, it contains spreadsheet information, and it will still open in Excel? I am sure OO has a spreadsheet program somewhere included.

I think you misunderstand the point made. We are talking about compatibility problems of a .doc file created with Microsoft Office and then opened with Oo (or xls, etc.). Of course Oo has Spreadsheet and others.

[Hagar Delest]

OOo 3.0.1 and 3.1.0 have a terrible bug with tables saved in .doc files. It has been fixed but still some corner cases.

Have you tried the Sun version? See [Ubuntu] Installing OOo on Debian and Co.

MS will never allow anyone to make a perfect filter (they will retain some key information for sure). Else, how make customers buy their product if a free alternative does it?

You're riding the wrong horse IMHO. The real battle is on the adoption of ODF. MS has announced its support in latest version of Office but it's not really implemented so results are rather poor.

NB: why use Ubuntu resources on such issues? Better use the official version (from Sun) IMHO, less troubles and less work for the Ubuntu team who can work on other problems.

[emrys]

OOo 3.0.1 and 3.1.0 have a terrible bug with tables saved in .doc files. It has been fixed but still some corner cases.

Have you tried the Sun version? See [Ubuntu] Installing OOo on Debian and Co.

MS will never allow anyone to make a perfect filter (they will retain some key information for sure). Else, how make customers buy their product if a free alternative does it?

You're riding the wrong horse IMHO. The real battle is on the adoption of ODF. MS has announced its support in latest version of Office but it's not really implemented so results are rather poor.

NB: why use Ubuntu resources on such issues? Better use the official version (from Sun) IMHO, less troubles and less work for the Ubuntu team who can work on other problems.

I don't know about that. The adoption of Oo depends on it's compatibility with Word so we are trapped in a interesting circle.

If you work in a collaborative environment, linux fails simply because of Oo. Right know, thanks to wine and Microsoft Office 2007 running in it, I can keep my Ubuntu, but sadly that's the only way, at least for me.

The compatibility problems are huge and very important. Also they are hurting a lot linux adoption. I don't know a better place to spend resources. Don't know if canonical's, sun's or who's.

[Hagar Delest]

The adoption of Oo depends on it's compatibility with Word

Not at all!!!

MS Office will always prevent other applications to be compatible with their products. The best proof is that even the OOXML that has been ISO-certified is not supported by MS Office! They use a customized file format with slight changes.

The key point is not the compatibility with MS Office products, it's making the users aware of the importance of using a truly documented and open standard like ODF to insure they keep the property of their own data.

The business model of MS is rather clear: use the vendor lock-in policy to keep their market share. It just means that they're afraid of OOo and not that confident in their own products: their features may not weight enough in the balance compared to a free application. So if they can't keep the customers by providing a better application, they will use the file format to keep them.

Why MS has tolerated the spread of pirated MS Office copies around the world? To increase the user base and make their file formats de facto standards. And it worked. Now everybody think that the .doc/.xls/.ppt are the only format they should use to exchange files (even if they don't have to be modified!!).