Marcus, That's an interesting idea from you and Andreas.
> -----Original Message----- > From: Marcus [mailto:marcus.m...@wtnet.de] > Sent: Friday, January 1, 2016 01:24 > To: dev@openoffice.apache.org > Subject: Re: <DKIM> Re: Complaint Writer lost 36 pages of my document > with no auto backup copy. > [ ... ] > > As an AOO user, I would sadly miss the ability to directly edit > foreign > > file formats - they are often effectively the interchange format for > > collaborations. I want to see ASAP if I am using some formatting that > > cannot be preserved in the file's primary format. > > > > I suspect I am not the only user who would go with LibreOffice if it > > allows me to edit MS-Word documents directly and OpenOffice does not. > > to prevent any misunderstandings. It's not about to kick out any foreign > formats. The point is the following: > > - Write something in Writer > - Save it as ODT > - The editor stays with the text in ODT format > - Then save it as DOC > - The editor stays with the text in DOC format > > --> And this is the point to change. The editor should stay with the > original ODT format and not with a foreign format. [orcmid] Unfortunately, the offer to open Microsoft Office formats in OpenOffice and continue to work in those formats is a long-standing "feature" of OpenOffice.org. It is clear that there are people who only use Apache OpenOffice in this manner, mainly on Windows, as a works-for-them Microsoft Office format processor. Of course, they also have a complaint about failures of fidelity in that case, since that little detail was not featured on the promotional pages urging folks to use OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office. (That Apache OpenOffice does not round-trip OOXML at all is another limitation that we tend to brush off.) On the other hand, because we cannot assure preservation of fidelity in this manner, it might be useful to do something that Microsoft Office Web Apps did at one time. If you imported an ODF-format document created by OpenOffice, and you wanted to edit it, a copy in OOXML format would be made on the server and that is what would be edited. That made it clear what was happening, and the original was still available in its unmodified form. I don't think that happens any more, though. I must try it again now that Office 365 and the Office Web applications are more mature. I think the strangest things about Apache OpenOffice in this respect are features of AOO that *only* work if files are saved to .doc or .xls format. That is very weird and demonstrates how conflicted we seem to be about interoperability with Microsoft Office. Meanwhile, I think it would be wonderful if on opening documents there were *accurate* warnings that the document relies on format features that are not supported and that will not be presented or preserved properly. (If we preserved the original as a backup, that would be helpful though, so something to think about.) I think it would be great if the same were true on saving a document in a format for which features are not preserved by the save operation. Not the scare warning, but accurate warnings. Not necessarily detailed. Then the recommendation to save in ODF first to ensure preservation would make sense and perhaps the save to the format for which fidelity is not offered would be treated as an export in that case. This is not a proposal. It is offered as something to think about. Perhaps there is a gentle way to have users aware that editing is as if the document was in ODF format without getting in their way too much. - Dennis > > Marcus [ ... ] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org
