On 30/10/2008 16:04, Dave Lane wrote:
> Something to keep in mind: MS Office file formats, despite their
> widespread use are *closed proprietary* formats, and you have to pay a
> substantial license fee to provide compatibility with them. Other
> packages, e.g. OpenOffice, that offer compatibility with MS Office
> formats do so only as the result of massive reverse engineering efforts.
>
> The fact that you've been able to get info out of those file formats in
> the past was probably due to some hacker sitting down with a binary MS
> Office file and poking and prodding it until the managed to get some
> semblance of compatibility. Of course, it was short lived:
>
>
Microsoft have released the specifications for their binary file formats:
http://www.microsoft.com/interop/docs/officebinaryformats.mspx
Which are covered by the Microsoft Open Specification Promise:
http://www.microsoft.com/interop/osp/default.mspx
- Mike
--
Mike Cochrane
Web Team Leader
gardyneHOLT - design partners
18 Beresford Square Newton
PO Box 3340 Auckland New Zealand
p +64 9 300 3155 f +64 9 302 3349 m 021 545 565
skype gardyneholt_mikec
www.gardyneholt.co.nz
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