On 2012-05-18, at 22:35 , drew wrote:

> Though your remarks mention wordperfect format files and isn't that kind
> of an issue with AOO?


Yes. Which is why, I suppose, the company Propylon came into being: b/c Sun 
didn't see fit to address this essentially niche market. Of course, the "niche 
market" here is big, like virtually all of Anglo-American jurisprudence, and 
probably also a lot of Napoleonic Code entities, too. Not all, of course, now 
use WP; most probably use MSOffice or other idiosyncratic software.

However, the point is that ODF and AOO can be made to produce templates that 
satisfy the current needs of legal court filings. I believe that has been done. 
But the issue of mimicking WP's UI is the important one. My guess is that all 
things considered, if the application AOO can read WP files and produce files 
using legal templates, the UI issues will be moot, especially if the hidebound 
users continue using what their license dollars paid for, while the more 
flexible legals use free software that can, nevertheless, interoperate with the 
existing.

But I don't know the full state of the matter. Ripe discussion for the bar camp?

Louis

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