First Look: OpenOffice.org 2.0 Looks Good

[Richard Steinfeld]

OpenOffice 2.0 files are XML files. This is a standards-based, gnu-open
source format. I don't know about "snoop" utilities but there's plain
text in mine. Read more here: xml.openoffice.org/xml_advocacy.html

Thanks for this link. I gave the web page a quick once-over and learned
a few things. First, if I've got this right, an OO text document has
three separate sub-files all zipped up (compressed using standard
algorithms). These subs are:
- document text
- formatting control
- document facts ( who, what, where), which facilitate change management
in a structured documentation or engineering environment. So far, we're
duplicating the functionality of MS Word, but doing it in what I hope is
an open-system method.

And the reason why I couldn't read the text in my own OO documents when
using a standard file viewer was simply because I was looking at a
compressed file.

Have I got this right?

The utility that I was using as a viewer was File Snoop (a Ziff-Davis
program). (By the way, I'd like to know if there's a freeware
alternative to this program)

What remains to be seen is how robust the OO files are in the face of
real-world home computers, and especially, aggressive antivirus software
like Avast, running in the "background."

I'm taking a "show me" attitude about this, since I learned the hard way:
- I've had antivirus software trash my inbox in both OE and Thunderbird.
- I've had the experience of having a Microsoft Word document blow up on
me -- irretrievably. I'm not the only person who had a document
self-destruct around 38 pages; the problem was apparently known by MS
through more than two iterations of the program.

So, the ability of the software to maintain its own processor priority
during intense manipulation is a critical factor. Now, what OO has going
for it are:
- Proven (I think) prior development in the form of Star Office.
- What appears to be a committed community of international developers,
not driven by the perceived need to dominate the market.
- Some sort of open XML document structure. This is the part that I
can't say that I understand adequately so far.

I'm a bit worried about having to unpack a file into three parts in
order to work with it -- I suspect that there's some vulnerability for
document trashing at this point. What's got me thinking about this is
the fact that while having Sygate Firewall and Avast running furiously
all the time, I can already hear my desired processes being interrupted
by the security software -- audio "hiccups" quite often. I say
"furiously" because I can see the activity with FileMon. And it's here
where I'm sure that my inboxes were trashed, along with interruption of
the server downloading in order to scan the messages.

This may seem like quite an aside, but some readers of this post may be
able to relate to the potential consequences for trashing of an Open
Office document during a load or a save operation. I haven't experienced
any problem as of yet, and I've been using OO for around a year.
However, I haven't put this to the test with a large document, which
would be a more severe test.

I'm using Windows ME.

I welcome comments!

Richard

 

[Amamba]

To be a winner software, it's very important the compatibility with
Microsoft' products (mainly Writer/Word):

[snip]

And Excel.

Unfortunately, compatibility alone won't solve everything.

Trying to open a large file with about 10-12 sheets filled with macros
and formulas (our standard office document) takes close to 2 min. in
OO, and less than 10 sec in MSO.

Still, good if you don't want to pay for MSO.

 

[Mike Bourke]

And how long does it take if, once you have loaded it once, you resave it in
the native OO environment? I havn't played around with the current version,
but this used to make a big difference with some of the older ones. The
delay was caused by the conversion from the Excel format into the native
format - which is completely bypassed if you save the file in a converted
state.

Mike Bourke

To be a winner software, it's very important the compatibility with
Microsoft' products (mainly Writer/Word):

[snip]

And Excel.

Unfortunately, compatibility alone won't solve everything.

Trying to open a large file with about 10-12 sheets filled with macros
and formulas (our standard office document) takes close to 2 min. in
OO, and less than 10 sec in MSO.

Still, good if you don't want to pay for MSO.

 

[Amamba]

And how long does it take if, once you have loaded it once, you resave it in
the native OO environment? I havn't played around with the current version,
but this used to make a big difference with some of the older ones. The
delay was caused by the conversion from the Excel format into the native
format - which is completely bypassed if you save the file in a converted
state.

Mike Bourke

I understand that, however MSO is the standard that's used in our
office and all other companies that we deal with. So saving in native
OO standard does me no good. However, as I said, I'd deal with it if I
didn't have MSO at home. I am using the OO's Impress to open PowerPoint
slides, but use MSO for other apps. Again, I'm not trying to belittle
OO, but they still have ways to go (of course, they are well ahead of
where MSO was in Release 2).

On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 23:37:33 -0700, Ablang

First Look: OpenOffice.org 2.0 Looks Good

To be a winner software, it's very important the compatibility with
Microsoft' products (mainly Writer/Word):

[snip]

And Excel.

Unfortunately, compatibility alone won't solve everything.

Trying to open a large file with about 10-12 sheets filled with macros
and formulas (our standard office document) takes close to 2 min. in
OO, and less than 10 sec in MSO.

Still, good if you don't want to pay for MSO.

 

[John Hood]

Mike Bourke wrote:



I understand that, however MSO is the standard that's used in our
office and all other companies that we deal with. So saving in native
OO standard does me no good. However, as I said, I'd deal with it if I
didn't have MSO at home. I am using the OO's Impress to open PowerPoint
slides, but use MSO for other apps. Again, I'm not trying to belittle
OO, but they still have ways to go (of course, they are well ahead of
where MSO was in Release 2).

So I guess you don't really want to compare apples to apples then...
John H.