Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Word documents in Open Office?

Options
  • 21-10-2008 10:26am
    #1
    An Fear Aniar
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,377 ✭✭✭


    I was just curious about why Microsoft allowed Open Office to be able to save documents in Word format so that they can be viewed by MS Word users?

    Aren't they totally slitting their own throats by doing this? I don't see what's in it for them.:confused:


    .


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    ethernet
    Registered Users Posts: 3,568 ✭✭✭ethernet


    Did the EU not force them to do this? To comply and be less anti-competitive? This happened even before Microsoft were forced to release all the gritty info about the Office file formats. Fair play for all that reverse engineering, I say.


  • Options
    #3
    death1234567
    Registered Users Posts: 3,333 ✭✭✭death1234567


    Yeah I think they were forced to do it by the EU. EU in doing something useful shocker!


  • Options
    #4
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 91,051 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    An Fear Aniar wrote: »
    I was just curious about why Microsoft allowed Open Office to be able to save documents in Word format so that they can be viewed by MS Word users?

    Aren't they totally slitting their own throats by doing this? I don't see what's in it for them.:confused:
    there is nothing in it for them

    you have to remember M$ were also upsetting the corporates by having a major change in compatibility they did this back in '97 too :(

    did that microsoft open standard that they got rushed through ever get sorted, wern't they having interoperabity problems with it ?

    also Lotus 123 was well able to open excel files a long time ago and open office is able to open the 97-2003 format happily too, and in both cases are usually better able to recover corrupt docs than the original product so it was only a matter of time before the new formats were reverse engineered too

    also a lot of corporates are taking note of the problems of obsolete file formats so open standards are the way to go


  • Options
    #5
    croo
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 1,334 Mod ✭✭✭✭croo


    Capt'n Midnight wrote: »
    did that microsoft open standard that they got rushed through ever get sorted, wern't they having interoperabity problems with it ?
    You mean the OOXML standard passed by the ISO?
    If so I believe it was, but with lots of accusations of unfair manipulation - for want of a better word.

    It's also important to recognize that that no microsoft office product actually supports that standard! Their actual document formats are similar but not compliant.


  • Options
    #6
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    It still went through, but thankfully OpenOffice.org 3 supports it


  • Advertisement
Advertisement