OpenDocument software
Encyclopedia
This is an overview of software support for the OpenDocument
format, an open
document file format
for saving and exchanging editable office documents.
; listed alphabetically they include:
. There is an OpenDocument format which is just a single XML file, but most applications use the package format. Thus, any of the vast number of tools for handling zip files and XML data can be used to handle OpenDocument. Nearly all programming languages have libraries (built-in or available) for processing XML files and zip files. In addition, some of them have OpenDocument-oriented libraries.
In May 2006, ODF plugin for Microsoft Office was released by OpenDocument Foundation. Microsoft declared that the company did not work with the developers of the plug-in.
In July 2006 Microsoft announced the creation of the Open XML Translator project—tools to build a technical bridge between the Microsoft Office Open XML Formats and the OpenDocument Format (ODF). This work was started in response to government requests for interoperability with ODF. The goal of project is not to implement ODF direct to Microsoft Office, but only to create plugin and external tools. In February 2007, this project released first version of ODF plug-in for Microsoft Word.
In February 2007 SUN released initial version of SUN ODF plugin for Microsoft Office. Version 1.0 was released in July 2007.
Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 was released on 28 April 2009. It added native support of OpenDocument
1.1 as well as other formats like XPS
and PDF.
Microsoft has financed the creation of an Open XML translator, to enable the conversion of documents between Office Open XML and OpenDocument. The project, hosted on SourceForge
, is an effort by several of Microsoft's partners to create a plugin for Microsoft Office
that will be freely available under a BSD license. By December 2007, plugins had been released for Microsoft Word
, Microsoft Excel
and Microsoft PowerPoint
. Independent analysis has, however, reported several concerns with these plugins, including lack of support for Office 2007.
A third plug-in, OpenOpenOffice (O3), is apparently inactive. OpenOpenOffice was developed by Phase-n, a free
and open source software plug-in to enable Microsoft Office
to read and write OpenDocument files (and any other formats supported by OpenOffice.org
). Instead of installing a complete office application or even a large plug-in, O3 intended to install a tiny plug-in to the Microsoft Office system. This tiny plug-in intended to automatically send the file to some server, which would then do the conversion, returning the converted file. The server could be local to an organization (so private information doesn't go over the Internet) or accessed via the Internet (for those who do not want to set up a server). A beta of the server half has been completed, and further expected announcements have not occurred. Phase-n argued that the main advantage of their approach is simplicity. Their website announces that O3 “requires no new concepts to be explored, no significant development, and leverages the huge existing body of work already created by the OpenOffice.org developers, the CPAN
module authors, and the Microsoft .NET and Office teams. They also argue that this approach significantly simplifies maintenance; when a new version of OpenOffice.org is released, only the server needs to be upgraded.
A fourth plug-in was announced by the OpenDocument Foundation
in May 2006 but development was stopped in October 2007.
Critics say that with this conflict of standards Microsoft actually managed to reduce interoperability between office productivity software. The company had previously reportedly stated that "where ODF 1.1 is ambiguous or incomplete, the Office implementation can be guided by current practice in OpenOffice.org, mainly, and other implementations including KOffice and AbiWord. Peter Amstein and the Microsoft Office team are reluctant to make liberal use of extension mechanisms, even though provided in ODF 1.1. They want to avoid all appearance of an embrace-extend attempt." However, according to the ODF Alliance, "ODF spreadsheets created in Excel 2007 SP2 do not in fact conform to ODF 1.1 because Excel 2007 incorrectly encodes formulas with cell addresses. Section 8.3.1 of ODF 1.1 says that addresses in formulas "start with a "[" and end with a "]"." In Excel 2007 cell addresses were not enclosed with the necessary square brackets, which could be easily corrected."
This however has been contested as the ISO/IEC 26300 specification states that the semantics and the syntax is dependant on the used namespace which is implementation dependent leaving the syntax implementation defined as well.
Before SP2, Microsoft had sponsored the creation of the Open XML translator project to allow the conversion of documents between OOXML and OpenDocument. As a result of this project, Microsoft financed the ODF add-in for Word project on SourceForge
. This project is an effort by several of Microsoft's partners to create a plugin for Microsoft Office that will be freely available under a BSD license. The project released version 1.0 for Microsoft Word
of this software in January 2007 followed by versions for Microsoft Excel
and Microsoft PowerPoint
in December of the same year. Sun Microsystems
has created the competing OpenDocument plugin for Microsoft Office 2007 (Service Pack 1 or higher), 2000, XP, and 2003 that supports Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.
The ODF Alliance has claimed that third-party plug-ins “provide better support for ODF than the recently released
Microsoft Office 2007 SP2”.
such as Perl
and Python
. The lpOD
project is an example.
is whether the format is accessible to those with disabilities. There are two issues: does the specification support accessibility, and are implementations accessible?
for audio and multimedia and SVG for vector graphics) have already gone through the World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C)'s Web Accessibility Initiative
processes.
There are already applications that currently read/write OpenDocument that export Tagged PDF files (to support PDF accessibility); this suggests that much or all of the necessary data for accessibility is already included in the OpenDocument format.
The OASIS OpenDocument technical committee released a draft of OpenDocument 1.1 on 2006-07-27, for public comment through 2006-09-25.
This is a very minor update to the specification to add accessibility information, mainly soft page break markings, table header markings, presentation navigation markings, alternative text and captions, and specifically stating that spreadsheets may be embedded in presentations.
Peter Korn (an accessibility expert) reviewed version 1.1 “to satisfy myself that all of our accessibility concerns have been addressed”, and declared “I am so satisfied.”
It is important to note that since OpenDocument is an Open Standard
file format, there is no need for everyone to use the same program to read and write OpenDocument files; someone with a disability is free to use whatever program works best for them.
OpenDocument
The Open Document Format for Office Applications is an XML-based file format for representing electronic documents such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents....
format, an open
Open format
An open file format is a published specification for storing digital data, usually maintained by a standards organization, which can therefore be used and implemented by anyone. For example, an open format can be implementable by both proprietary and free and open source software, using the typical...
document file format
Document file format
A document file format is a text or binary file format for storing documents on a storage media, especially for use by computers.There currently exist a multitude of incompatible document file formats....
for saving and exchanging editable office documents.
Current support
A number of applications support the OASIS Open Document Format for Office ApplicationsOpenDocument
The Open Document Format for Office Applications is an XML-based file format for representing electronic documents such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents....
; listed alphabetically they include:
Word processors
- AbiWordAbiWordAbiWord is a free and open source software word processor. It was originally started by SourceGear Corporation as the first part of a proposed AbiSuite. Development stopped when SourceGear changed their focus to Internet appliances. AbiWord was adopted by some open source developers and AbiWord...
2.4+ (reading from 2.4, import and export from 2.4.2) (as of version 2.6.4 Abisoft installations for Windows require separate download and installation of plugins) - Adobe Buzzword beta, a web-based word processor has limited ODF support owing to its beta status
- Atlantis Word ProcessorAtlantis Word ProcessorAtlantis Word Processor is a stand-alone low-end word processor for Microsoft Windows developed by Rising Sun Solutions, Inc. It was previously known as "Atlantis Ocean Mind"....
1.6.5+ can import ODT documents - Celframe OfficeCelframe OfficeCelframe Office is an office suite for Microsoft Windows and developed by the US based IT company Celframe. This product is an office suite, providing additional support for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Flash and CorelDraw like tools as well...
Write 2008 supports ODF text documents. - eyeOSEyeOSeyeOS is an open source web desktop following the cloud computing concept that seeks to enable collaboration and communication among users. It is mainly written in PHP, XML, and JavaScript. It acts as a platform for web applications written using the eyeOS Toolkit. It includes a Desktop environment...
Cloud computingCloud computingCloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
operating systemOperating systemAn operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
with eyeDocs Word Processor has basic support for ODF text documents. - Google Docs, a web-based word processor and spreadsheet application derived from the application Writely.
- IBM Lotus SymphonyIBM Lotus SymphonyIBM Lotus Symphony is a suite of applications for creating, editing, and sharing text, spreadsheet, presentations and other documents, and is currently distributed as freeware. First released in 2007, the suite has a name similar to the 1980s DOS suite Lotus Symphony, but the two programs are...
Documents 1.0+ (OpenOffice.org 1.0 derivative) - IBM Lotus Notes 8.0+ includes an office suite for creating text, spreadsheet and presentation files
- JustSystemsJustSystemsis a major Japanese software development house. The company is also known as "JustSystem." Its main products are Ichitaro , a word processor, and Hanako, a graphics package that remains competitive in the Japanese market, despite strong and controversial competitive pressures from Microsoft in the...
IchitaroIchitarois a Japanese word processor produced by JustSystems, a Japanese software company. Ichitaro occupies the second share in Japanese word-processing software, behind Microsoft Word. It is one of the main products of the company. Its proprietary file extension is ".JTD"...
(Japanese), read/write support via plug-in from version 2006, full built-in support from 2007 - KWordKWordCalligra Words is a free word processor, part of Calligra Suite and developed by KDE.The text-layout scheme in Words is based on frames, making it similar to FrameMaker by Adobe. These can be placed anywhere on the page, and can incorporate text, graphics and embedded objects...
1.4+ (full native support since 1.5) - LibreOfficeLibreOfficeLibreOffice is a free and open source office suite developed by The Document Foundation as a fork of OpenOffice.org. It is largely compatible with other major office suites, including Microsoft Office, and available on a variety of platforms...
Writer (initially, an OpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
fork, now a completely different product) - Microsoft WordMicrosoft WordMicrosoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
native support since Office 2007 SP2 (support for previous versions is available through several plugins)- Sun ODF Plugin for Microsoft OfficeMicrosoft OfficeMicrosoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
- Microsoft OpenXML/ODF Translator Add-in for Office http://odf-converter.sourceforge.net/
- Currently no ODF support on the Mac OS X version of Microsoft OfficeMicrosoft OfficeMicrosoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
.
- Sun ODF Plugin for Microsoft Office
- Mobile OfficeMobile officeA mobile office is an office built within a truck, motorhome, trailer or purpose built shipping container. Most common are towable offices built on an axled iron frame for easy relocation. Mobile field offices are often found on construction sites, or at disaster scenes where a temporary office...
, an office package for SymbianSymbianSymbian is a mobile operating system and computing platform designed for smartphones and currently maintained by Accenture. The Symbian platform is the successor to Symbian OS and Nokia Series 60; unlike Symbian OS, which needed an additional user interface system, Symbian includes a user...
mobile phones - Microsoft WordPadWordPadWordPad is a basic word processor that is included with almost all versions of Microsoft Windows from Windows 95 upwards. It is more advanced than Notepad but simpler than Microsoft Works Word Processor and Microsoft Word. It replaced Microsoft Write....
included with Windows 7 has limited support for opening and saving in the odt format. - Nisus WriterNisus WriterNisus Writer, originally Nisus, is a word processing program for the Apple Macintosh. The program is available in two varieties: Nisus Writer Express, and Nisus Writer Pro....
Pro 1.2+ for Mac OS X - OpenOffice.org WriterOpenOffice.org WriterOpenOffice.org Writer is the word processor component of the OpenOffice.org software package. Writer is a word processor similar to Microsoft Word and Corel's WordPerfect, with some of their features....
- full support from 2.0, import-only in 1.1.5- Butler Office Pro, commercial
- NeoOfficeNeoOfficeNeoOffice is an office suite for Mac OS X. It is a fork of the free/open source OpenOffice.org that implements nearly all of the features of the corresponding OpenOffice.org version, including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, and graphics program...
Writer - full support from 2.0(OpenOffice.org 2.0.3 derivative), import only in 1.2.2(OpenOffice.org 1.1.5 derivate) - NextOffice 9.3 (OpenOffice.org 3 variant with support for Asian languages and some Asian software)
- StarOfficeStarOfficeStarOffice, known briefly as Oracle Open Office before its discontinuation in 2010, is a proprietary office suite. It was originally developed by StarDivision which was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 1999...
8+ Writer (OpenOffice.org 2.0 derivative) - RedOffice, (Chinese OpenOffice.org variant with different interface)
- TextEditTextEditTextEdit is a simple, open source word processor and text editor, first featured in NeXT's NEXTSTEP and OPENSTEP. It is now distributed with Mac OS X since Apple Inc.'s acquisition of NeXT, and available as a GNUstep application for other Unix-compatible operating systems such as Linux...
, (In Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard) can read/write ODT format but does not retain all formatting- Bean 1.1.0+, basic word processor with limited ODF support implemented in Mac OS X
- TextMakerTextMakerTextMaker is a word processor developed by the Nuremberg based software company SoftMaker and available as part of the SoftMaker office suite...
2006 (previously import only; export available starting with revision 467) - WordPerfect OfficeWordPerfect OfficeWordPerfect Office is an office suite developed by Corel Corporation. As of March 2010, the latest version is WordPerfect Office X5 , which is available in three editions: Home & Student, Standard and Professional....
(import-only in X4) - Zoho Writer, an online word processor, can read and write ODT format
- RomanianOfficeRomanianOfficeRomanianOffice is a proprietary customized localized product based on the OpenOffice.org source and it's customized specially for speakers of Romanian language....
, a proprietary word processor based on OpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
Other applications
- Apple Inc.'s Quick LookQuick LookQuick Look is a quick preview feature developed by Apple which was introduced in their operating system, Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard". It was announced and demonstrated at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference 2007.-Overview:...
, the built-in quick preview feature of Mac OS XMac OS XMac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, supports OpenDocument format files starting with Mac OS X v10.5Mac OS X v10.5Mac OS X Leopard is the sixth major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Leopard was released on 26 October 2007 as the successor of Tiger , and is available in two variants: a desktop version suitable for personal computers, and a...
. Support is limited to basic ODF implementation in Mac OS X. - Oxygen XML EditorOxygen XML EditorThe Oxygen XML Editor is a multi-platform XML editor, XSLT/XQuery debugger and profiler with Unicode support. It is a Java application, so it can run in Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It also has a version that can run as an Eclipse plugin.- XML editing features :Oxygen XML offers a number of...
9.3+ allows users to extract, validate, edit, transform (using XSLT or XQuery) to other file formats, compare and process the XML data stored in OpenDocument files. Validation uses the latest ODF Documents version 1.1 Relax NG Schemas. - IBM WebSphereIBM WebSphereIBM WebSphere refers to a brand of computer software products in the genre of enterprise software known as "application and integration middleware". These software products are used by end-users to create applications and integrate applications with other applications...
Portal 6.0.1+ can preview texts from ODT files as HTML documents - IBM Lotus DominoIBM Lotus DominoLotus Domino is an IBM server product that provides enterprise-grade e-mail, collaboration capabilities, and a custom application platform. Domino began life as Lotus Notes Server, the server component of Lotus Development Corporation's client-server messaging technology. It can be used as an...
8.0+ KeyView (10.4.0.0) filter supports ODT, ODS, ODP for viewing files
Data management
- eLawOffice.it 0.9.6.4, Law Firms cross-platformCross-platformIn computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...
JavaJava (programming language)Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
GPLGNU General Public LicenseThe GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
application (client-server). It uses OpenDocument templates to generate OpenDocument documents with data merged from application databases such as customer name, address etc. - phpMyAdminPhpMyAdminphpMyAdmin is an open source tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of MySQL with the use of a Web browser. It can perform various tasks such as creating, modifying or deleting databases, tables, fields or rows; executing SQL statements; or managing users and...
2.9.0+ - database manager, exports to ODT
Text management
- DokuwikiDokuWikiDokuWiki is a wiki application aimed at small companies’ documentation needs. DokuWiki is licensed under GPL 2 and written in the programming language PHP. It works on plain text files and thus needs no database. Its syntax is similar to the one used by MediaWiki.-History:DokuWiki was created by...
— wiki softwareWiki softwareWiki software is collaborative software that runs a wiki, i.e., a website that allows users to create and collaboratively edit web pages via a web browser. A wiki system is usually a web application that runs on one or more web servers...
, exports to ODT with the odt plugin. - DrupalDrupalDrupal is a free and open-source content management system and content management framework written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License. It is used as a back-end system for at least 1.5% of all websites worldwide ranging from personal blogs to corporate, political, and...
ODF Import - a Drupal module allows one to import ODT files into the CMS nodes - eZ publishEZ publish-External links:* * * * * *...
— content management systemContent management systemA content management system is a system providing a collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual or computer-based...
, supports import and export of writer documents via extension - officereader - OpenDocument Reader for Symbian OS
- ScribusScribusScribus is a desktop publishing application, released under the GNU General Public License as free software. It is based on the free Qt toolkit, therefore native versions are available for Linux, Unix-like operating systems, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and OS/2...
1.2.2+ — desktop publishing suite, imports ODT - SoftMakerSoftMakerSoftMaker Software GmbH is a software company that produces office software and is located in Nuremberg, Germany. SoftMaker was founded in 1989 by Martin Kotulla. In 1991, it also added digital fonts to its offerings...
TextMakerTextMakerTextMaker is a word processor developed by the Nuremberg based software company SoftMaker and available as part of the SoftMaker office suite...
Viewer — document viewer, supports ODT - Visioo WriterVisioo WriterVisioo-writer - The OpenDocument file viewer is a computer program designed to run on multiple operating systems with the explicit ability to view OpenDocument and OpenOffice.org/StarOffice documents. It is currently in a stable state but updates continue. The goal is to create a small application...
0.6.1 (in development) — document viewer, incomplete support
Translation support
- OmegaTOmegaTOmegaT is a computer-assisted translation tool written in the Java programming language. It is free software originally developed by Keith Godfrey in 2000, and is currently developed by a team led by Didier Briel. The name OmegaT is a registered trademark in Germany.OmegaT is intended for...
— OmegaT is a free translation memory application written in Java. - Translate ToolkitTranslate ToolkitThe Translate Toolkit is a localization and translation toolkit. It provides a set of tools for working with localization file formats and files that might need localization. The toolkit also provides an API on which to develop other localization tools....
— converts OpenDocument into XLIFFXLIFFXLIFF is an XML-based format created to standardize localization. XLIFF was standardized by OASIS in 2002. Its current specification is v1.2 released on Feb-1-2008....
1.2 for localisation in any XLIFFXLIFFXLIFF is an XML-based format created to standardize localization. XLIFF was standardized by OASIS in 2002. Its current specification is v1.2 released on Feb-1-2008....
aware CAT tool.
Bibliographic
- RefWorksRefWorksRefWorks is a web-based commercial citation manager — an application for managing references, retrieving bibliographic information, and designing texts in terms of their literature references...
– Web-based commercial citation manager, supports uploading ODT files for citation formatting.
Spreadsheets
- Celframe OfficeCelframe OfficeCelframe Office is an office suite for Microsoft Windows and developed by the US based IT company Celframe. This product is an office suite, providing additional support for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Flash and CorelDraw like tools as well...
Spreadsheet 2008 supports ODF spreadsheet documents. - EditGridEditGridEditGrid is a Web 2.0 spreadsheet service. It offers both a free-of-charge service to personal users and a subscription service to organisations and is available on a number of partner sites and channels....
, a web-based (online) spreadsheet service - full support. - GnumericGnumericGnumeric is a spreadsheet program that is part of the GNOME Free Software Desktop Project. Gnumeric version 1.0 was released December 31, 2001. Gnumeric is distributed as free software under the GNU GPL license; it is intended to replace proprietary and other spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft...
can both open and save files in this format and plans to continue to support this format in the future. - Google Docs, a web-based word processor and spreadsheet application which can read and save OpenDocument files.
- IBM Lotus SymphonyIBM Lotus SymphonyIBM Lotus Symphony is a suite of applications for creating, editing, and sharing text, spreadsheet, presentations and other documents, and is currently distributed as freeware. First released in 2007, the suite has a name similar to the 1980s DOS suite Lotus Symphony, but the two programs are...
Spreadsheets 1.0+ (OpenOffice.org 1.0 derivative) - IBM Lotus Notes 8.0+ includes an office suite for creating text, spreadsheet and presentation files
- JustSystemsJustSystemsis a major Japanese software development house. The company is also known as "JustSystem." Its main products are Ichitaro , a word processor, and Hanako, a graphics package that remains competitive in the Japanese market, despite strong and controversial competitive pressures from Microsoft in the...
JUST Suite 2009 Sanshiro (Japanese) - KSpreadKSpreadTables is a free software spreadsheet application that is part of Calligra Suite, an integrated graphic art and office suite by KDE.Among Tables's features are multiple sheets per document, assorted formatting possibilities, support for more than 300 built-in functions, templates, chart,...
(basic support in 1.4.x, native support in 1.5 onwards) - LibreOfficeLibreOfficeLibreOffice is a free and open source office suite developed by The Document Foundation as a fork of OpenOffice.org. It is largely compatible with other major office suites, including Microsoft Office, and available on a variety of platforms...
Calc (initially, an OpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
fork, now a completely different product) - Microsoft ExcelMicrosoft ExcelMicrosoft Excel is a proprietary commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications...
has native support for ODF since Excel 2007 Service Pack 2. When writing formulas Excel uses the spreadsheet formula language specified in ISO/IEC 29500 (Office Open XML) which differs from the draft OpenFormula format used in other ODF implementations.- Earlier versions of Microsoft Excel support OpenDocument with Sun ODF Plugin for Microsoft OfficeMicrosoft OfficeMicrosoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
- Partial support also with Microsoft OpenXML/ODF Translator Add-in for Office
- Earlier versions of Microsoft Excel support OpenDocument with Sun ODF Plugin for Microsoft Office
- NextOffice 9.3 (OpenOffice.org 3 variant with support for Asian languages and some Asian software)
- OpenOffice.org CalcOpenOffice.org CalcOpenOffice.org Calc is the spreadsheet component of the OpenOffice.org software package.Calc is similar to Microsoft Excel, with a roughly equivalent range of features. Calc is capable of opening and saving most spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel file format...
- full support from 2.0, import-only in 1.1.5- NeoOfficeNeoOfficeNeoOffice is an office suite for Mac OS X. It is a fork of the free/open source OpenOffice.org that implements nearly all of the features of the corresponding OpenOffice.org version, including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, and graphics program...
- native support from 2.0(OpenOffice.org 2.0.3 derivative), import only in 1.2.2(OpenOffice.org 1.1.5 derivative) - StarOfficeStarOfficeStarOffice, known briefly as Oracle Open Office before its discontinuation in 2010, is a proprietary office suite. It was originally developed by StarDivision which was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 1999...
8+ Calc (OpenOffice 2.0 derivate)
- NeoOffice
- RedOffice, (Chinese OpenOffice.org variant)
- Zoho Sheet, an online spreadsheet application, can import and export ODS format
Other applications
- Oxygen XML EditorOxygen XML EditorThe Oxygen XML Editor is a multi-platform XML editor, XSLT/XQuery debugger and profiler with Unicode support. It is a Java application, so it can run in Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It also has a version that can run as an Eclipse plugin.- XML editing features :Oxygen XML offers a number of...
9.3+ allows users to extract, validate, edit, transform (using XSLT or XQuery) to other file formats, compare and process the XML data stored in OpenDocument files. Validation uses the latest ODF Documents version 1.1 Relax NG Schemas. - IBM WebSphereIBM WebSphereIBM WebSphere refers to a brand of computer software products in the genre of enterprise software known as "application and integration middleware". These software products are used by end-users to create applications and integrate applications with other applications...
Portal 6.0.1+ can preview texts from ODS files as HTML documents
Knowledge management
- KnomosKnomosKnomos is a workflow and knowledge management application primarily for law firms to handle their cases, with a focus on the legal systems of Europe.It is an open source, web-based application.- External links :* * * * *...
1.0 — Law office management application - EndNoteEndNoteEndNote is a commercial reference management software package, used to manage bibliographies and references when writing essays and articles. It is produced by Thomson Reuters.- Features :...
X 1.0.1 — Reference management software
Translation support
- OmegaTOmegaTOmegaT is a computer-assisted translation tool written in the Java programming language. It is free software originally developed by Keith Godfrey in 2000, and is currently developed by a team led by Didier Briel. The name OmegaT is a registered trademark in Germany.OmegaT is intended for...
— OmegaT is a free translation memory application written in Java.
Presentation
- Celframe OfficeCelframe OfficeCelframe Office is an office suite for Microsoft Windows and developed by the US based IT company Celframe. This product is an office suite, providing additional support for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Flash and CorelDraw like tools as well...
Power Presentation 2008 supports ODF presentation documents. - IBM Lotus SymphonyIBM Lotus SymphonyIBM Lotus Symphony is a suite of applications for creating, editing, and sharing text, spreadsheet, presentations and other documents, and is currently distributed as freeware. First released in 2007, the suite has a name similar to the 1980s DOS suite Lotus Symphony, but the two programs are...
Presentations 1.0+ (OpenOffice.org 1.0 derivative) - IBM Lotus Notes 8.0+ includes an office suite for creating text, spreadsheet and presentation files
- JustSystemsJustSystemsis a major Japanese software development house. The company is also known as "JustSystem." Its main products are Ichitaro , a word processor, and Hanako, a graphics package that remains competitive in the Japanese market, despite strong and controversial competitive pressures from Microsoft in the...
JUST Suite 2009 Agree (Japanese) - KPresenterKPresenterCalligra Stage is a free presentation program that is part of the Calligra Suite, an integrated office suite for the KDE Platform....
(basic support in 1.4.x, native support in 1.5 onwards) - LibreOfficeLibreOfficeLibreOffice is a free and open source office suite developed by The Document Foundation as a fork of OpenOffice.org. It is largely compatible with other major office suites, including Microsoft Office, and available on a variety of platforms...
Impress (initially, an OpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
fork, now a completely different product) - Microsoft PowerPointMicrosoft PowerPointMicrosoft PowerPoint, usually just called PowerPoint, is a non-free commercial presentation program developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite, and runs on Microsoft Windows and Apple's Mac OS X operating system...
native support since Office 2007 SP2 (support for previous versions is available through several plugins) - NextOffice 9.3 (OpenOffice.org 3 variant with support for Asian languages and some Asian software)
- OpenOffice.org ImpressOpenOffice.org ImpressOpenOffice.org Impress, a part of the OpenOffice.org office suite and developed by Sun Microsystems, is an open source presentation program compatible with and similar to Microsoft PowerPoint. In addition to being able to create PDF files from presentations, it is also able to export presentations...
- native support from 2.0, import-only in 1.1.5- NeoOfficeNeoOfficeNeoOffice is an office suite for Mac OS X. It is a fork of the free/open source OpenOffice.org that implements nearly all of the features of the corresponding OpenOffice.org version, including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, and graphics program...
1.2 Impress (OpenOffice 1.1.5 derivative) - NeoOfficeNeoOfficeNeoOffice is an office suite for Mac OS X. It is a fork of the free/open source OpenOffice.org that implements nearly all of the features of the corresponding OpenOffice.org version, including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, and graphics program...
2.0 Impress (OpenOffice 2.0.3 derivative) - StarOfficeStarOfficeStarOffice, known briefly as Oracle Open Office before its discontinuation in 2010, is a proprietary office suite. It was originally developed by StarDivision which was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 1999...
8 Impress (OpenOffice 2.0 derivative)
- NeoOffice
- RedOffice, (Chinese OpenOffice.org variant)
- Zoho Show, an online presentation program, can import/export ODP format files
Other applications
- Oxygen XML EditorOxygen XML EditorThe Oxygen XML Editor is a multi-platform XML editor, XSLT/XQuery debugger and profiler with Unicode support. It is a Java application, so it can run in Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It also has a version that can run as an Eclipse plugin.- XML editing features :Oxygen XML offers a number of...
9.3+ allows users to extract, validate, edit, transform (using XSLT or XQuery) to other file formats, compare and process the XML data stored in OpenDocument files. Validation uses the latest ODF Documents version 1.1 Relax NG Schemas. - IBM WebSphereIBM WebSphereIBM WebSphere refers to a brand of computer software products in the genre of enterprise software known as "application and integration middleware". These software products are used by end-users to create applications and integrate applications with other applications...
Portal 6.0.1+ can preview texts from ODP files as HTML documents
Graphics documents (.odg)
- Karbon14Karbon14Karbon14 is a vector graphics editor. It is a component of Calligra Suite, an integrated graphic art and office suite by KDE...
1.5+ (import and export) — vector graphics editorVector graphics editorA vector graphics editor is a computer program that allows users to compose and edit vector graphics images interactively on a computer and save them in one of many popular vector graphics formats, such as EPS, PDF, WMF, SVG, or VML.... - LibreOfficeLibreOfficeLibreOffice is a free and open source office suite developed by The Document Foundation as a fork of OpenOffice.org. It is largely compatible with other major office suites, including Microsoft Office, and available on a variety of platforms...
Draw (initially, an OpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
fork, now a completely different product) - JustSystemsJustSystemsis a major Japanese software development house. The company is also known as "JustSystem." Its main products are Ichitaro , a word processor, and Hanako, a graphics package that remains competitive in the Japanese market, despite strong and controversial competitive pressures from Microsoft in the...
JUST Suite 2008+ Hanako (Japanese) - OpenOffice.org DrawOpenOffice.org DrawOpenOffice.org Draw is a vector graphics editor and is part of the OpenOffice.org office suite. It features "connectors" between shapes, which are available in a range of line styles and facilitate building drawings such as flowchart...
- full support from 2.0, import-only in 1.1.5- NeoOfficeNeoOfficeNeoOffice is an office suite for Mac OS X. It is a fork of the free/open source OpenOffice.org that implements nearly all of the features of the corresponding OpenOffice.org version, including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, and graphics program...
Draw - full support from 2.0 (OpenOffice.org 2.0.3 derivative), import only in 1.2.2 (OpenOffice.org 1.1.5 derivative) - StarOfficeStarOfficeStarOffice, known briefly as Oracle Open Office before its discontinuation in 2010, is a proprietary office suite. It was originally developed by StarDivision which was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 1999...
8 Draw (OpenOffice 2.0 derivative)
- NeoOffice
- ScribusScribusScribus is a desktop publishing application, released under the GNU General Public License as free software. It is based on the free Qt toolkit, therefore native versions are available for Linux, Unix-like operating systems, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and OS/2...
1.2.2+ (import only) — Desktop publishingDesktop publishingDesktop publishing is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal computer.The term has been used for publishing at all levels, from small-circulation documents such as local newsletters to books, magazines and newspapers...
application - InkscapeInkscapeInkscape is a free software vector graphics editor, licensed under the GNU General Public License. Its goal is to implement full support for the Scalable Vector Graphics 1.1 standard....
0.44+ (export only) — vector graphics editorVector graphics editorA vector graphics editor is a computer program that allows users to compose and edit vector graphics images interactively on a computer and save them in one of many popular vector graphics formats, such as EPS, PDF, WMF, SVG, or VML....
Other applications
- IBM WebSphereIBM WebSphereIBM WebSphere refers to a brand of computer software products in the genre of enterprise software known as "application and integration middleware". These software products are used by end-users to create applications and integrate applications with other applications...
Portal 6.0.1+ can preview texts from ODG files as HTML documents
Formula documents (.odf)
- KFormula 1.5+ (full native support)
- LibreOfficeLibreOfficeLibreOffice is a free and open source office suite developed by The Document Foundation as a fork of OpenOffice.org. It is largely compatible with other major office suites, including Microsoft Office, and available on a variety of platforms...
Math (initially, an OpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
fork, now a completely different product) - OpenOffice.org MathOpenOffice.org MathOpenOffice.org Math is a tool for creating and editing mathematical notation, similar to Microsoft Equation Editor and is part of the OpenOffice.org office suite. The created formulae can then be embedded inside other OpenOffice.org documents, such as those created by Writer...
(full support from 2.0)- NeoOfficeNeoOfficeNeoOffice is an office suite for Mac OS X. It is a fork of the free/open source OpenOffice.org that implements nearly all of the features of the corresponding OpenOffice.org version, including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, and graphics program...
2.0 Math (OpenOffice 2.0.3 derivative)
- NeoOffice
Search tools
- GoogleGoogle searchGoogle or Google Web Search is a web search engine owned by Google Inc. Google Search is the most-used search engine on the World Wide Web, receiving several hundred million queries each day through its various services....
supports searching in content of ODT, ODS, and ODP files and also searching for these filetypes. Found files can be viewed directly in a converted HTML view. - BeagleBeagle (software)Beagle is a search system for Linux and other such modern Unix-like systems, enabling the user to search documents, chat logs, email and contact lists in a similar way to Spotlight in Mac OS X, and Windows Search or Google Desktop under Linux or Microsoft Windows...
, Linux desktop search engine. Indexes and searches multiple file formats, including OpenDocument files. - Google Desktop Search has an unofficial OpenDocument plug-in available, supporting ODT, OTT, ODG, OTG, ODP, OTP, ODS, OTS, and ODF OpenDocument formats. The plug-in does not correctly handle Unicode characters
- Apple Spotlight (built into OS X 10.4 and later) supports indexed searching of OpenDocument files using a third-party plug-in from the NeoOffice team.
- Copernic Desktop SearchCopernic Desktop SearchCopernic Desktop Search is a commercial desktop search utility for the Microsoft Windows family of operating systems. Three versions of the product are made which target different market segments....
(Windows)
Other planned support
- Ability OfficeAbility OfficeAbility Office is an office suite developed by Ability Plus Software and distributed and marketed by Ability Software International and which consists of a word processor, spreadsheet, database, modules for presentation and photo or image editing, plus a photo/image organiser and vector line...
developers declared planned ODF support for the next major version of their office suite - Evermore Integrated Office - EIOfficeEIOfficeEIOffice, also known as Evermore Integrated Office, is a proprietary Office suite by Evermore software. In 2010, Evermore changed their name to Yozosoft ....
2009 will support ODF in the update. As stated on Evermore Software website: "Work is underway to both read and write to this new format as well as *.pdf and *.odf file formats in the update." Last version of EIOffice 2009 (5.0.1272.101EN.L1) cannot open or save ODF files. - HaansoftHaansoft CorporationHancom is a computer software company headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It was established in 1990 at Hangul Culture Center.-Products:*Hangul Hancom (called Haansoft Corporation in English until early 2010; ; literally: Hangul and Computer) is a computer software company headquartered in Seoul,...
's Hangul Word ProcessorHangul (word processor)Hangul is a proprietary word processing application published by the South Korean company Hancom Inc.. It is used extensively in South Korea, especially by the government....
will support OpenDocument format documents in its next version for WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, which is planned for the end of 2009. - An extension for Mozilla FirefoxMozilla FirefoxMozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...
has been proposed by a developer named Talin, according to Mozilla hacker Gervase Markham (source); it has since been further modified by Alex Hudson and was hosted in the official Firefox extension repository. - Wikipedia announced that it will use ODF for printing wikis.
- BlackBerryBlackBerryBlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...
smartphones are going to support ODF in their embedded office suites, starting mid-2009. - The WordPadWordPadWordPad is a basic word processor that is included with almost all versions of Microsoft Windows from Windows 95 upwards. It is more advanced than Notepad but simpler than Microsoft Works Word Processor and Microsoft Word. It replaced Microsoft Write....
editor in Windows 7 already includes support for ODF.
Programmatic support, filters, converters
OpenDocument packages are ordinary zip filesZIP (file format)
Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...
. There is an OpenDocument format which is just a single XML file, but most applications use the package format. Thus, any of the vast number of tools for handling zip files and XML data can be used to handle OpenDocument. Nearly all programming languages have libraries (built-in or available) for processing XML files and zip files. In addition, some of them have OpenDocument-oriented libraries.
Microsoft
In October 2005, one year before the Microsoft Office 2007 suite was released, Microsoft declared that there is not sufficient demand from Microsoft customers for international standard OpenDocument format support and therefore it will not be included in Microsoft Office 2007. This statement was repeated also in next months. As an answer, on October 20, 2005 an online petition was created to demand ODF support from Microsoft. The petition was signed by circa 12000 people.In May 2006, ODF plugin for Microsoft Office was released by OpenDocument Foundation. Microsoft declared that the company did not work with the developers of the plug-in.
In July 2006 Microsoft announced the creation of the Open XML Translator project—tools to build a technical bridge between the Microsoft Office Open XML Formats and the OpenDocument Format (ODF). This work was started in response to government requests for interoperability with ODF. The goal of project is not to implement ODF direct to Microsoft Office, but only to create plugin and external tools. In February 2007, this project released first version of ODF plug-in for Microsoft Word.
In February 2007 SUN released initial version of SUN ODF plugin for Microsoft Office. Version 1.0 was released in July 2007.
Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 was released on 28 April 2009. It added native support of OpenDocument
OpenDocument
The Open Document Format for Office Applications is an XML-based file format for representing electronic documents such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents....
1.1 as well as other formats like XPS
XML Paper Specification
Open XML Paper Specification , is an open specification for a page description language and a fixed-document format originally developed by Microsoft as XML Paper Specification that was later standardized by Ecma International as international standard ECMA-388...
and PDF.
Microsoft has financed the creation of an Open XML translator, to enable the conversion of documents between Office Open XML and OpenDocument. The project, hosted on SourceForge
SourceForge
SourceForge Enterprise Edition is a collaborative revision control and software development management system. It provides a front-end to a range of software development lifecycle services and integrates with a number of free software / open source software applications .While originally itself...
, is an effort by several of Microsoft's partners to create a plugin for Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
that will be freely available under a BSD license. By December 2007, plugins had been released for Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
, Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a proprietary commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications...
and Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPoint, usually just called PowerPoint, is a non-free commercial presentation program developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite, and runs on Microsoft Windows and Apple's Mac OS X operating system...
. Independent analysis has, however, reported several concerns with these plugins, including lack of support for Office 2007.
Third party support: Two ODF plug-ins for Microsoft Office
There are currently two third-party plug-ins:- Sun Microsystems' ODF Plugin for Microsoft Office users — gives users of Microsoft Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint the ability to read, edit and save to the ISO-standard Open Document Format (ODF). It works with Microsoft Office 2007 (with service pack 1 or higher), Microsoft Office 2003, Microsoft Office XP, and even Microsoft Office 2000.
- ooo-word-filter — enables users of Microsoft Word 2003 to open OpenDocument files.
A third plug-in, OpenOpenOffice (O3), is apparently inactive. OpenOpenOffice was developed by Phase-n, a free
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
and open source software plug-in to enable Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
to read and write OpenDocument files (and any other formats supported by OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
). Instead of installing a complete office application or even a large plug-in, O3 intended to install a tiny plug-in to the Microsoft Office system. This tiny plug-in intended to automatically send the file to some server, which would then do the conversion, returning the converted file. The server could be local to an organization (so private information doesn't go over the Internet) or accessed via the Internet (for those who do not want to set up a server). A beta of the server half has been completed, and further expected announcements have not occurred. Phase-n argued that the main advantage of their approach is simplicity. Their website announces that O3 “requires no new concepts to be explored, no significant development, and leverages the huge existing body of work already created by the OpenOffice.org developers, the CPAN
CPAN
CPAN, the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, is an archive of nearly 100,000 modules of software written in Perl, as well as documentation for it. It has a presence on the World Wide Web at and is mirrored worldwide at more than 200 locations...
module authors, and the Microsoft .NET and Office teams. They also argue that this approach significantly simplifies maintenance; when a new version of OpenOffice.org is released, only the server needs to be upgraded.
A fourth plug-in was announced by the OpenDocument Foundation
OpenDocument Foundation
The OpenDocument Foundation, Inc. was an organization set up in 2002 by Gary Edwards, Sam Hiser, and Paul "Buck" Martin to promote the use of open standards-based XML/RDF document formats for desktop computer use....
in May 2006 but development was stopped in October 2007.
Microsoft Office 2007 SP2 support controversy
Microsoft supports OpenDocument format in Office 2007 SP2. The current implementation faces criticism for not supporting encrypted documents and formula format in the same way as other OpenDocument-compatible software, as well as for stripping out formulas in imported spreadsheets created by other OpenDocument-compatible software.Critics say that with this conflict of standards Microsoft actually managed to reduce interoperability between office productivity software. The company had previously reportedly stated that "where ODF 1.1 is ambiguous or incomplete, the Office implementation can be guided by current practice in OpenOffice.org, mainly, and other implementations including KOffice and AbiWord. Peter Amstein and the Microsoft Office team are reluctant to make liberal use of extension mechanisms, even though provided in ODF 1.1. They want to avoid all appearance of an embrace-extend attempt." However, according to the ODF Alliance, "ODF spreadsheets created in Excel 2007 SP2 do not in fact conform to ODF 1.1 because Excel 2007 incorrectly encodes formulas with cell addresses. Section 8.3.1 of ODF 1.1 says that addresses in formulas "start with a "[" and end with a "]"." In Excel 2007 cell addresses were not enclosed with the necessary square brackets, which could be easily corrected."
This however has been contested as the ISO/IEC 26300 specification states that the semantics and the syntax is dependant on the used namespace which is implementation dependent leaving the syntax implementation defined as well.
Before SP2, Microsoft had sponsored the creation of the Open XML translator project to allow the conversion of documents between OOXML and OpenDocument. As a result of this project, Microsoft financed the ODF add-in for Word project on SourceForge
SourceForge
SourceForge Enterprise Edition is a collaborative revision control and software development management system. It provides a front-end to a range of software development lifecycle services and integrates with a number of free software / open source software applications .While originally itself...
. This project is an effort by several of Microsoft's partners to create a plugin for Microsoft Office that will be freely available under a BSD license. The project released version 1.0 for Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
of this software in January 2007 followed by versions for Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a proprietary commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications...
and Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPoint, usually just called PowerPoint, is a non-free commercial presentation program developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite, and runs on Microsoft Windows and Apple's Mac OS X operating system...
in December of the same year. Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
has created the competing OpenDocument plugin for Microsoft Office 2007 (Service Pack 1 or higher), 2000, XP, and 2003 that supports Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.
The ODF Alliance has claimed that third-party plug-ins “provide better support for ODF than the recently released
Microsoft Office 2007 SP2”.
Dynamic languages
Some open source application programming interfaces, designed for OpenDocument handling, are available in various dynamic programming languagesDynamic programming language
Dynamic programming language is a term used broadly in computer science to describe a class of high-level programming languages that execute at runtime many common behaviors that other languages might perform during compilation, if at all...
such as Perl
Perl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
and Python
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
. The lpOD
Lpod
- Background :Lpod is a project's name acronym for languages & platforms for OpenDocument. The lpOD Project develops a set of multilanguage tools around the OpenDocument Format standard....
project is an example.
Accessibility
One important issue raised in the discussion of OpenDocumentOpenDocument
The Open Document Format for Office Applications is an XML-based file format for representing electronic documents such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents....
is whether the format is accessible to those with disabilities. There are two issues: does the specification support accessibility, and are implementations accessible?
Specification
While the specification of OpenDocument is going through an extensive accessibility review, many of the components it is built on (such as SMILSynchronized Multimedia Integration Language
SMIL , the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, is a W3C recommended XML markup language for describing multimedia presentations. It defines markup for timing, layout, animations, visual transitions, and media embedding, among other things...
for audio and multimedia and SVG for vector graphics) have already gone through the World Wide Web Consortium
World Wide Web Consortium
The World Wide Web Consortium is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web .Founded and headed by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations which maintain full-time staff for the purpose of working together in the development of standards for the...
(W3C)'s Web Accessibility Initiative
Web Accessibility Initiative
The World Wide Web Consortium 's Web Accessibility Initiative is an effort to improve the accessibility of the World Wide Web for people with disabilities...
processes.
There are already applications that currently read/write OpenDocument that export Tagged PDF files (to support PDF accessibility); this suggests that much or all of the necessary data for accessibility is already included in the OpenDocument format.
The OASIS OpenDocument technical committee released a draft of OpenDocument 1.1 on 2006-07-27, for public comment through 2006-09-25.
This is a very minor update to the specification to add accessibility information, mainly soft page break markings, table header markings, presentation navigation markings, alternative text and captions, and specifically stating that spreadsheets may be embedded in presentations.
Peter Korn (an accessibility expert) reviewed version 1.1 “to satisfy myself that all of our accessibility concerns have been addressed”, and declared “I am so satisfied.”
Implementations
Peter Korn gave an in-depth report on OpenDocument accessibility. He noted that there are many kinds of impairments, including visual (minor, major, or blind), physical (minor, major with vocal control, major without vocal control), auditory, and cognitive. He then noted that the situation varies, depending on the specific disability. For a vast number of disabilities, there are no known problems, though.- OpenOffice.org is expected to work well with existing solutions in MS Windows' on-screen keyboards (etc.) when driven by single-switch accessSwitch AccessMany people with severe physical or cognitive impairment use one or more switches to access computers. A switch is an assistive technology device that replaces the need to use a computer keyboard or a mouse.-Types of switch:...
, head-mouse, and eye-gaze systems. On Unix-like systems, GNOMEGNOMEGNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software...
's “On-screen Keyboard” goes far beyond Microsoft Windows' capabilities, because it can use the GNOME accessibility project architecture. Also available on both Linux and Windows systems is DasherDasherDasher is a computer accessibility tool which enables users to write without using a keyboard, by entering text on a screen using a pointing device such as a mouse, a touchpad, a touch screen, a roller ball, a joystick, a Push-button, a Wii Remote, or even mice operated by the foot or head...
, a GPLed text-entry alternative for head-mouse and eye-gaze users (35+ word-per-minute typing speeds using nothing but eye movement are possible).
- If those with disabilities are already using Microsoft Office, then a plug-in enabling them to load and save OpenDocument files using Microsoft Office may give them the same capabilities they already have (assuming the opening/saving cycle is accessible). So from that perspective, OpenDocument is at least as accessible as Microsoft Office. The primary problem is that Microsoft Windows does not have a real accessibility infrastructure compared to UNIX-like systems with GNOMEGNOMEGNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software...
, the Java platform, or Mac OS XMac OS XMac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
.
- For users using alternatives to Microsoft Office there may be problems, not necessarily due to the ODF file format but rather due to the lower investment to date by assistive technology vendors on these platforms, though there is ongoing work. For example, IBMIBMInternational Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
has stated that its “Workplace productivity tools available through Workplace Managed Client including word processing, spreadsheet and presentation editors are currently planned to be fully accessible on a Windows platform by 2007. Additionally, these productivity tools are currently planned to be fully accessible on a Linux platform by 2008” (Sutor, November 10, 2005).
It is important to note that since OpenDocument is an Open Standard
Open standard
An open standard is a standard that is publicly available and has various rights to use associated with it, and may also have various properties of how it was designed . There is no single definition and interpretations vary with usage....
file format, there is no need for everyone to use the same program to read and write OpenDocument files; someone with a disability is free to use whatever program works best for them.
See also
- Comparison of OpenDocument software
- Network effectNetwork effectIn economics and business, a network effect is the effect that one user of a good or service has on the value of that product to other people. When network effect is present, the value of a product or service is dependent on the number of others using it.The classic example is the telephone...
- Open formatOpen formatAn open file format is a published specification for storing digital data, usually maintained by a standards organization, which can therefore be used and implemented by anyone. For example, an open format can be implementable by both proprietary and free and open source software, using the typical...
- Office suiteOffice suiteIn computing, an office suite, sometimes called an office software suite or productivity suite is a collection of programs intended to be used by knowledge workers...
- Office Open XML
External links
- Application support for ODF (OpenDocument Fellowship).
- Berlind, David (October 25, 2005). Corel confirms OpenDocument commitment. Novell's "in" too.
- Groklaw's ODF Resources.
- Sutor, Bob. The ODF thread in the Open Blog.
- Sutor, Bob. Dr. ODF: Examining OpenDocument Format with Python. http://www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/?p=987.
- Updegrove, Andy. Standards Blog at consortiuminfo.org, timely and thorough coverage of ODF issues especially relating to adoption by the state of Massachusetts.
- Vaughan-Nichols, Steven J. (September 28, 2005). WordPerfect Will Support OpenDocument - Someday. eWeek.
- lpOD-Perl, OpenDocument Connector Perl programming interfaces for ODF.
- lpOD-Python, ODFpy Python programming interfaces for ODF.