New PowerPoint Import for KOffice
Since Nokia's takeover of Trolltech and the increased presence of Qt, the KOffice suite has been gaining prominence on mobile devices. Developers have been working on new import opportunities of Microsoft Office formats.
On September 17 Nokia's KOffice developer Thomas Zander announced in his blog that the document viewer for the next Maemo 5 platform will be based on KOffice2. At the same time the KOffice team released a new beta version with a vastly improved MS Word import filter.
Now Jos van den Oever has written some further software to improve importing MS Office documents to KOffice: a parser that converts PowerPoint format to XML. As he reports in his blog, the documentation describing the PPT format encompasses 663 pages, with the one on drawings, essential to presentations, encompassing 620 pages as a PDF file. To prevent from having to scroll through all the pages, van den Oever converted the documents to machine-readable format and developed a parser from it to convert PowerPoint files to XML format. The method allows large amounts of PowerPoint data to be read in to make it easier to find weaknessses and errors. The resulting XML files can then be used as a basis for an import filter.
The product is a Qt program called
pptotoxml
with a C++ and Java parser that is now available for download. Jos van den Oever encourages other project developers to write parsers in their favorite languages, requiring fewer than 700 lines of code.
Interested parties in Msoscheme for machine-readable MS Office files who want to participate in the project can access the source code as follows:
git clone git://gitorious.org/msoscheme/msoscheme.git mkdir msoscheme/cpp/build cd msoscheme/cpp/build cmake .. make ./ppttoxml myfile.ppt myfile.xml
A driving force behind the newest KOffice development is the KO GmbH open document company, where van den Oever is also a member.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Red Hat Adds New Deployment Option for Enterprise Linux Platforms
Red Hat has re-imagined enterprise Linux for an AI future with Image Mode.
-
OSJH and LPI Release 2024 Open Source Pros Job Survey Results
See what open source professionals look for in a new role.
-
Proton 9.0-1 Released to Improve Gaming with Steam
The latest release of Proton 9 adds several improvements and fixes an issue that has been problematic for Linux users.
-
So Long Neofetch and Thanks for the Info
Today is a day that every Linux user who enjoys bragging about their system(s) will mourn, as Neofetch has come to an end.
-
Ubuntu 24.04 Comes with a “Flaw"
If you're thinking you might want to upgrade from your current Ubuntu release to the latest, there's something you might want to consider before doing so.
-
Canonical Releases Ubuntu 24.04
After a brief pause because of the XZ vulnerability, Ubuntu 24.04 is now available for install.
-
Linux Servers Targeted by Akira Ransomware
A group of bad actors who have already extorted $42 million have their sights set on the Linux platform.
-
TUXEDO Computers Unveils Linux Laptop Featuring AMD Ryzen CPU
This latest release is the first laptop to include the new CPU from Ryzen and Linux preinstalled.
-
XZ Gets the All-Clear
The back door xz vulnerability has been officially reverted for Fedora 40 and versions 38 and 39 were never affected.
-
Canonical Collaborates with Qualcomm on New Venture
This new joint effort is geared toward bringing Ubuntu and Ubuntu Core to Qualcomm-powered devices.