Rob Weir's Doubt: MS Office 2007 ODF Compatibility?
A recent test shows that the promised Open Document Format (ODF) compatibility of Microsoft Office Service Pack 2 is far from it. At least table calculations in Excel SP2 demonstrate big problems when converting ODF values.
IBM colleague and standards activist Rob Weir tested compatibility of the free ODF documentation standard in different combinations with various office software. His conclusion: "This is a big step backwards." In a similar test beginning of March, Weir had come to more positive results, albeit with some recommendations, mainly because he had used the Sun plugin and Microsoft's own CleverAge to populate the Excel cells. In the meantime, Microsoft released MS Office 2007 SP2 that was supposed to support ODF.
So Weir tested again, this time with MS Office 2007 SP2 with integrated ODF support, and he wasn't too happy with the results. He writes in his blog, "Unfortunately this support did not fare well in my tests." Weir found that Excel SP2 stripped out formulas, leaving the previously saved values. He concluded, "In general, SP2 converts an ODF spreadsheet into a mere 'table of numbers' and any calculation logic is lost."
Even table formulas exported from Excel to ODF spreadsheets presented problems. "Excel 2007 SP2 does include spreadsheet formulas but places them into an Excel namespace. This namespace is not what OpenOffice and other ODF applications use... It isn't even the OOXML namespace."
Weir's disappointment contrasts sharply with his hopefulness two months ago. In his view, technical complexity can't be the problem: "Spreadsheet interoperability is not hard. This is not rocket science... To get this wrong requires more effort than getting it right. It is especially frustrating when we know that the underlying applications support the same fundamental formula language, or something very close to it...." He doesn't want to speculate whether this is accidental or intentional, but encouraged Microsoft to remove the code from SP2 that was the source of the problem. "... I cannot fail to notice that the same application -- Microsoft Excel 2007 -- will process ODF spreadsheet documents without problems when loaded via the Sun or CleverAge plugins, but will miserably fail when using the 'improved' integrated code in Office 2007 SP2."
Comments
comments powered by DisqusIssue 262/2022
Buy this issue as a PDF
News
-
OpenMandriva Lx ROME Technical Preview Released
OpenMandriva’s rolling release distribution technical preview has been released for testing purposes and adds some of the latest/greatest software into the mix.
-
Linux Mint 21 is Now Available
The latest iteration of Linux Mint, codenamed Vanessa, has been released with a new upgrade tool and other fantastic features.
-
Firefox Adds Long-Anticipated Feature
Firefox 103 has arrived and it now includes a feature users have long awaited…sort of.
-
System76 Refreshes Their Popular Oryx Pro Laptop with a New CPU
The System76 Oryx Pro laptop has been relaunched with a 12th Gen CPU and more powerful graphics options.
-
Elive Has Released a New Beta
The Elive team is proud to announce the latest beta version (3.8.30) of its Enlightenment-centric Linux distribution.
-
Rocky Linux 9 Has Arrived
The latest iteration of Rocky Linux is now available and includes a host of new features and support for new architecture.
-
Slimbook Executive Linux Ultrabook Upgrading Their CPUs
The Spanish-based company, Slimbook, has made available their next generation Slimbook Executive Linux ultrabooks with a 12th Gen Intel Alder Lake CPU.
-
Fedora Linux is Coming to the Raspberry Pi 4
Thanks to significant work in the upstream, the upcoming release of Fedora 37 will introduce support for the Raspberry Pi 4.
-
New Linux Ultrabook from TUXEDO Computers
TUXEDO Computers has released a new 15" Ultrabook running Linux.
-
GNOME 43 To Bring Some Exciting New Features
GNOME 43 is getting close to the first alpha development release and it promises to add one particular feature that should be exciting to several users.
MS Office will never be 100% ODF compatible