OpenDocument software

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OpenDocument Format

This is an overview of software support for the OpenDocument format, an open document file format for saving and exchanging editable office documents.

Contents

[edit] Current support

A number of applications support the OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications; listed alphabetically they include:

[edit] Text documents (.odt)

[edit] Word processors

[edit] Other applications

[edit] Data management
  • eLawOffice.it 0.9.6.4, Law Firms cross-platform Java GPL application (client-server). It uses opendocument as templates to generate opendocument documents with data merged from application database such as customer name, address etc
  • phpMyAdmin 2.9.0+ - database manager, exports to ODT

[edit] Text management

[edit] Translation support
  • OmegaT — OmegaT is a free translation memory application written in Java.
  • Swordfish — Swordfish is a cross-platform Computer Aided Translation (CAT) tool based on XLIFF 1.2. open standard.

[edit] Bibliographic
  • RefWorks - Web-based commercial citation manager, supports uploading ODT files for citation formatting.

[edit] Spreadsheet documents (.ods)

[edit] Spreadsheets

[edit] Other applications

[edit] Knowledge management
  • Knomos 1.0 — Law office management application
  • EndNote X 1.0.1 - reference management software

[edit] Statistics
  • gretl 1.7.0 - Statistical analysis software (import only)

[edit] Translation support
  • OmegaT — OmegaT is a free translation memory application written in Java.
  • Swordfish — Swordfish is a cross-platform Computer Aided Translation (CAT) tool based on XLIFF 1.2. open standard.

[edit] Presentation documents (.odp)

[edit] Other applications

[edit] Translation support
  • OmegaT — OmegaT is a free translation memory application written in Java.
  • Swordfish — Swordfish is a cross-platform Computer Aided Translation (CAT) tool based on XLIFF 1.2. open standard.

[edit] Graphics documents (.odg)

[edit] Formula documents (.odf)

[edit] Search tools

  • Google supports searching for ODT, ODS, and ODP files and viewing them as HTML.[1]
  • Beagle, 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 Search (Windows)

[edit] Other planned support

  • JustSystem is the producer of the Ichitaro word processor, a long-standing major Japanese software title. JustSystem announced that the 2007 version of Ichitaro will natively support reading and writing of the OpenDocument format from February 2007, bringing OpenDocument to home, office, educational and governmental users in Japan. (A downloadable plug-in is already available by JustSystem for Ichitaro 2006.)
  • An extension for Mozilla Firefox has been proposed by a developer named Talin, according to Mozilla hacker Gervase Markham (source); since then it has been further modified by Alex Hudson [1] and was hosted in the official Firefox extension repository [2].
  • IBM announced in May, 2006, that the next release of Lotus Notes scheduled for release in 2007 will include OpenDocument Format support via a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software.
  • Wikipedia announced that it will use ODF for printing wikis.
  • Adobe has announced future support for ODF in Buzzword since its acquisition of Virtual Ubiquity.[2]
  • Microsoft announced that Microsoft Office 2007 SP2, to be release in the first half of 2009, will support ODF 1.1.[3]

[edit] Programmatic support, filters, converters

OpenDocument packages are ordinary zip files. 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.

The following are some programs or programming libraries that provide specialized support for OpenDocument:

  • POD (Python Open Document) defines a very simple way to insert special statements and expressions (written in Python) in an OpenDocument Text (ODT) file. The POD library can then generate documents whose content may be enriched from any program written in Python. This is the principle of dynamic HTML applied to OpenDocument, excepted that using POD requires no knowledge of OpenDocument: the POD user writes directly his dynamic OpenDocument files in his word processor (OpenOffice, KOffice, etc).
  • odf-converter-integrator is a crossplatform program that allows opening Microsoft Office 2007 files (.docx, .xlsx, pptx) in any OpenOffice.org
  • Docvert is a PHP-based converter for converting OpenDocument to XML and any HTML.
  • jOpenDocument is a pure Java library for OpenDocument files manipulation. It includes a standalone spreadsheet viewer.
  • JODReports is a report generator that use ODF documents as templates. Developed in Java and can be used in an application server and command line.
  • odf-xslt is a small and simple PHP solution to create reports from XML with ODF documents as templates. Developed for Linux, but can also be used on Windows. Both CGI and Command Line abilities.
  • OpenDocument is a PHP PEAR package developed as a project of Google Summer of Code Program.


[edit] Microsoft

Microsoft financed the creation of an Open XML translator project,[4] to allow 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 said plugins, including lack of support for Office 2007.[5]

[edit] Third party support: Three ODF plug-ins for Microsoft Office

There are currently three third-party plug-ins: Sun Microsystems' ODF Plugin, ooo-word-filter and OpenOpenOffice (O3). A fourth one was announced by the OpenDocument Foundation in May 2006 [3] but development was stopped in October 2007 [4].

The Sun ODF Plugin for Microsoft Office 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.[6][7]

ooo-word-filter gives users of Microsoft Word 2003 the ability to open OpenDocument files.

OpenOpenOffice is developed by Phase-n, a free and open source software plug-in for 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 will install a tiny plug-in to the Microsoft Office system. This tiny plug-in would automatically send the file to some server, which would then do conversions and send it back. The server could be local to an organization (so private information won'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 an announcement of a plugin alpha is expected in early 2006. Phase-n argues 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.

[edit] Accessibility

One important issue raised in the discussion of OpenDocument is whether the format is accessible to those with disabilities. There are two issues: does the specification support accessibility, and are implementations accessible?

[edit] Specification

While the specification of OpenDocument is going through an extensive accessibility review, it is known that many of the components it is built on (such as SMIL 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 (in support of 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. [5] 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.” [6] [7]

[edit] Implementations

Peter Korn gave an in-depth report[8] 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 access, head-mouse, and eye-gaze systems. On Unix-like systems, GNOME'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 Dasher, 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 that allows 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 GNOME, the Java platform, or Mac OS X.
  • 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, IBM 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 notice that since OpenDocument is an Open Source and 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.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Google search for ODT, ODS, and ODP filetypes. Google. Retrieved on 2008-02-28.
  2. ^ Adobe to acquire Virtual Ubiquitys. Adobe. Retrieved on 2008-02-28.
  3. ^ Microsoft Expands List of Formats Supported in Microsoft Office. Microsoft (2007-05-21). Retrieved on 2007-05-21.
  4. ^ Microsoft Expands Document Interoperability. Microsoft (2006-07-05). Retrieved on 2007-01-28.
  5. ^ Ars tests Microsoft's ODF add-in for Office. ars technica. Retrieved on 2008-03-09.
  6. ^ Sun ODF Plugin 1.1 for Microsoft Office: Tech Specs. Sun Microsystems. Retrieved on 2008-01-27.
  7. ^ Sun's OpenDocument filter for MS Office is finished.. Heise Online (2006-07-04). Retrieved on 2007-07-06.
  8. ^ Massachusetts, Open Document, and Accessibility (html). Sun (2005-11-13). Retrieved on 2007-02-02.

[edit] External links