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Subject: Re: [egov] OASIS E-GOV TC : USE OF OPEN OFFICE
At 08:31 07/03/2003 +0000, john.borras@e-envoy.gsi.gov.uk wrote: >David/Jouko > >We did agree in Baltimore to use Open Office as our default but like you >I'm having problems with it. I cannot install it on my network and my >document management system does not recognise the format. So we need to >reconsider this at the TC meeting next week. We need to be pragmatic >about this and Jon Bosak in a recent e-mail acknowledged that and a >suggested some alternatives. Our policy here in UK Gov is to publish in >RTF and PDF as a minimum and we might consider that approach if .Doc is >unacceptable. So let's talk some more about it on 12th please. OpenOffice files are just zip files which, inside, contain clean, documented XML. Yes, it has some quirks (version 1.0.2) but I believe the true openness of its file format more than makes up for that. Its has a very fine word processor and works well with larger documents (using its master file facilities). RTF, although stored in ASCII (and documented to a degree) is, in reality, completely proprietary. We all have stories of importing RTF from Word X into Word Y only to find all sorts of weirdness. This problem is exacerbated when non-Microsoft tools try to figure out what the RTF means. I try to use OpenOffice wherever I can, especially in e-Government work. I distribute OpenOffice + PDF. I send RTF on request but only having exported the RTF from OpenOffice and only as a read-only by-product. I find it works well. For documents that are destined for an on-line life - without significant page-centric considerations - XHTML editors might be worth considering. My mantra: If it hasn't got a documented schema to back up its plain text notation, its not an open format. XML or not. Just my 2 cents, Sean http://seanmcgrath.blogspot.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe or unsubscribe from this elist use the subscription manager: <http://lists.oasis-open.org/ob/adm.pl>
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