RE: [opendocument-users] Adding tables to ODP files

["Dennis E. Hamilton" <dennis.hamilton@acm.org>]

This might be a more precise statement considering generation of ODF
presentation documents that contain tables in their text frames:

 1. It is perfectly legitimate to generate an ODF 1.x presentation document
having tables (even spreadsheets) in drawing frames.  This is provided for
in the ODF specifications starting with ODF 1.0.

 2. Whether or not such a presentation document is consumed in an useful way
by an ODF implementation is another story.  It is common for there to be no
support for such occurrences of tables.  The existence of support has to be
determined on an implementation (version) by implementation (version) basis.

In short, you can produce such a document using a custom generator but you
cannot count on it being accepted by a given implementation.  As Bart
mentioned, it is more likely that some implementations will accept an
embedded spreadsheet document or text document used as the source of the
table.

 - Dennis

MORE BACKGROUND

I think there is confusion about what ODF 1.1 provides for versus what
implementations do.

In ODF 1.0, IS 26300, and ODF 1.1, the occurence of tables in Presentations
is allowed anywhere a <draw:frame> element is allowed, which is pretty much
anywhere you could conceivably want one. 

This is not going to change in ODF 1.2.

The difference is in what is or is not commonly implemented.

In that respect, there is a Non-Normtive Appendix describing Core Features
Sets.  That Appendix indicates that the Basic Table Model and the Advanced
Table Model are not considered core features of Presentation documents.
This Appendix appears in the ODF 1.0, IS 26300, and ODF 1.1 specifications.

The most likely difference in ODF 1.2 in this regard is the potential
omission of that Appendix.  The provisions in the specification for tables
in presentation documents are unchanged.  Implementations are not required
to support the occurrence of tables in current drafts of ODF 1.2 any more
than in previous versions of the ODF specification.

-----Original Message-----
From: Hanssens Bart [mailto:Bart.Hanssens@fedict.be] 
Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 15:19
To: Afshad Dinshaw; opendocument-users
Subject: RE: [opendocument-users] Adding tables to ODP files

ODF tables in ODP are not directly supported in the ODF 1.1 specification,
they will be supported in the upcoming (not yet approved) ODF 1.2
specification

OpenOffice.org 3.x already supports a draft version of ODF 1.2, so that'll
work, but you should check other implementations if you want to be sure
if they support it as well.

What you can do in ODF 1.1, however, (and what OpenOffice.org 2.x does)
is a work-around where one embeds a spreadsheet into the presentation,
thus mimicing a table.

A bit of deja-vu here :-)

http://markmail.org/message/kbaqlepvuwxlve2h

Best regards,

Bart

________________________________________
From: Afshad Dinshaw [afshadd@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, October 23, 2009 12:06 AM
To: opendocument-users
Subject: [opendocument-users] Adding tables to ODP files

Is it possible to add and ODFTable to an ODP presenentation document?
Can I then successfully open the ODP in OpenOffice and see the table?



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