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.

The list here is not exhaustive. Another list of supporting/partial implementations of OpenDocument format can be found on OpenDocument Fellowship website, but it is also not exhaustive.

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

  • Abiword 2.4+ (reading from 2.4, import and export from 2.4.2)[1] (as of version 2.6.4 Abisoft installations for Windows require separate download and installation of plugins)
  • Adobe Buzzword beta, a web-based word processor has limited ODF support due to its beta status[2][3]
  • Google Docs, a web-based word processor and spreadsheet application derived from the application Writely.[6]
  • IBM Lotus Notes 8.0+ includes a office suite for creating text, spreadsheet and presentation files[8]
  • JustSystems Ichitaro (Japanese), read/write support via plug-in from version 2006, full built-in support from 2007[9]
  • KWord 1.4+ (full native support since 1.5)[10]
  • OpenOffice.org Writer - full support from 2.0[12], import-only in 1.1.5[13]
    • Butler Office Pro, commercial OpenOffice.org/NeoOffice variant[14]
    • NeoOffice Writer - full support from 2.0[15](OpenOffice.org 2.0.3 derivate), import only in 1.2.2[16](OpenOffice.org 1.1.5 derivate)[17]
    • NextOffice 9.3 (OpenOffice.org 3 variant with support for Asian languages and some Asian software)[18]
    • StarOffice 8+ Writer (OpenOffice.org 2.0 derivate)[19]
    • RedOffice, (Chinese OpenOffice.org variant with different interface)[20]
  • Schreiben 4.0.1, a simple word processor for Mac OS X 10.5 has basic support for ODT documents.[21]
  • TextEdit, (In Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard) can read/write ODT format but does not retain all formatting[22]
    • Bean 1.1.0+, basic word processor use limited ODF support implemented in Mac OS X[23]
  • TextMaker 2006 (previously import only; export available starting with revision 467)[24]

[edit] Other applications

  • Apple Inc.'s Quick Look, the built-in quick preview feature of Mac OS X, supports OpenDocument format files starting with Mac OS X v10.5. Support is limited to basic ODF implementation in Mac OS X.
  • Oxygen XML Editor 9.3+ allows to extract, validate, edit, transform (using XSLT or XQuery) to other file formats, compare and process the XML data stored in OpenDocument files. Validation is done using the latest ODF Documents version 1.1 Relax NG Schemas.[27]
  • IBM WebSphere Portal 6.0.1+ can preview texts from ODT files as HTML documents[28]
  • IBM Lotus Domino 8.0+ KeyView (10.4.0.0) filter supports ODT, ODS, ODP for viewing files [29]
  • Zamzar.com is a free online file conversion service that can convert OpenDocument text, spreadsheet and presentation documents to many other formats. It can also convert many different file formats to OpenDocument format.[30]

[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[31]

[edit] Text management

[edit] Translation support
  • OmegaT+ — Free computer assisted translation tools platform Cross-platform (Java).
  • 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.
  • Translate Toolkit — converts OpenDocument into XLIFF 1.2 for localisation in any XLIFF aware CAT tool.

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

[edit] Spreadsheet documents (.ods)

[edit] Spreadsheets

[edit] Other applications

  • Oxygen XML Editor 9.3+ allows to extract, validate, edit, transform (using XSLT or XQuery) to other file formats, compare and process the XML data stored in OpenDocument files. Validation is done using the latest ODF Documents version 1.1 Relax NG Schemas.[27]
  • IBM WebSphere Portal 6.0.1+ can preview texts from ODS files as HTML documents[28]

[edit] Data management

[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+ — Free computer assisted translation tools platform Cross-platform (Java).
  • OmegaT — OmegaT is a free translation memory application written in Java.[44]
  • Swordfish — Swordfish is a cross-platform Computer Aided Translation (CAT) tool based on XLIFF 1.2. open standard.
  • Translate Toolkit — converts OpenDocument into XLIFF 1.2 for localisation in any XLIFF aware CAT tool.

[edit] Presentation documents (.odp)

[edit] Other applications

  • Oxygen XML Editor 9.3+ allows to extract, validate, edit, transform (using XSLT or XQuery) to other file formats, compare and process the XML data stored in OpenDocument files. Validation is done using the latest ODF Documents version 1.1 Relax NG Schemas.[27]
  • IBM WebSphere Portal 6.0.1+ can preview texts from ODP files as HTML documents[28]

[edit] Translation support

[edit] Graphics documents (.odg)

[edit] Other applications

[edit] Formula documents (.odf)

[edit] Search tools

  • Google supports searching in content of ODT, ODS, and ODP files and also searching for these filetypes. Found files can be viewed directly in a converted HTML view.[49]
  • 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

  • Ability Office developers declared planned ODF support for the next major version of their office suite[50]
  • Evermore Integrated Office - EIOffice 2009 will support ODF in the update[51]. As stated on Evermore Software website: "Work is underway to both read and write to this new format as well as *.pdf and *.odf file formats in the update." Last version of EIOffice 2009 (5.0.1272.101EN.L1) cannot open or save ODF files.
  • Haansoft's Hangul Word Processor will support OpenDocument format documents in its next version for Windows, which is planned for the end of 2009.[52]
  • 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[53] and was hosted in the official Firefox extension repository.[54]
  • Wikipedia announced that it will use ODF for printing wikis.
  • Microsoft announced that Microsoft Office 2007 SP2, to be release in the first half of 2009, will support ODF 1.1.[55]
  • Blackberry smartphones are going to support ODF in their embedded office suites, starting mid-2009. [56]
  • The Wordpad editor in Windows 7 already includes support for ODF. [57]

[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:

  • Some Perl extensions for OpenDocument file processing are available on CPAN packages, such as OpenOffice::OODoc, OpenOffice::OOCBuilder, OpenOffice::OOSheets, PBib::Document::OpenOffice, and others. These libraries allow Perl programs to retrieve, create, update or delete almost any piece of data (including text content, non-textual objects, and style definitions) in documents, and to create new documents from scratch.
  • 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.
  • OpenDocumentPHP is a PHP solution to handle the ODF file manipulations.
  • Aspose.Words is a component/library available for both .NET and Java platforms that allows to open and save OpenDocument (ODT) documents.
  • 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 generate ODF reports, invoices and other documents from XML with ODF documents as templates. Developed for Linux, but can also be used on Windows. It has both a PHP API and Command Line support.
  • OpenDocument is a PHP PEAR package developed as a project of Google Summer of Code Program.
  • Docmosis is a Java library that can generate reports from templates. It manipulates ODF content and can read and write a variety of formats.

ODFTRANS central service to convert proprietary office files into the open document format (ODF) and vice versa. Based on eMail2PDF, email-based PDF conversion. Users send their documents to ODFTrans by email, and ODFTrans swiftly replies with the converted document(s) attached. Supported are text documents, spreadsheets and presentations.[58]

Jing, a RELAX NG validator in Java can be used for validation of OpenDocument format documents. Reading some instructions is recommended before use [59]

[edit] Microsoft

Microsoft financed the creation of an Open XML translator project,[60] 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.[61]

[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[62] but development was stopped in October 2007.[63]

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.[64][65]

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, 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.[66] 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.”[67][68]

[edit] Implementations

Peter Korn gave an in-depth report[69] 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 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. ^ Abiword 2.4.2 Release Notes[1]
  2. ^ http://www.adobe.com/acom/buzzword/
  3. ^ "Adobe to acquire Virtual Ubiquitys". Adobe Systems. http://www.adobe.com/special/buzzword/faq.html. Retrieved on 2008-02-28. 
  4. ^ a b c "Celframe Office 2008". Celframe. http://www.celframeoffice.com/. Retrieved on 2008-12-13. 
  5. ^ a b c Celframe Office 2008 native support for ODF[2]
  6. ^ a b Google Docs Tour [3][4]
  7. ^ a b c IBM Lotus Symphony - [5][6]
  8. ^ a b c IBM Ships Lotus Notes and Domino 8, 17 Aug 2007[7], New features in Lotus Notes 8 software[8]
  9. ^ Ichitaro 2007 OpenDocument format support[9][10], Ichitaro 2009[11]
  10. ^ a b c KOffice 1.4 Announcement[12] and KOffice 1.5 Announcement[13]
  11. ^ Nisus Writer Pro 1.2 [14]
  12. ^ a b c d OpenOffice.org 2.0 features[15][16]
  13. ^ a b c d OpenOffice.org 1.1.5 Release notes[17]
  14. ^ a b c http://butlerofficepro.com/support-details.html
  15. ^ a b c NeoOffice 2.0 Aqua Beta Release notes[18]
  16. ^ a b c NeoOffice 1.2.2 Release notes[19]
  17. ^ a b c NeoOffice file formats[20]
  18. ^ a b c NextOffice [21]
  19. ^ a b c StarOffice 8 reviews[22][23]
  20. ^ a b c RedOffice features [24]
  21. ^ Schreiben 4.0.1[25], [26]
  22. ^ Mac OS X Leopard features - TextEdit [27]
  23. ^ http://www.bean-osx.com/Changelog.html , http://www.bean-osx.com/Bean.html
  24. ^ SoftMaker TextMaker - Windows[28], Linux[29], SoftMaker Office 2006 review[30]
  25. ^ Corel WordPerfect Office to Support Open Document Format and Microsoft Office Open XML[31]
  26. ^ Zoho Writer - supported file formats[32]
  27. ^ a b c Oxygen XML Editor 9.3 features, July 2, 2008 [33], OpenDocument format support [34]
  28. ^ a b c d 6.0.1: WebSphere Portal version 6.0 refresh pack 1, 2007-05-17[35], File formats supported for HTML preview[36]
  29. ^ KeyView filter formats supported[37], Lotus®Notes, Domino, Domino DesignerRelease Notes Version 8.0.2
  30. ^ Zamzar - free online file conversion; supported file formats[38]
  31. ^ a b phpMyAdmin export data to ODT and ODS [39] [40]
  32. ^ eZ Publish - ODF Import / Export extension[41]
  33. ^ OASIS Open Document extension, September 19, 2005[42]
  34. ^ a b Scribus - Change Log 1.2.2, 2005 [43], Support for OpenDocument (OASIS) Standard, June 5, 2005 [44]
  35. ^ TextMaker Viewer[45]
  36. ^ Visioo changelog[46]
  37. ^ EditGrid feature[47] EditGrid changelog/blog 2006 [48][49]
  38. ^ Gnumeric 1.7.0 Release notes[50]
  39. ^ JUST Suite 2009 Sanshiro[51], JUST Suite 2009[52]
  40. ^ Tables 1.4 Improves ODF Support, More, November 30th, 2007, [53]
  41. ^ Tables 1.4.0 - what is new[54]; Tables 1.3.4 - what is new[55]
  42. ^ Tables 1.5 - what is new[56]
  43. ^ Zoho Sheet features[57]
  44. ^ http://www.omegat.org/en/omegat.html
  45. ^ JUST Suite 2009 Agree[58], JUST Suite 2009[59]
  46. ^ Karbon ODG support - KOffice 1.4 Changelog [60], KOffice 1.5 Changelog[61]
  47. ^ JUST Suite 2008 [62], JUST Suite 2009 Hanako[63], JUST Suite 2009[64]
  48. ^ Inkscape 0.4.4 Release notes, June 22, 2006 [65] Inkscape News Archive[66]
  49. ^ "Google search for ODT, ODS, and ODP filetypes". Google. http://www.google.com/search?q=filetype%3Aodt+OR+filetype%3Aods+OR+filetype%3Aodp. Retrieved on 2008-02-28. 
  50. ^ Ability Office - planned ODF support [67]
  51. ^ EIOffice 2009 support for ODF [68]
  52. ^ http://www.zdnet.co.kr/etc/eyeon/enterprise/0,39036961,39164305,00.htm
  53. ^ http://www.alcoholicsunanimous.com/odfreader/
  54. ^ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1888
  55. ^ "Microsoft Expands List of Formats Supported in Microsoft Office". Microsoft. 2008-05-21. http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/may08/05-21ExpandedFormatsPR.mspx. Retrieved on 2008-05-21. 
  56. ^ http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2009/01/blackberries-to-support-opendocument-format.html
  57. ^ http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2009/01/blackberries-to-support-opendocument-format.html
  58. ^ ODFTRANS [69], HWD IT Blog [70]
  59. ^ How to validate ODF document[71], ODF validation for Dummies, May 02, 2008 [72]
  60. ^ "Microsoft Expands Document Interoperability". Microsoft. 2006-07-05. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/jul06/07-06OpenSourceProjectPR.mspx. Retrieved on 2007-01-28. 
  61. ^ "Ars tests Microsoft's ODF add-in for Office". ars technica. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080307-microsofts-odf-add-in-for-office-still-not-good-enough.html. Retrieved on 2008-03-09. 
  62. ^ http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060504015438308
  63. ^ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/23/odf_davinci_code/
  64. ^ "Sun ODF Plugin 1.1 for Microsoft Office: Tech Specs". Sun Microsystems. http://www.sun.com/software/star/odf_plugin/specs.jsp. Retrieved on 2008-01-27. 
  65. ^ "Sun's OpenDocument filter for MS Office is finished.". Heise Online. 2006-07-04. http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/92193. Retrieved on 2007-07-06. 
  66. ^ http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/office/email/archives/200607/msg00114.html
  67. ^ http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/office/email/archives/200607/msg00089.html
  68. ^ http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/office-accessibility/download.php/19301/ODF-v1.1-draft7_a11y_requirements_review.odt
  69. ^ "Massachusetts, Open Document, and Accessibility" (html). Sun. 2005-11-13. http://blogs.sun.com/korn/date/20051113. Retrieved on 2007-02-02. 

[edit] External links

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