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Hi,
I have several problems with saving and reading some documents saved with LO
3.4 Calc (XLSX file) and opening with Excel 2007/2010 and vice versa. How I
can proceed to resolve this problems (Where I can upload problematic files
with detail desription)?
Thanks,
Stanislav Franěk
Hi 
Can you use the older format, .xls instead? The .xlsX is a bit quirky but the
xls is supported by a lot of different products from different organisations
now.
Regards from
Tom
Which version of 3.4 are you using? 3.4.0, 3.4.1, 3.4.2? It would help to know which one you are using and which OS you are using as well.
Any reason that you cannot save these files in .xls instead of .xlsx? I know that Microsoft wants .xlsx as the default format, but .xls is "better" in my opinion to use. Every MS format ending in an "x" should be avoided. Sure, the newest versions of LibreOffice reads and writes these "x" formats, but not perfectly. So see if you can use the non "x" formats.
This will, at least, solve part of the problem until you find out what is causing your original issues.
We have mix of Computers with various versions of MS Office (2007 and 2010)
and LO (3.4.2) in our company installed. Now I make some steps, which
eliminate using mix MS Office and LO upon one shared document in workgroup.
So my offer to participate in debugging XML filters on LO is more guided by
own interests than actual company needs....
I know of cource about option of using XLS file format instead of XLSX....
We are using LO 3.4.2. on Win XP and Win 7, x86 and x64 variants. Problems
not depend on that however.
So, is any interest in inspecting these files in LO developers comunity?
Or is this mailing list wrong place for that type of problems?
Stanislav,
We have mix of Computers with various versions of MS Office (2007 and 2010)
and LO (3.4.2) in our company installed. Now I make some steps, which
eliminate using mix MS Office and LO upon one shared document in workgroup.
So my offer to participate in debugging XML filters on LO is more guided by
own interests than actual company needs....
I know of cource about option of using XLS file format instead of XLSX....
We are using LO 3.4.2. on Win XP and Win 7, x86 and x64 variants. Problems
not depend on that however.
So, is any interest in inspecting these files in LO developers comunity?
Or is this mailing list wrong place for that type of problems?
To answer your question, you can send the files privately to one of the
monitors (me for example) to be looked at. Or you can post them and send
a link to the list, if there is nothing sensitive in a typical file, the
second is better. If neither is a good option, then could you construct
a test file for review? Attachments are stripped off any email.
Is there any specific error that happens, such as formula not properly
calculating?
After the problem has been identified, we can decide if a bug report is
necessary
In my honest opinion, write support for OOXML is a mistake. LibreOffice
should not help spreading a file format which has been bribed through the
standardization boards for 2 reasons: fight the ODF standard and establish a
non-free XML format for MS applications only.
Microsoft's "Office Open XML" restores a certain level of incompatibility
while having something with "open" and "office" and "XML" in the name
anyway.
What MS 2007 produces by default is the "extended version" of OOXML. It
represents Microsoft's conception of an office document beyond any standard.
With Office 2010 they started supporting the "official" OOXML version which
they bribed through the boards but even that one is an incredibly
complicated mess, impossible to implement by anybody except Microsoft.
MS Office 2007 introduced a lot of new features tailored to the new file
formats, and of course the new file formats can represent these new features
where the old binary formats must fail to do so.
So the new file format may store things that can not be exposed by any
software other than resent MS Office versions whereas the old binary format
supports almost the same feature set as ODF (after 20 years of
co-evolution).
As long as MS Office comes with the same binary file filters as in Office
XP, there is no technical reason to exchange OOXML documents between
LibreOffice and MS software.
Andreas Säger wrote (23-08-11 17:21)
In my honest opinion, write support for OOXML is a mistake. LibreOffice
should not help spreading a file format which has been bribed through the
standardization boards for 2 reasons: fight the ODF standard and establish a
non-free XML format for MS applications only.
I agree with all your objections against OOXML and the whole process.
However, also without it being forced through procedures, we would have been confronted with it anyway :-\
Cor Nouws wrote:
Andreas Säger wrote (23-08-11 17:21)> In my honest opinion, write support
for OOXML is a mistake. LibreOffice> should not help spreading a file
format which has been bribed through the> standardization boards for 2
reasons: fight the ODF standard and establish a> non-free XML format for
MS applications only.I agree with all your objections against OOXML and
the whole process.However, also without it being forced through
procedures, we would have been confronted with it anyway :-\--
Confronted, indeed. But the former go-oo team did not take up with that
confrontation when they added the abililty to generate OOXML. A best of
breed read-only support would have been sufficient since we have a 15 year
old mature exchange format.
Every OOXML generator helps to spread this pestilence of a file format.
Read-only access does not harm anyone.
Andreas Säger wrote (23-08-11 20:44)
Read-only access does not harm anyone.
Unless you have to co-operate and OOMXL is expected.
(You may ask yourself if you want to work in such a situation in the first place, but well, the world and office apps do not end now or next year... will be there in 5 and probably 10 too)
Currently there is no application which handles OOXML but not the binary
doc/xls/ppt. You can send binaries and they will open in WinWord without
problem.
There may be very, very rare cases where XML processors handle the document
rather than WinWord. Well, I think that not handling these rare cases is
better than spreading the desease.
Andreas Säger wrote (23-08-11 21:07)
Currently there is no application which handles OOXML but not the binary
doc/xls/ppt. You can send binaries and they will open in WinWord without
problem.
There may be very, very rare cases where XML processors handle the document
rather than WinWord. Well, I think that not handling these rare cases is
better than spreading the desease.
I would have the feeling that we can broaden our user base by supporting that too. But honestly: I have no scientific prove to support my or reject your idea.
Cor Nouws wrote:
Andreas Säger wrote (23-08-11 21:07)
Currently there is no application which handles OOXML but not the binary
doc/xls/ppt. You can send binaries and they will open in WinWord without
problem.
There may be very, very rare cases where XML processors handle the
document
rather than WinWord. Well, I think that not handling these rare cases is
better than spreading the desease.I would have the feeling that we can broaden our user base by supporting
that too. But honestly: I have no scientific prove to support my or
reject your idea.
Nothing scientific neither, but interesting reading:
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2011/01/microsoft-remove-doc-format-support.html
In the past 2 years I received quite a few Excel/WinWord files. None of them
was OOXML.
Completely free ODF support for MSOffice is the the way to go:
http://www.osor.eu/news/danish-hospital-hassle-free-use-of-odf-across-competing-office-suites
The old Sun plugin for MS Office is still downloadable for free. It
resembles OOo 3.2 which should be still close to perfect.
I'm afraid it is too late by now. Go-OO/LibO gave up the fight long before
OOXML entered the scene. Withdrawal of OOXML export is not an option
anymore.
...
The old Sun plugin for MS Office is still downloadable for free. It
resembles OOo 3.2 which should be still close to perfect.
And you've found that where?
Hi
I think you are looking for this:
http://www.freeware-downloads.org/download/programm.php?pro=sun-odf-plugin
Regards,
Jorge Rodríguez
Hi
Sadly i think that without read/write for the most commonly used file-formats it
would be almost completely impossible to get LibreOffice out there. Hopefully
as people get used to using LibreOffice they begin to find the native formats
are much better. As LibreOffice and others become more widely used then the
better formats will become more widely used. But to demand that everyne
switches in order to use LibreOffice is more likely to result in people just
continuing to use proprietary stuff because that's what 'everyone else' uses.
Regards from
Tom