CONVERTING A MICROSOFT TEMPLATE TO BE USED WITH LIBRE OFFICE

users
#21

Hi :slight_smile:
You can use Nabble to share the document. Use any of the links in this
email but it's better practice to go to the official LIbreOffice website and
navigate through
"Get Help" - Nabble - Users - errr, and then find your thread, you might
need to register at the site
when you start to write a reply there are various buttons above the
"Message" box. The last of these is "More" and that gives a small drop-down
menu. Top item is "Upload a file" which works roughly the same way as
uploading an attachment to an email except that it puts a line of html code
into the message. You can move the whole line of code around.

Macros are a problem.

To move these to LibreOffice you need someone to rewrite the code. This
mailing list has been able to help a few people with this in the past but
it's not really what we are here for. You might need to find someone who
has some coding skills elsewhere. Luckily LibreOffice seems to be able to
handle macros written in a few different popular languages. Also once the
code has been re-written to work in LibreOffice then it's unlikely to need
to be re-written after that.

Moving to a new version of MS Office, such as the 2007 or 2010 would also
need the code to be re-written and it seems that each version of MS Office
makes changes so that re-write would probably need to be re-written again in
the future or for different versions of MS Office.

One of the problems with the MS version of macros, is that macros have often
been used as an attack vector. So much so that newer versions of MS Office
have a security pop-up alerting the user to possibly dangerous code being
run on their machine and asking if they really trust the source of the
macro.

So, either way it looks like you need to get the macros re-written.

However i get the feeling that your macro does something that might be
better done by an Extension/Add-on/Plug-in and doing that might make it more
robust. Hopefully someone else on this mailing list might be able to give a
better idea about the feasibility of this idea after seeing the code and/or
what it does.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#22

Hi :slight_smile:
There will be a lot of pranks and malware aimed at Xp users offering them
free upgrades and what-not. Apparently it has already started. Just
ignore them all.

Wrt "MS Security Essentials" best bet is to install AVG (apparently best of
the free anti-viruses (but according to who, right?)) or one of the many
other choices and after updating it and scanning your machine then
uninstall MS Essentials. I just did this on the office machines last
night.

As far as your Xp machine goes i would install a dual-boot there now too
and just try to avoid using Xp as much as posible on it.

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS has 3 years worth of support remaining and was released 2
years ago in 2012. The 14.04 LTS was released a couple of days ago so it
has only just started it's 5 years worth of support. The 16.04 is due out
in 2016.

So, on your 12.04 you should get a notification letting you know you can
upgrade. When/if you decline then you wont see it again for maybe a month,
when they release their first "Service Pack".

Generally i would go with Garvin's usual advice and hold off on upgrading
for a while. I have just tried it on a couple of machines and it seems
kinda fine but i'm going to let them settle for a while before rolling it
out to all the rest.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#23

Urmas wrote:

Yeah, that really a problem, especially since LO didn't exist back then.

It was called StarOffice back then.

StarOffice became OpenOffice. LibreOffice split off from OpenOffice
when Oracle took over. IIRC, the formats that are no longer supported
are the ancient StarOffice ones. LibreOffice still supports the
original OpenOffice sx* formats.

#24

Alex Thurgood wrote:

The dev working on LO didn't like the StarOffice binary filter code, so
they got rid of it, simple as that - they certainly didn't care whether
people who had started using the "original" product, the one that gave
birth both to OOo and LO, over 10 years ago would still want that file
format supported - "data guarantee" I hear you say ? Bah, humbug.
Clearly a case of :"if you're not working on the codebase, we're not
listening to you, lalalala, sticks fingers in ears..."

There was nothing seriously broken about the binary filter code used to
support those binary sd* file types, but it was a hefty chunk of code to
get rid of from the code base, and met the goal of reducing "code clutter".

Hi Alex,

au contraire. There were a ton of things broken with the binary filter
code. Most importantly, it was a snapshot copy of loads of the
application and filter code (some 140 kLOC in total), left to rot &
unmaintained many years before LibreOffice started.

Also, for just the StarOffice 1.0-5.0 import functionality, it came at
a rather huge footprint to (every!) LibreOffice download (some 10MB or so
for the download, some 20MB or so per install).

That thing really was beyond hope, and IMO it would have been a very
non-smart investment to encourage developers to even keep it on life
support any longer. It's not that the project has infinite developer
resources, and there are many others things that need attention.

Then the LO project had the gall to sign itself up to some document
format project that will claim to support all those old document
formats...hahaha, the irony of it all...

I miss the irony. Those filters pride themselves not to hold internal
copies of Corel Draw, Visio etc etc application code, but rather
provide clean, minimal, import-only filters. The door is wide open to
implement StarOffice binary format importers there. :wink:

Cheers,

-- Thorsten

#25

Hi.
A work colleague just tried Zorin (http://zorin-os.com/) as a replacement on a laptop. Look and feel sooo similar to Win and uses Ubuntu repositories. The download will run as a live disc to check out all your hardware will work.
Worked well, a little fiddle with the wifi, but in all a good replacement.
Steve

#26

What you are missing is that there are file layout differences between the various editions of the same version of MSO.
There are also file layout differences between the different versions of MSO.
There are also file layout differences between the different localizations of MSO.

IOW, in the last 23 years, more than 500 different file formats have used one of three names that Microsoft uses for its Word file format product.
That scenario is repeated for every item in the Microsoft Office Product category.

jonathon

#27

either now or much sooner.

That would be true if, and only if one of the following conditions is true:

* The vendor of the OP's system was one of the 6-nines that provides EOL dates for both the hardware and software that they sell;
* The OP's job entails providing 7/24 hour support for Windows;

The typical end-user does not know that both hardware and software comes with EOL dates, much less has any idea when those dates will occur.

jonathon

#28

That was certainly true of this typical end-user.

Virgil

#29

"James Knott":

IIRC, the formats that are no longer supported

are the ancient StarOffice ones.

StarOffice 5.2 was released in 1998. If that is 'ancient' for you, you are an idiot that should be kept out from developing office software.

#30

16 years? Yes, that is ANCIENT in computer/software terms, for both hardware AND software.

If you think otherwise, you are an idiot that should be kept our from developing office software, or even participating in email discussion lists.

#31

It might be old, but that does not mean "no longer used".

Ideally, the extension to import those file formats would have been released prior to ripping the code out of LibO.

Those that don't undertstand why sofware that is 15+ years old is still used, perhaps need to revisit why software shouldbe designed as if it will be used for the next century.

jonathon

#32

No one said it wasn't used, and that is totally irrelevant to the question being discussed.

We are talking about supporting old file FORMATS in MODERN software.

If you are still using Staroffice 5.2, then you have no problem opening those old file formats.

The problem is with those who don't understand that sometimes it simply is not practical to continue supporting LEGACY GARBAGE that is seriously hampering both ongoing/long term maintenance and innovation.

#33

Urmas wrote:

you are an idiot that should be kept out from developing office software.

Gee.... I didn't know I was developing office software. Thanks for
letting me know.

BTW, in case you haven't noticed, things have changed a bit in the past
16 years. Back then, there was still a lot of Windows 3.1 & DOS around,
among other things. How much of anything still works from back then?
How many still run Word 6? Back in the mid '90s, I was using Wordstar
2000 (and a bit of Word Perfect 5.2) at work and Describe at home.

#34

Hi :slight_smile:
I kinda gather that it is possible to develop new filters for the format,
perhaps as an Extension. There just doesn't seem to have been much
interest in it.

Also it is still easily possible to get older versions of software that can
read it and convert. Such older software not being vulnerable to many
threats that are out in the wild.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#35

Tom Davies wrote:

Also it is still easily possible to get older versions of software that can
read it and convert.

So, what's the latest version of LibreOffice or OpenOffice that will
read those formats? If needed, they could be used to save those old
files in a newer format.

#36

Hi James,

Tom Davies wrote:
> Also it is still easily possible to get older versions of software that
can
> read it and convert.

So, what's the latest version of LibreOffice or OpenOffice that will
read those formats? If needed, they could be used to save those old
files in a newer format.

The latest version of LibreOffice that can read those old formats is
version 3.6.x
Go for the very latest version of this branch.

Alternatively, I believe that AOO still has support for those legacy
formats in their current version.

HTH,

Sigrid

#37

Its the MS schill.

#38

Insulting other mailing list subscribers is absolutely unacceptable, not
only because it is against the Netiquette but also because it is against
the principles of our community.

If you do not share these principles (and your messages show that you do
not share them) you should be wise enough to leave the mailing list and
the community on you own.

#39

Hi :slight_smile:
+1
It would be great if this mailing list could be a "family friendly" place.
It is not always easy to come up with dignified responses that deals with
FUD in a witty and humorous way but doing so might make this list a more
friendly place to be. Please can we just try to "rise above it" instead of
letting anger control us? I will try to be better myself too.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#40

"Toki":

What you are missing is that there are file layout differences between

the various editions of the same version of MSO.

All those differences are hierarchic. You can read all the files of earlier version and have a way to ignore unsupported elements from the higher version.