Default file formats

Ashley_Thomas · February 18, 2011, 8:18pm

Ok, i am almost completely sure that the script will work but before running it
you need to set-up a way of testing it. So, how about setting your own user
account to default to odt format, run the script and then see what format your
account defaults to?

I ran the scripts, but they did not work for all users. The admin account still defaults to MS Office format, but other user accounts still default to .od format. When I check the Extension Manager, the 5 extensions that I ran from the command line show up as shared extensions, but they do not show when I logon as a different user. For comparison, I checked one of our OpenOffice servers, and on that one, the extensions do show in Extension Manager for all users.

In the scripts, there are many entries with "prop oor:name="ooSetupFactory....", would that be the same in LO?

Gordon_Burgess-Park1 · February 18, 2011, 9:22pm

HI

The person is asking for help and is obviously desperate and having problems
with instructions.

This is an opt-in mailing list not an automatic one.

The bit at the front "users+" does not get coloured in

Does here......

T_R_Valentine · February 18, 2011, 9:31pm

The biggest reason is our users do not remember to save in MS format when
sending files to customers and vendors. I am not sure a single customer of
ours could open an .odt file, for example, so we have to use formats our
customers and vendors can open.

Yes, I can see having LO/OO.o saving in MS formats by default for
accessibility for others. That is (unfortunately!) the reality.

Our IT departmnet prefers OO/LO not only due to licensing costs,
but also because the OO/LO interface is more familiar to most people.
MS Office 2007 and 2010, with the ribbon interface, does not look
much like MS Office 2003.

AMEN!!!

I've started a new position and am **trying** -- I really am -- to get
used to that damn ribbon. But it is *really* slowing me down. I'm
really close to installing LO just so I can get some work done. It
took me nearly 10 minutes the other day just to get the paragraph
markers (something like ❡) to display! Grrr.

Gordon_Burgess-Park1 · February 18, 2011, 9:43pm

Not at all. OO/LO has the wonderful function of File>Send>Email as MS Word....
So you can standardise on ODF internally and yet send as MS Word format externally without having to do a Save-As and get two copies of the same document...

MR_ZenWiz · February 18, 2011, 9:51pm

HI

The person is asking for help and is obviously desperate and having problems
with instructions.

If this had been a single posting, I would agree with you. Multiple
posts demanding action that most of us cannot perform will not produce
warm fuzzies in response.

The instructions appear to say that sending an email to

unsubscribe@libreoffice.org

will do the trick. The bit at the front "users+" does not get coloured in...

This could be an artifact of your emailer (Yahoo's latest and greatest
[disaster], IIRC). I have no trouble reading the whole address and it
appearing as an unbroken link.

Perhaps you could reconsider gmail again?

Tom_Davies · February 18, 2011, 10:10pm

________________________________
From: T. R. Valentine <trvalentine@gmail.com>
To: users@libreoffice.org
Sent: Fri, 18 February, 2011 21:30:39
Subject: Re: [libreoffice-users] Default file formats

On 18 February 2011 10:25, <ashleyt@arcet.com> wrote:

The biggest reason is our users do not remember to save in MS format when
sending files to customers and vendors. I am not sure a single customer of
ours could open an .odt file, for example, so we have to use formats our
customers and vendors can open.

Yes, I can see having LO/OO.o saving in MS formats by default for
accessibility for others. That is (unfortunately!) the reality.

Our IT department prefers OO/LO not only due to licensing costs,
but also because the OO/LO interface is more familiar to most people.
MS Office 2007 and 2010, with the ribbon interface, does not look
much like MS Office 2003.

AMEN!!!

I've started a new position and am **trying** -- I really am -- to get
used to that damn ribbon. But it is *really* slowing me down. I'm
really close to installing LO just so I can get some work done. It
took me nearly 10 minutes the other day just to get the paragraph
markers (something like ❡) to display! Grrr.

--
T. R. Valentine

Hi

2010 can read/write odt. Maybe not well but it can do it. It would be really
nice to reach out to users of older MS Office and give them links to download
LibreOffice or OpenOffice. People and organisations often do something for
pdf.

If your company has a website that customers go to for help then it has an
opportunity. Right now is a great time to help people move away from MS Office.

I find the ribbon bar much easier to use than the old menus and they look
prettier. People mostly just don't like them because they are unfamiliar and we
all like to stay in our comfort zones. LibreOffice is better despite having
"old-style" menus, not because of it imo. Many disagree about that and that
gives another reason why we have opportunity now.

Regards from
Tom

Larry_Gusaas · February 18, 2011, 11:36pm

________________________________
From: T. R. Valentine<trvalentine@gmail.com>
To:users@libreoffice.org
Sent: Fri, 18 February, 2011 21:30:39
Subject: Re: [libreoffice-users] Default file formats

> The biggest reason is our users do not remember to save in MS format when
> sending files to customers and vendors. I am not sure a single customer of
> ours could open an .odt file, for example, so we have to use formats our
> customers and vendors can open.

Yes, I can see having LO/OO.o saving in MS formats by default for
accessibility for others. That is (unfortunately!) the reality.

The quote attribution makes this seem that this is written by Tom Davies but it isn't.

> Our IT department prefers OO/LO not only due to licensing costs,
> but also because the OO/LO interface is more familiar to most people.
> MS Office 2007 and 2010, with the ribbon interface, does not look
> much like MS Office 2003.

AMEN!!!

I've started a new position and am **trying** -- I really am -- to get
used to that damn ribbon. But it is*really* slowing me down. I'm
really close to installing LO just so I can get some work done. It
took me nearly 10 minutes the other day just to get the paragraph
markers (something like ❡) to display! Grrr.

The quote attribution makes this seem that this is written by Tom Davies but it isn't.

"-- "

Because you left in this signature delimiter your comments were not included in this reply until I copy and pasted them back in

T. R. Valentine

The following is written by Tom Davies,

Hi 2010 can read/write odt. Maybe not well but it can do it. It would be really nice to reach out to users of older MS Office and give them links to download LibreOffice or OpenOffice. People and organisations often do something for pdf. If your company has a website that customers go to for help then it has an opportunity. Right now is a great time to help people move away from MS Office. I find the ribbon bar much easier to use than the old menus and they look prettier. People mostly just don't like them because they are unfamiliar and we all like to stay in our comfort zones. LibreOffice is better despite having "old-style" menus, not because of it imo. Many disagree about that and that gives another reason why we have opportunity now. Regards from Tom

Please fix your quoting style so people know who said what. Do not include signature delimiters before your comments.

Larry

MR_ZenWiz · February 19, 2011, 12:45am

:

I find the ribbon bar much easier to use than the old menus and they look
prettier. People mostly just don't like them because they are unfamiliar and we
all like to stay in our comfort zones. LibreOffice is better despite having
"old-style" menus, not because of it imo. Many disagree about that and that
gives another reason why we have opportunity now.

I don't like the ribbon primarily because it takes up a huge amount of
vertical screen space that is mostly just a waste. When I write a
document, or even an email, I want as much vertical space as possible
so I can see as much of messages/documents in one shot as possible.

I also don't much care for the way MS decided for us what we do and
don't need to see up front. I *do* like the tabs of the ribbon - once
I get used to them (however long that takes :-), I think they'll be
somewhat helpful and easier to use than the older menu format. In
fact, it would have been a much better marketing approach just to turn
the File Edit View menu bar into a tab bar first, then (maybe) a few
years after this caught on, go the next step and limit the tabs as
they are already in O10.

However, a whole world change like this not only makes MS Office
ergonomically incompatible with every other similar app in the world
(probably on purpose), it requires a massive retraining effort for
users. In any other business, this would be economic suicide. (Yes,
I keep praying....)

Cliff_Scott · February 19, 2011, 1:29am

** Reply to message from Gordon Burgess-Parker <gbplinux@gmail.com> on Fri,
18 Feb 2011 21:43:00 +0000

>> The biggest reason is our users do not remember to save in MS format when
>> sending files to customers and vendors. I am not sure a single customer of
>> ours could open an .odt file, for example, so we have to use formats our
>> customers and vendors can open.
> Yes, I can see having LO/OO.o saving in MS formats by default for
> accessibility for others. That is (unfortunately!) the reality.
>

Not at all. OO/LO has the wonderful function of File>Send>Email as MS
Word....
So you can standardise on ODF internally and yet send as MS Word format
externally without having to do a Save-As and get two copies of the same
document...

Sounds like a great feature, but it doesn't work here. I am using a
non-standard mailer, but it is setup as the default mailer in the registry
and other programs like FireFox find it just fine, but neither LO or OOo can
find it. Has anyone made it actually work?

Gordon_Burgess-Park1 · February 19, 2011, 8:52am

It works here both on Windows 7 with Outlook 2007 and Ubuntu 10.04 using Thunderbird as email client...
Shouldn't matter if you are using a "non-standard" email client (whatever that means) as long as that "non-standard" client is set as the default...

Gordon_Burgess-Park1 · February 19, 2011, 8:57am

You do know you can minimize the ribbon?

Tom_Davies · February 19, 2011, 10:20am

Hi

The point i was making was that most people that can't open odt files are using
old versions of MS Word.

We have an opportunity to help them upgrade to LibreOffice rather than following
their default upgrade route to MS Office 2010. The ribbon-bar counts in our
favour because our menu system is more intuitive and familiar to users of MS
Word 2003 and earlier. Even 2007 users are likely to appreciate the "step
backwards".

Often, company websites have documents in pdf and then have some system to help
people install or upgrade Adobe Acrobat Reader. Something similar has often
been done in emails. We could encourage people to do that with odt.

A company that helped it's customers, clients, vendors (and such-like) become
more competitive (by avoiding the licensing fees of our main competitors) might
build-up more "goodwill" on it's balance sheet and that might well translate
directly into repeat sales.

Regards from
Tom

James_Wilde · February 19, 2011, 10:44am

My problem with the ribbon - with which I have to help my wife on her Windows box - is that, after 20 years of menus, I don't find it intuitive. And apparently neither does she. Let's hope the LibO developers never get seduced into trying to imitate it.

//James
An old dog...

James_Wilde · February 19, 2011, 10:48am

The biggest reason is our users do not remember to save in MS format when
sending files to customers and vendors. I am not sure a single customer of
ours could open an .odt file, for example, so we have to use formats our
customers and vendors can open.

Yes, I can see having LO/OO.o saving in MS formats by default for
accessibility for others. That is (unfortunately!) the reality.

Not at all. OO/LO has the wonderful function of File>Send>Email as MS
Word....
So you can standardise on ODF internally and yet send as MS Word format
externally without having to do a Save-As and get two copies of the same
document...

Not only that, but there is also File/Send/Email as PDF. These two options were a stroke of genius, whoever thought of them.

//James

Gordon_Burgess-Park1 · February 19, 2011, 11:24am

Quite agree! Office 2007 doesn't have anything like that - if you use OOXML as default and need to send a .doc file, you have to do a Save As first and so get TWO copies of the same document in different formats...

Gordon_Burgess-Park1 · February 19, 2011, 11:47am

I have to say after having used everything from MS Office 95 through Lotus and WordPerfect, I found the Ribbon fairly easy to get to use - the QAT being a great help...

Kent1 · March 16, 2011, 2:55pm

This may be a bit off topic here, but does anyone know of a way to set the
default "save as" format for all users of a pc? I know how to do it
individually, on a per user basis, but I can't get it to work for all users.

jfn · March 16, 2011, 5:28pm

You didn't specify the operating system. I'm assuming here it's Windows XP+.

You may use the Windows ActiveSetup functionality to achieve what you're looking for.

http://www.appdeploy.com/articles/activesetup.asp
(and plenty other internet sources)

At a quick glance:

1. Create a LibO template user, with all the settings according to your requirements/needs.

2. Save its ApplicationData libreOffice user subtree to some dedicated directory on the hard drive. This subtree has all the parameters you've defined in step 1.
Duplicating them to any user's Application data directory will ensure a consistent install.

3. Set an ActiveSetup install (ie, a command-line script) that will copy the template subtree in place of any user when (s)he first opens his/her next session.
Mind the trap: when designing the user install (a xcopy of some sort will do), be sure to always specify absolute directory names; IOW, no relative paths since the AS mechanism is working system-wide!

And you're done
Indeed, it's way easier to set than to explain.

I'm using this very same scheme for OOo user session setups without any glitch.

HTH,