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#41

@Brian,

Thanks for the helpful rundown on viewers.

For Windows and non-Windows platforms, the on-line SkyDrive viewers and editors can be used as well. There is reduced functionality, but it is probably still better than what happens attempting to use DOCX in OpenOffice-lineage software.

Recently, they added not only storage but viewer/editor support for some ODF Formats, primarily ODF Text.

See <https://skydrive.live.com/>.

(There is now access to some of these on Smartphones too.)

#42

Hi, Brian. Are you suggesting that the compatibility packs update the
Word | Powerpoint | Excel Viewers? I understood that to not be the
case when I last tried some years ago (~2009, and the code has not
been updated since I see).

#43

Yes.

Brian Barker

#44

Maybe so, but it hasn't been a problem yet!

#45

I tried their "compatibility pack" for MSO 2003 that "stated" that it would allow 2003 to read properly MSO 2007 files. Well it did not work. Then it stated that you needed the Word viewer to get the pack to read Word 2007 files. Well, since my XP system once had Word 2003 installed and there was still "residue" of it in the registry, the Word viewer failed to install since it claimed I had Word 2003 installed and both could not be installed on the same system.

SO
I have had a lot of problems with MS's "compatibility pack" actually working. It would not allow me to read Word 2007 files the way it was "claimed" it would do.

Now the real thing LO needs is more work on the .docx [2007 and 2010 versions] file filtering system. The better LO [and AOO] can read and write .docx files, the better it would be for people who do not want to deal with MSO. Then there are the people, like me, who use Linux and our options on getting MSO running properly on our systems is low.

Get the importing filtering for LO/AOO working more and better it the real option instead of getting a viewer package. I want my LO to read 100% of the .docx files I get from the government agencies who have a contract with MSO and are no allowed to install LO on their systems [or even use a thumb drive for 2 of them].

If a third-party can get .docx files to read better than it can for LO, we need that coding.

But if MSO states that there may be a difference in readability based on your OS and other factors, then buying MSO 2010 for an XP, a Vista, and a Win7 system and get the same results for all three systems will be something that even MSO will not guarantee. I thing that there is something really "wrong" with their own coding if they cannot guarantee it will work with all the OSs that MSO2010 can be installed on. It should not make a difference, but it can.

#46

The problem with the Compatability Pack is, it takes over *all* file associations for *all* Office documents, including the ordinary .doc, .xls and .ppt files... this confuses users who are not computer saavy...

#47

Tanstaafl wrote

The problem with the Compatability Pack is, it takes over *all* file
associations for *all* Office documents, including the ordinary .doc,
.xls and .ppt files... this confuses users who are not computer saavy...

--

Why bother about users who are not computer savvy? Double-click is one
distinct action. There can only be one program bound to this particular
action. The MS viewers are the most appropriate programs to view MS Office
files. Anybody unable to open some file with some other program is the wrong
person on the job.
If this default application is a major annoyance, there are administrators
to modify the default file assosiations for all users.

#48

Andreas Säger wrote:

Tanstaafl wrote

The problem with the Compatability Pack is, it takes over *all* file
associations for *all* Office documents, including the ordinary .doc,
.xls and .ppt files... this confuses users who are not computer saavy...

--

Why bother about users who are not computer savvy? Double-click is one
distinct action. There can only be one program bound to this particular
action. The MS viewers are the most appropriate programs to view MS Office
files. Anybody unable to open some file with some other program is the wrong
person on the job.
If this default application is a major annoyance, there are administrators
to modify the default file assosiations for all users.

Generally, the last app to be installed grabs the file associations. To avoid that problem, when I rebuilt a system for friend yesterday (disk crash), I installed the viewers first and then OpenOffice.