{"id":1434,"date":"2010-12-20T19:05:53","date_gmt":"2010-12-21T00:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2d823b65bb.nxcli.io\/?p=1434"},"modified":"2010-12-24T10:29:18","modified_gmt":"2010-12-24T15:29:18","slug":"microsoft-office-odf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/2010\/12\/microsoft-office-odf.html","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Office and ODF: Best Practices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve received a few questions about how to read\/write ODF documents from Microsoft Office.\u00a0 I looked around and did not find a comprehensive <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=site%3Amicrosoft.com+odf\">Microsoft web page<\/a> on this topic, so I&#8217;m putting together this page as a reference for best practices on how to use ODF with Office.<\/p>\n<p>I intend to update this post as I find more information, so feel free to  add a comment if you have a link to some additional material.<\/p>\n<p>Depending on what version of Microsoft Office you are running you may  have up to three different ways of working with ODF documents, either  through native support in Office or through a third-party extension.\u00a0 Your options are listed in the following table:<\/p>\n<p>[table id=7 \/]<\/p>\n<p>A few notes on each option:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Native support for ODF 1.1 is available in Office 2010, and in Office 2007 once you install <a href=\"http:\/\/support.microsoft.com\/kb\/953195\">Service Pack 2<\/a> (SP2).\u00a0\u00a0 Using the <a href=\"http:\/\/technet.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/cc179097.aspx\">Office Customization Tool<\/a>, administrators can configure Office to <a href=\"http:\/\/technet.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/dd723552.aspx\">default to ODF format<\/a> for new documents.\u00a0 Office will give you an warning message whenever  you try to save a document in ODF format, but this can be disabled  according to these <a href=\"http:\/\/support.microsoft.com\/kb\/970020\">instructions<\/a>.\u00a0 Some ODF features are either not available, or are implemented in a way that is not interoperable with other ODF editors like OpenOffice.org.\u00a0 Examples include spreadsheet formulas and change tracking.\u00a0 Microsoft has written up in detail what features are and are not supported when saving <a href=\"http:\/\/office.microsoft.com\/en-us\/word-help\/differences-between-the-opendocument-text-odt-format-and-the-word-docx-format-HA010283563.aspx\">Word<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/office.microsoft.com\/en-gb\/excel-help\/differences-between-the-opendocument-spreadsheet-ods-format-and-the-excel-xlsx-format-HA010287722.aspx?CTT=1\">Excel <\/a>and <a href=\"http:\/\/office.microsoft.com\/en-us\/powerpoint-help\/differences-between-the-opendocument-presentation-odp-format-and-the-powerpoint-pptx-format-HA010287723.aspx\">PowerPoint<\/a> documents in ODF format.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.oracle.com\/us\/products\/applications\/open-office\/oracle-odf-plugin-ds-155370.pdf\">Oracle&#8217;s ODF Plugin<\/a> is available commercially, with support.\u00a0 It is the only current option for those who require ODF 1.2 support.\u00a0 It is also the only option that supports Office 2000.\u00a0 An earlier version of this plugin, originally made available by Sun at no cost for individual use, is still available for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.softpedia.com\/get\/Office-tools\/Other-Office-Tools\/Sun-ODF-Plugin-for-Microsoft-Office.shtml\">download at Softpedia<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>The <a href=\"http:\/\/odf-converter.sourceforge.net\/download.html\">ODF Add-in for Microsoft Office<\/a> is an open source developed under Microsoft sponsorship by several smaller companies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Unanswered questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Are there any head-to-head reviews of these three options, preferably one that looks at standards conformance and interop?<\/li>\n<li>Are there any ODF options for Office 2008 or Office 2011 (Mac Office)?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve received a few questions about how to read\/write ODF documents from Microsoft Office.\u00a0 I looked around and did not find a comprehensive Microsoft web page on this topic, so I&#8217;m putting together this page as a reference for best practices on how to use ODF with Office. I intend to update this post as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-odf","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1434"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1466,"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1434\/revisions\/1466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robweir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}