What is Digg?42 Comments
- superkendall, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22TextEdit can open Word documents today.
- aristotle0dude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19It is possible given that Apple bought Schemasoft in March of 2005. My employer was a client before it was acquired by Apple.
http://news.com.com/Apple+swallows+SchemaSoft/2100-1047_3-5630368.html
I heard about the deal a few days before it came out in the news. - Rochmndx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14YESS!! I'm not a mac user, but I do use OpenOffice.org 2.0 and I'm happy to see apple promoting OpenDocument.
- l0ne, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Leopard AppKit also supports OpenDocument.
- crocodilexp, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Word 2007 docx format is plain XML, i.e. pretty much plain text (archived using the widely available zip compression). You can rename the .docx to .zip, open it and see the XML files. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to reverse-engineer that -- of course, it would be difficult to support all format features, but simple text reading-writing should be way easier than most other formats (including the previous Word format).
- chucker, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11drizek, take another look at the screenshot. Apple supports *both* Office Open XML *and* OASIS OpenDocument.
- Sirusdv, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Well, not really, its all the same serialization stream, just backwards..
- chucker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Whatever TextEdit can do, *any* Cocoa app can if it uses NSTextView. TextEdit is nothing but a simple implementation of Cocoa's AppKit.
Since both iWork apps (Keynote and Pages) are written in Cocoa, running them on Leopard will let them *automatically* take advantage of this support, no changes on Apple's part needed. - virtualball, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I thought TextEdit could read docx back in the WWDC build... Why didn't anyone notice then?
- nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7@slickto:
"pushing open source interoperability" ... they say they are, but this is one area where they have a clear interest in keeping their monopoly and they'll have to put up or shut up on this one. code talks, them just saying these things means absolutely nothing at this point. until they can do better than their crappy, little exporter plug-in (ie. standard, built-in support for the format in Office) then they are just doing the minimum required to say that they are "pushing open source interoperability". - lastberserker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6You don't even need to reverse engineer - the file format is very well documented for Ecma review. And there are tons of examples available here: http://openxmldeveloper.org/ and a lot of information about the format here: http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/
- stmiller, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6"Just because you can Save into the office format doesn't mean you can also open a document that was created with Office. Saving and importing are pretty different. "
This is the opposite of the truth. For instance, Kword can open Word documents, but cannot save as .doc format.Word translators are out there and freely available to read .doc, but to save a document in that format--- well not as easy. - iandanger, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Actually the "Save as PDF" function is a feature of the Operating System, not the specific software. OSX just happens to be capable of processing all documents in PDF format because it is the default, just like this new XML format Microsoft invented is going to be Vista's default format.
Adobe is pissed, might I add, and are trying to sue Microsoft over it. - chucker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5They did. There's been screenshots of this months ago. This is not news.
- Angostura, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Good catch SuperKendall. TextEdit (effectively the bundled equivalent of Notepad, though less limitted - for Windows users wondering) opens basic Word documents very nicely. Things like auto-generated table of contents get munged, but text styling is preserved, so it is fine for viewing text from a file
- nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5@nofxjunkee:
Considering MS's behaviour in the past, why hope for Open XML to be truly open when OpenDocument is already ISO certified?
http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2006/5/16/4002 - DaffyDuck, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Good find. Thanks for posting that.
- djjuice, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4This has been there before this "new build", while its a new feature to 10.5, its not a new feature to this particular build.
- NickelSax, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Apple was involved with the standardization process of the new file formats, (Including being the host of some of the meetings for the formats)as has publicly said it would be building in support for these new formats, so I would not be surprised
- BWhaler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2What I hope for is a solid iWork.
I'd love to dump MSOffice once and for all.
Keynote is 90% there. Pages is 40% there. FileMaker is 95% there. They need a professional grade spreadsheet.
Get those to 100%, and for the SMB market, iWork is home. (Yes, I know FileMaker is not part of the package.) - kerplunk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Let's hope they improve TextEdit, itself, too.
TextWrangler keeps me happy. - Bitgod, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I hope this is true, because this would be an even better reason for people to not buy Pages. If you want a word processor, use text edit or go get office.
- cmilki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sorry but it would be ludicrous for Apple to position themselves as a competitor to MS Office. One of reasons for the switch was of course MS Office was available on a Mac. Apple actually advertises that Microsoft supports Office on a Mac.
- jakk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yes, it can. I'm running a leopard developer seed right now, and TextEdit reads (and writes!) Office 2007 beautifully
- MySchizoBuddy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2thats totally wrong. parallels runs windows and office runs on windows. u cannot run office without windows in parallels
- rickcarson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Microsoft Exchange is a big part of their death grip on the business world.
The ability to schedule meetings from within Outlook is about 50% of what the people who make the buying decisions do.
The other 50% of course, is sitting in meetings looking at ***** PowerPoints. I've read that some people suggest that Keynote is actually better than PowerPoint, so that could be half the battle.
Actually, I guess more important than that would be being able to rock on up to Joe Random Projector and be up and running in a couple of minutes, compared to the half an hour (or more) of mucking about that usually seems to happen whenever someone wants to give a presentation. - rickcarson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I did not know that Text Edit could do this.
What interests me is that Apple actually hand out the source code for TextEdit... - chucker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Conversely, I don't see how your comment is relevant at all, seeing as the document you speak of does not, by your very own assertion, use Office 2007's series of formats. .doc ≠ .docx.
- pauleric, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Oh ya, because everyone knows that renaming a file magically converts zip files to plain text on all OS's. And yup, 5000+ pages of pure steaming documentation.
- jeffgtr, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2I imagine you will be able to open and save as .doc in the next version of Iwork (maybe you can do that now, I'm still using Office Mac). The real concern seams to be that M$ is dropping VB support in the next version of Office for Mac and appears to be slowly killing off Mac support for office. I hope that with the next version of IWork which is suppose to have a spreadsheet program that they figure out a way to keep interoptability between the programs. Worst case scenario is there is always Parallels which if I understand correctly allows you to run Office without actually having windows installed.
- diggnationdevon, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I just tested and opened a doc file in textedit, and it opened. I don't see how this is relevant at all.
- djh816, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1umm wow totally jacked my picture and story...
- slickto, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0@nofxjunkee:
While I may agree with the fact that Microsoft is not well known for their open source efforts, in regards to their Office documents, they have come along way. Microsoft's Office Open XML has now been approved as a defacto standard, and they will receive ISO approval. And, Apple has officially stated: "rival Apple Computer Inc. Ecma International announced Thursday its approval of Office Open XML as a standard, touting the step as vital for document creation and archiving".
http://www.gameshout.com/news/microsoft_document_format_approved_as_standard/article8729.htm
This, to me, looks like more than "just doing the minimum required". As @iandanger stated above: Can't we migrate to a different standard? Yes, it looks like we just might. This allows you to make more than just a crappy plugin, since now you, and everyone else will have access to this format. Having worked extensively with such proprietary formats as PDF (yes Adobe holds tight rein over this format, that's why they wouldn't let MS use it), I look forward to hoping the open XML format will offer a better choice. - kingyubba, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1i think it would make more sense for them to do this with their iWork suite and position it to be a full MS Office competitor. maybe the TextEdit compatibility is just a sign of things to come.
- iandanger, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2We can all hope, after all, otherwise you have to convert all your documents.
Too bad we can't migrate to a different standard... - marning2000, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1"Well, not really, its all the same serialization stream, just backwards.."
If so, why can't OpenOffice open PDF? In fact, everything in OSX can "Print to PDF", so they should all be able to revert that. - slickto, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2I'm just giving the facts (source included)! Dugg down for that? Talk about a closed source format - haha
- SicKn3sS, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1This is the lamest story ever. Stop trying to support mac by posting lame ass ***** like this...
- slickto, on 10/12/2007, -12/+6@drizek: Actually, Microsoft is a proponent of ODF, and pushing open source interoperability. Word will soon support the ability to save in ODF.
Microsoft-led project to deliver on ODF:
http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-6125699.html - drizek, on 10/12/2007, -12/+3We CAN migrate to a different standard. It's called ODF. Apple supporting OpenXML will just delay this. Although I believe that the transition to an open document standard is inevitable, no matter how much money MS tries to put in its way.
- graiz, on 10/12/2007, -17/+4Just because you can Save into the office format doesn't mean you can also open a document that was created with Office. Saving and importing are pretty different.
- miles01110, on 10/12/2007, -25/+4omg TextEdit will get viruses now.
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