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On 07/22/2011 10:24 AM, e-letter wrote:
On 21/07/2011, Andrew Douglas Pitonyak<andrew@pitonyak.org>  wrote:
On 07/21/2011 08:47 AM, e-letter wrote:
On 21/07/2011, Andrew Douglas Pitonyak<andrew@pitonyak.org>   wrote
I am more comfortable in OOo than I am in MSO, so, I have created many
MSO deliverables in OOo and LO. The only time that I make an exception
is when I believe that I am not able to seamlessly move between formats
because of incompatibilities. So, if I intend to create a large document
with multiple images, links, and fields, I begin and end with MSO.

That is your prerogative, but it is preferable to see writer used to
create such large documents in the native odt format, at least to
demonstrate the power of LO.
The problem is that the final deliverable to the client is an MSO
document and the complicated structures that I frequently use do not
properly export to the MSO document format. It is very time consuming to
work through a 250 page document full of cross-references and text
frames that do NOT export to the format required by the client. I lost
many hours fixing up the document in MSO so that it would be ready for
final delivery.

In my opinion interoperability with the _m$ format_ weakens increased
adoption of the odf. At the start of a 250 page document, ideally the
decision should be made to use odt and the issue become ensuring that
LO behaviour in native odt format occurs with minimal bugs. This
experience alone should promote wider adoption of LO. The claim to
offer (or attain to) perfect interoperability with the _m$ format_
leads to time wasted trying to get LO to work with m$. If the end
requirement is m$, pay to use m$.

If anything, this experience means that LO is less likely to be used because if there is a change in requirements and I must generate and deliver an MSO document, then I had better not be using LO if the document will be sufficiently complex that it will not export well.

Even worse, given that MSO has the greatest market share it means that most legacy documents use the MSO formats. I knew many people that refused to switch from Word Perfect when I told them that OOo would NOT read their document archives that they spent years creating.

To date, I have seen only one client that requested that an ODF document be the final deliverable. As they went around the table trying to figure out what experience the large team had with OOo, the best that was there was "yeah, heard about it, never used it".

LO does not have sufficient penetration to play like MS to force users into staying with LO.
The
point of the original post, is that priority should be for LO
performance in native odf to be better than m$o performance in native
m$ format (or indeed secondary odf).

Oh! Ummm, yeah. I think that I was just hit in the head with something important and logical. :-)

It does not seem right that
people complain that "writer does not save to m$ format well", when
the statement "writer creates beautiful, easily-created odf documents"
should be the main reason to use LO.
Let me add to your statement, because much of it is VERY important.

1. Many people find the LO interface more intuitive, easy, and obvious to use than learning the new MSO interface.

2. Most people do NOT write complex documents (think home user that writes letters and such) so complex support is not required.

That said, when people complain that there is an issue with formatting, it tells me that either

(a) The document has some level of complexity

(b) There are probably things that float around (like frames or images), and these are very difficult to get right. Even MSO has issues when moving between versions.


--
Andrew Pitonyak
My Macro Document: http://www.pitonyak.org/AndrewMacro.odt
Info:  http://www.pitonyak.org/oo.php


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