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Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2014 10:42 pm
by henke54
Scott Nesbitt at opensource.com on 26 Dec 2014 wrote:In a recent news roundup, I pointed to an article about Google offering better support for OpenDocument (DOF) formats in its applications. The article mentioned that support would come sometime in 2015, but Google surprised the world and added ODF support to Google Drive. According to the article by Simon Phipps of InfoWorld, Google Drive now supports "ODT (ODF text documents), ODS (spreadsheets), and ODP (presentations), which can now all be imported into Google Docs."

That's a good start, but as Phipps notes Google still has a bit further to go. He writes that "ODF is seen as a migration format rather than as a working format" since metadata, annotations, and other information is lost upon import. Phipps adds this "will have to change, because there's no doubt official interest in ODF around the world is growing. Google wants to sell Drive and Chromebooks into government-controlled markets, and ODF is becoming a gating factor.

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 2:20 pm
by henke54
This is an article , maybe a bit 'off topic' , but nevertheless a good article about 'Big Data' - promoting :
Michael Nielsen at bbvaopenmind.com wrote:Standards are about owning hearts and minds, not atoms.

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 11:03 pm
by henke54
A number of public administrations throughout Europe have decided to support open document formats when communicating with the public. FixMyDocuments.eu is a campaign to help them implement their decision effectively.
Bringing a new Open Source viewer of Open Document Format files to mobile devices can only help to remove barriers to public sector adoption of Open Standards and level the playing field for proprietary formats such as Microsoft Office, which already have mobile applications available. In theory 6,806 devices are compatible with LibreOffice for Android – a staggering amount belying the incredible reach that this operating system now brings to the LibreOffice brand.

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 3:18 pm
by henke54
New translations of ODF toolkit infographic in LibreOffice : https://libreoffice-from-collabora.com/ ... fographic/

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2015 4:08 am
by hershel
Good to know that open office have full support.

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Thu May 07, 2015 3:20 pm
by henke54
Villeroy wrote:So all they have to say is: "OOXML is wide spread which is why nobody can live without it." OOXML is not wide spread outside the US. Oh, and certainly OOXML is far away from being "popular". People did not ask for OOXML. They simply use it because it is the latest shit from Microsoft.
Adrian Offerman at Joinup on May 06, 2015 wrote:Using the proprietary OOXML document format, i.e. docx, pptx and xlsx, makes you more vulnerable to phishing and other attacks. Earlier this month, the Japanese anti-virus company Trend Micro published a blog post describing how the attack group "Operation Pawn Storm" uses spear-phishing mail messages with malicious Office documents to target the military, governments, defense industries and the media.

Four years ago, Thomas Caspers and Oliver Zendel from the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) already presented research results stating that most spear-phishing attacks targeting specific persons or a small group of victims are using "launch actions" in Office and PDF documents to have their malicious code executed.

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Thu May 07, 2015 3:26 pm
by henke54
Gijs Hillenius at Joinup on May 04, 2015 wrote:France is about to overhaul its policy on the interoperability of government IT systems. The current proposal would be a boost for the Open Document Format (ODF), selected as a standard for editable documents. The other document standards are TXT, PDF and PDF1/A. The country has published a draft of the new policy; comments can be submitted until 15 May.
The draft policy describes ODF and PDF as pivotal formats, the former for editable documents and the latter for non-editable documents.

By publishing the draft, France hopes “to involve all stakeholders and to collect all ideas, comments, criticisms and additions that will make the updated policy an essential element to make truly interoperable public services”, explains the Interdepartmental Directorate for ICT. DISIC writes that the success of the policy (Référentiel Général d'Interopérabilité, RGI) “is based on understanding and respect for the needs of interoperability by all actors involved in the definition, design, maintenance and operation of information systems of the state, public organisations and local authorities.”

Updating the RGI allows France’s public administrations to take into account the evolution of IT technologies and standards since the first version, published in 2009. It will also place IT standards at the heart of the government’s approach to making its IT systems interoperable.
Aggregate

The upcoming policy will aggregate standards and recommendations. This will help public administrations by focussing on some of the key issues, and by limiting the choice of standards.

ODF is the default document format used by the main open source office suites. Across Europe, public administrations that use these open source suites report having interoperability issues when exchanging editable documents with those using a common proprietary office suite and its mix of proprietary document formats. The past few years, French, Swiss and German public administrations have pooled funds to improve how their open source office suites handle OOXML, the latest document format of this proprietary office suite.

If France decides to focus on using ODF for its editable documents, it will be the second large European Member State to do so. The UK government in July announced that all government organisations will switch to using ODF for their editable documents. That decision also followed a public consultation, drawing several hundreds of comments.
http://references.modernisation.gouv.fr ... .9.7-8.pdf
https://references.modernisation.gouv.f ... taires-rgi
http://www.nextinpact.com/news/93707-l- ... bilite.htm

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Thu May 07, 2015 4:24 pm
by acknak
Thanks as always for the interesting links!
henke54 wrote:... Using the proprietary OOXML document format, i.e. docx, pptx and xlsx, makes you more vulnerable to phishing and other attacks. ...
Does anyone know how/why this is connected specifically to OOXML and not ODF?

The formats are quite similar: both allow easy access to content and metadata; both allow embedded macros and both support encryption and signing for secure content. Is this another case where OOXML is being attacked because it's more widespread rather than for some technical reason?

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Fri May 08, 2015 9:26 am
by keme
acknak wrote:
henke54 wrote:... Using the proprietary OOXML document format, i.e. docx, pptx and xlsx, makes you more vulnerable to phishing and other attacks. ...
Does anyone know how/why this is connected specifically to OOXML and not ODF?
...
I can think of two possible reasons, off the cuff (i.e. I am not sure that hese are the real reasons ; it just sprung to mind):
  • Format related: From what I have read on the subject, I gather that the "transitional" OOXML standard (which I believe that MS Office still uses) allows for binary content (older MS Office formats, specifically). This path outside of OOXML may allow for more hostile content inside documents.
    Software related (i.e. not only tied to storage format): When you use MS Office, the mail software is closely integrated with document software, to support inline display of document content. This allows for a more direct attack.
A few other possible reasons for different attack figures:
  • Larger market share means more interest from attackers. It is more likely that an attack pays off.
    Open source community means more people involved in discussions concerning security issues. It is more likely that an open attack opportunity is closed, or that awareness of the vulnerability will spread.

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Fri May 08, 2015 10:54 am
by acknak
Good points.

I was wondering if it might be the old problem that macros in documents are enabled by default, whereas in ODF (or at least AOO/LO) macros are disabled by default. That's more of a software issue, not necessarily a document format problem.

With people being more security-conscious, it's hard to believe that MS would still enable macros.

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Sun May 24, 2015 11:55 pm
by henke54

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2015 12:41 pm
by henke54
henke54 wrote:
Gijs Hillenius at Joinup on May 04, 2015 wrote:France is about to overhaul its policy on the interoperability of government IT systems. The current proposal would be a boost for the Open Document Format (ODF), selected as a standard for editable documents. The other document standards are TXT, PDF and PDF1/A.
The draft policy describes ODF and PDF as pivotal formats, the former for editable documents and the latter for non-editable documents.

If France decides to focus on using ODF for its editable documents, it will be the second large European Member State to do so. The UK government in July announced that all government organisations will switch to using ODF for their editable documents. That decision also followed a public consultation, drawing several hundreds of comments.
The Micro$oft lobby-machine is at full action in France :
http://www.silicon.fr/rgi-v2-retour-de- ... 17711.html
http://www.informatiquenews.fr/openxml- ... fdel-36143
:roll:

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2015 10:11 pm
by Hagar Delest
But this time, the French institutions seem more powerful than for the first version of this "interoperability act". So OOXML may be kept out of that act.

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:46 pm
by henke54
Gijs Hillenius at Joinup on July 24, 2015 wrote:The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has updated the ODF open document format standard for office application. ODF version 1.2 was published on 17 June.
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/o ... t-standard
:super:

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 7:48 am
by MatTyping
compare the alternatives and a mere attempt to get a negotiation lever to have major reduction fees when renewing the MS licenses.

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 10:26 pm
by henke54
UK government publishes ODF guidance ;
Gijs Hillenius at Joinup on September 08, 2015 wrote:The UK government on 7 September published recommendations and guidelines on the use and implementation of ODF, the Open Document Format. The compendium is authoritative, from its general introduction to the recommendations on procurement, a guide on integration of ODF with enterprise software, software that allows collaborating on documents and a review of ODF’s change tracking features.

Liam Maxwell, the UK government CIO, calls the collection a “great piece of work”.

“The guidance gives general information on the standard, as well as more detailed information for chief technology officers and government procurement officers”, the government writes in its announcement.

On the website, the UK government explains that ODF (version 1.2) was selected as government standard because it is compatible with a wide range of software and because it is a reliable long-term solution for storing and accessing information. ODF has been an international standard for editable office documents since 2005. The standard has been implemented on nearly all operating systems for desktops, laptops, mobile phones and tablets.
ODF Plugfest
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/o ... guidance-0

http://arstechnica.co.uk/business/2015/ ... nt-format/
MIMO, an inter-ministerial working group, is implementing ODF native software solutions on the workstations of 11 of France’s 17 ministries. The LibreOffice office suite is now installed on nearly all 500,000 desktops of France’s ministries:

Energy (Ecology)
Defence (Défense)
Interior (Intérieur)
Economy
Justice,
Agriculture
Culture and Communication
Education
Finance
Health and Social Affairs
Foreign Affairs

None of these departments need licences, meaning none pay for them.

Toulouse, France’s fourth largest city, has saved €1 million by migrating all its desktops to LibreOffice. A study published by the European Commission’s Open Source Observatory and Repository (OSOR) notes that France demonstrates the largest example of a public administration using open source on workstations in Europe. The country’s Gendarmerie (a branch of the French armed forces) has Ubuntu Linux and LibreOffice running on 72,000 workstations (including the outposts in French Polynesia).
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/open-docume ... its-of-odf

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2015 10:27 pm
by henke54
Italian military to switch to LibreOffice and ODF ;
Gijs Hillenius at Joinup on September 15, 2015 wrote:The Italian military is transitioning to LibreOffice and the Open Document Format (ODF). The Ministry of Defense will over the next year-and-a-half install this suite of office productivity tools on some 150,000 PC workstations - making it Europe’s second largest LibreOffice implementation. The switch was announced on 15 September by the LibreItalia Association.

The migration project will begin in October and is foreseen to be completed at the end of 2016.
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/o ... ce-and-odf
8-)

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 5:15 pm
by henke54
Dutch Standards Board mulls making ODF mandatory ;
Gijs Hillenius at Joinup on September 16, 2015 wrote:The Standardisation Board of the Netherlands wants to make the use of the Open Document Format mandatory for Dutch public administrations. ODF is one of the required ICT standards in the Netherlands, following a policy dating from 2007. However, the document format is ignored by most. This should change, said Nico Westpalm van Hoorn, the chairman of the standards board, speaking on Tuesday at the ODF Plugfest in The Hague.

“We need to tell the government that ODF needs to be enforced”, said chairman Westpalm van Hoorn. “Technically, there are no reasons not to use it.”
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/node/145816

http://www.pro-linux.de/news/1/22757/od ... erden.html

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 11:28 pm
by henke54
henke54 on Thu Jan 29, 2015 wrote:
A number of public administrations throughout Europe have decided to support open document formats when communicating with the public. FixMyDocuments.eu is a campaign to help them implement their decision effectively.
Gijs Hillenius at Joinup on October 14, 2015 wrote: FixMyDocuments campaign launched one year ago

The vast majority of EU officials who publish documents online are oblivious to the EU’s open document formats policy. One year after the launch of the ‘FixMyDocuments’ campaign, advocates of open document formats conclude the policy is perceived as unimportant. “There is a huge lack of awareness”, says campaign organiser Maël Brunet. “Maintainers show little interest to fix documents.”
.................................
The campaign was launched in September last year. Campaigners have since then pointed European institutions to over 15,000 editable documents that should be made available as ODF. “After a year, only around 10% of the pages have been ‘fixed’”, Brunet writes in a summary on the campaign website.
:roll:

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2015 10:32 pm
by henke54
Gary Flood at itproportal.com on 02/11/2015 wrote:
The Crown Commercial Service has announced a new Open Source desktop suite as an alternative to Microsoft.

The new offering, Collabora GovOffice is based on LibreOffice from vendor Collabora Productivity, and is compatible with Google Docs and Microsoft Office (including Office 365).

It is said to include comprehensive support for the latest version of Open Document Format, which is recommended by the Cabinet Office for use by government organisations, as well as as a “familiar interface” for creating documents, spreadsheets, presentations and more, Collabora GovOffice offers considerable cost savings compared to competing packages.

The Open Source software can complement or replace existing office applications and be used to extend the usefulness of other software packages, says the Service, while the forthcoming Collabora CloudSuite will extend Collabora GovOffice with Internet and mobile access for viewing and editing documents, and online access in web browsers.
http://www.itproportal.com/2015/11/02/g ... top-suite/

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 5:50 pm
by henke54
Any volunteers to comment on this article ? ;) :
David Norfolk at it-director.com on 18th November 2015 wrote:Perhaps my readers can comment on whether they see ODF as ever becoming ubiquitous - and suggest who might fund it without taking it over. In the meantime, I guess I'll be off exploring Libre Office, which seems to be the main hope for popularizing a vendor-independent document environment... Although, I must admit that I still find that Open Office supports most of what I need to do - I just can't send anyone an Open Office ODF document with any confidence that the recipient will be able to read it.

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Sun May 15, 2016 9:50 am
by henke54
henke54 wrote:Italian military to switch to LibreOffice and ODF ;
Gijs Hillenius at Joinup on September 15, 2015 wrote:The Italian military is transitioning to LibreOffice and the Open Document Format (ODF). The Ministry of Defense will over the next year-and-a-half install this suite of office productivity tools on some 150,000 PC workstations - making it Europe’s second largest LibreOffice implementation. The switch was announced on 15 September by the LibreItalia Association.

The migration project will begin in October and is foreseen to be completed at the end of 2016.
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/o ... ce-and-odf
8-)
Adrian Offerman at JOINUP on May 09, 2016 wrote:The Italian Ministry of Defence expects to save 26-29 million Euro over the coming years by using LibreOffice. The LibreDifesa project aims to eventually migrate all of the organisation's well over 100,000 desktops to the open-source office productivity suite. "Taking into account the deadlines set by our current Microsoft Office licences, we will have 75,000 (70%) LibreOffice users by 2017, and an additional 25,000 by 2020," says General Camillo Sileo, Deputy Chief of Department VI, Systems Department C4I, for the Transformation of Defence and General Staff. That will make this deployment of LibreOffice the largest in Europe.
The LibreItalia team, which will assist the Italian military in transitioning to LibreOffice ;
Image
http://www.neowin.net/news/italian-mili ... ibreoffice
http://news.softpedia.com/news/italian- ... 3945.shtml

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Sun May 15, 2016 11:39 am
by Villeroy
The article includes a link to http://www.neowin.net/news/munich-germa ... to-windows of 2014 which tells the untruth. LiMux (Linux in Munich) remains the mostly accepted platform in the city which also hosts Microsoft Germany.

I can't spot Italo Vignoli on that foto.

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Sun May 15, 2016 12:23 pm
by henke54
Villeroy wrote:I can't spot Italo Vignoli on that foto.
Here is the 'whole' foto, with Italo Vignoli on the right ;) ;
Image

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Sun May 15, 2016 1:37 pm
by Villeroy
I would be surprised if that dandy could not be found there.

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2016 1:17 pm
by henke54
Swapnil Bhartiya at cio.com on Aug 4, 2016 wrote:According to Italo Vignoli of the Document Foundation, Microsoft uses non-standard version of its own OOXML format in Office products, which creates interoperability issues. On top of that, says Vignoli, Microsoft uses default proprietary fonts that break compatibility with other office suites. If you want to ensure interoperability, you should use LibreOffice and save your documents in the ISO approved Open Document Format (ODF).

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2016 1:40 am
by henke54
Tina Amirtha at Zdnet on November 17, 2016 wrote:
The US government spends about $6bn per year on software licenses and maintenance, according to the Office of Management and Budget.

Given the scale of that spending, it's understandable that the US, like other administrations around the world, is considering open-source software and open software standards as a way of saving money.

But more than just seeing the move to open source as a cost-effective alternative, public officials worldwide view it as a means of speeding up innovation in the public sector.

In October, the Dutch government set into law a proposal that all government bodies should use open document formats starting in 2017. In addition, the Dutch government will be promoting open-source software across the public and private sector.

The open document format is a digital file type that meets open-standards requirements, a set of technical software specifications that encourages open and proprietary software applications to integrate seamlessly with one another.

or example, the open document file type .odt is compatible with both the proprietary Microsoft Office and the open-source OpenOffice and LibreOffice alternatives.

In June, the US government passed into law the Megabyte Act, which aims to streamline software license spending with a projected savings of up to $181m per year for a single internal agency.

And in August, the US government issued a new federal software policy that aims to improve efficiency, transparency, and innovation across government by promoting the use of open source.

In many ways, these software licenses are a symptom of the tech world's hold on governments. In Europe, governments struggle to keep tech companies publicly responsible by urging them to pay their fair share of taxes, while they rely on these companies' technologies to keep their administrations running.

Avoiding entering into binding licensing contracts is one way that governments can separate themselves from the power of tech companies.

"You create a lock-in situation, where company X created it and they are the only ones who know how relationships in the data and database itself work well enough to maintain it," says Kane McLean, a public-sector technology consultant and co-chair of Open Source for America.

Before the UK government implemented its open-standards plan in 2014, Microsoft threatened to move its Microsoft Research laboratories out of the UK, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Adopting this type of strategy often means refraining from using proprietary software and choosing open-source software instead. As part of its ongoing open-standards program, UK government officials who wish to set up new services must avoid software licenses that require them to use proprietary software.

The Microsoft Office suite is one of the most expensive software licenses for governments to maintain, and governments are among Microsoft's largest customers. While the rates Microsoft charges to governments are not publicly available, the business consumer price of the Microsoft 365 suite jumped by 59 percent at the end of 2015.

The Australian government's spending on Microsoft desktop licenses jumped by 33 percent in 2016, a significant jump from previous years, according to iTnews. From the middle of 2016 to the middle of 2019, Australia's Department of Finance will pay A$67m ($50m) per year on Microsoft licenses.

Some large tech companies, such as Facebook and Google, are committed to the spirit of open-source software. And to support the demand for open document formats, a few years ago Microsoft introduced the .docx format, which is compatible with most text programs.

As governments disseminate increasingly more information and offer more services online, they need to connect new websites and applications to older ones, as well as across departments. To avoid having to rewrite old software code to function with new apps, governments are encouraging developers to use software with built-in open standards.

The primary goal of employing open source in government is to facilitate the transfer of data as smoothly as possible. Open-standards proponents say this approach would lead to more innovation within government and better citizen services.

"The database itself is so intertwined with the data, and the data is so intertwined with the database, that they are virtually inseparable. So once you are intimately familiar with both the data and that database, reinventing it would be a very, very difficult challenge," says Open Source for America's McLean.

The new Dutch law's sponsor, Astrid Oosenbrug, told Dutch iT-channel that open-document formats would improve information sharing from the government to citizens and give the government more freedom in choosing IT suppliers. Meanwhile, using open-source software would improve competition in the software industry, she said.

Open Source for America's McLean says his organization is seeing far more smaller projects becoming parts of major systems in federal IT, in a way not experienced before the adoption of open standards.

"It really is amazing when you level the playing field and drop the barriers, the people who come out and want to play, they've had some amazing ideas," he says.

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2016 3:32 am
by henke54
NL Parliament makes open standards mandatory
Law to be introduced in 2017
Gijs Hillenius at Joinup on October 12, 2016 wrote:The first public administration that should improve its use of open standards, is the Parliament’s Lower House itself, Oosenbrug said. “Ironically, the Lower House published the adopted law on its website by providing a download link to a document in a proprietary format.
:knock: :ucrazy: ->
Image

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 1:59 pm
by henke54
Users Can Now Access Files in OpenDocument Formats from Android Versions of Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets ;
Sneha Nalawade at martechadvisor.com on Jan 05, 2017 wrote:Google has announced that it will be enhancing its documents applications that are available on Android. With the enhancements in place, importing and exporting files will be easy for users.

Google Docs will now support importing of files in the OpenDocument Text (.odt) format as well as export the files later in the same format. In a similar fashion, OpenDocument Spreadsheets (.ods) files and OpenDocument Presentations (.odp) files will from now on be supported for importation and exportation on the Android versions of Google Sheets and Google Slides, respectively.

The OpenDocument format came into existence during 2000s, a time when MS Office documents formats like .xls, .ppt, and .doc were dominating. Google’s cloud-based applications were still coming up. This was followed by support from Microsoft for desktop productivity applications with the launch of Office 2007 Service Pack 2.

The new enhancement, however, does not work offline. There was also nothing specific stated as regards to whether .odt, .odp, and .ods will be supported in the iOS versions of Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets. The iOS versions of Microsoft’s Excel, PowerPoint, and Word support such OpenDocument files, which is missing in the Android versions.

Re: Support for ODF

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 4:21 am
by henke54
here is a better link ;) ->
... ODF represents the solution to vendor lock-in using document formats, because it is supported as a native format by LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice, and as a recognized format by MS Office (and many other free and proprietary applications).

Using ODF, governments, organizations and individuals become the sole owners of their contents as there will always be an open source application able to read and write the document format. In this way, they will not be forced to buy the license of a proprietary application to read and write their own contents....
and here is some 'reading stuff' ->
Swapnil Bhartiya at cio.com on Feb 3, 2017 wrote:Vignoli told me about some dirty tricks that Microsoft uses to break interoperability.