RE: MS Word and XML

[m.oritz_b.erger@xxxxxxxxxxx (Moritz Berger)]

The author of that article fails to get its facts straight:

Quote: "By maintaining a proprietary binary format that frequently changes,
Microsoft has kept the exit costs high for potential defectors."

Let's see: 1997 was the last time that Microsoft changed the Word file
format (Office 2003 still uses the same "Word8" binary format as Office 97).

6+ years and going strong ain't "frequent changes" to me ...

Proprietary?
1. Many file formats can be set as the default in Word 2002 (see
tools/options/[Save] tab).
I.e. if I don't like the Word8 binary format (which has been documented by
Microsoft since 1997, BTW) I can set the default to "WordPerfect 5.0" and be
done with it (of course, the WP 5.0 format doesn't support all the features
of Word 2003 ...).

E.g. HTML or RTF or the new XML formats preserve 100% of the document
features.
RTF 1.6 is documented by Microsoft and is "human readable" in a similar way
like HTML or XML.


If I was to "defect" from using Office tomorrow, there are several 3rd party
"batch conversion" tools available for my existing documents.

About every word processor on the planet can read 95% of the information in
a typical Word file correctly (this depends on the programs own formating
capabilities and quality of import filters, of course).

Come on, you all ought to be familiar with the fact that importing Word
files into PM, FM, ID, QXP etc. is fairly straightforward and happens every
day at every publisher around the world.

I somehow fail to see the "MS Office barrier of exit" that DWE and the
author of the yellow press "register" site proclaim ...

Reason that most people stick with Office IMHO is that the alternatives are
inferior.

Regards,

M.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-framers@omsys.com 
> [mailto:owner-framers@omsys.com] On Behalf Of Michael Heine
> Sent: Monday, April 28, 2003 4:20 PM
> To: framers@omsys.com
> Subject: MS Word and XML
> 
> 
> I thought the link below might be of interest:
> 
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/30410.html
> 
> Cheers,
> Mike



** To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@omsys.com **
** with "unsubscribe framers" (no quotes) in the body.   **