OpenXML Developer : Linux/Unix/Solaris

Novell announces Open XML support

dmahugh — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 23:12:00 GMT

Novell has announced support for the Open XML file formats in their version of OpenOffice. Word-processing documents are supported now, and spreadsheet/presentation support is coming next.

Here are some links for more information:

Novell's download page for the OpenOffice Open XML Translator: http://download.novell.com/SummaryFree.jsp?buildid=ESrjfdE4U58~
Novell's download page for OpenOffice: http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/features/ooo.html
Additional information on Novell's site: http://www.novell.com/prblogs/?p=299
LinuxWorld's coverage of the announcement: http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2007/030507-novell-translator.html
Brian Jones's comments about the announcement: http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2007/03/02/openoffice-support-for-the-openxml-formats.aspx
Stephen McGibbon's screen shots of the translation in action: http://notes2self.net/archive/2007/03/05/OpenOffice-OpenXML-support-_2D00_-screenshots.aspx

ODF to Open XML Translator Project

dmahugh — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 17:51:00 GMT

The new ODF to Open XML Translator Project has been getting a lot of attention lately. This is a collaborative project to build add-ins for Office 2007 that can read and write ODF (Open Document Format) documents. The first component is a Word add-in, and Excel add-in is planned for later this year.

The August CTP (Community Technology Preview) version of the ODF translator tools was released on August 11, and over 25,000 copies have been downloaded. This release includes an ODF Add-in for Word 2007, command line translator tools, complete sourfce code, sample ODF test documents, and a comparison of the Open XML and ODF schemas including a transformation map.

See these posts on Brian Jones's blog for technical information about the translator project and related topics:
08/23/05: ODF to Open XML Translator Project Update
07/11/05: More information on the Open XML translator and some questions answered
07/05/05: Open XML Translator project announced (ODF support for Office)

The project is sponsored by Microsoft, and much of the initial development work has been done by France-based IT solution provider Clever Age and several independent software vendors, including Aztecsoft in India and Dialogika in Germany. For more information about the project's origin, see Microsoft's press release announcing the kickoff of the project.

Java code for common document management tasks

dmahugh — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 01:49:00 GMT

The guys at Sonata have submitted another instructive Java code sample. This one shows how to do some basic document management chores such as adding or removing parts from the Open XML Format package. It's packaged as a simple utility. Click here for the article and source code.