Tech Forum

I would like to suggest that your organization support open file formats for those of us using Linux. I would suggest making office documents also available for OpenOffice, and sound and video clips also available in OGG. Just a humble suggestion.

ubuntuFan wrote:I would suggest making office documents also available for OpenOffice

Doesn't OO open MS Office files just fine? In that case publishing in MS Office makes the files available to all.

RussellHltn wrote:Doesn't OO open MS Office files just fine?

If only ...

Ogg has had a hard time gaining any traction. It is more likely that current mp3, aac/mp4/H.264, and Adobe Flash technologies will continue to be the mainstream formats developers will code for.

ODF also has its critics.

The Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD format war was just recently settled. The battles in these other format wars are still ongoing. In the tech arena, it seems that the Church is (usually) a follower instead of a leader, probably because they have other more important priorities than to try to influence technology trends.

I currently use Ubuntu 8.04 (Linux) and I use the MP3 format everyday (and hey if we are going for OGG why not do FLAC as well? ). There are plenty of plugins/codecs that will allow you to listen to just about any format you could ever care to listen to. As far as the OO.o I'm not too sure on the level of compatibility but I know at least some MS Office documents can be read in OO.o. That being said, I don't usually use my Linux box for word processing.

If the documents don't need to be edited by the end user, then I would strongly suggest publishing them in PDF format. If the forms must be electronically filled in before printing, I (along with others here) suggest Office 2007 users save them in the older Word 97-2003 .doc format, rather than using the native .docx format. This benefits not only OpenOffice users, but helps those using older MS Office versions to be able to open them without having to run to the MS website to locate an add-in.

On things I publish, I actually go back and forth between OpenOffice.org and Office 2007 just to ensure compatibility. For simple forms (like most of the ones we deal with) I rarely ever find a problem.


Mike

RussellHltn wrote:Doesn't OO open MS Office files just fine? In that case publishing in MS Office makes the files available to all.

The point is to just make it available. The point is to use no proprietary formats. The point is to make it free, as in freedom.

jbh001 wrote:If only ...

OpenOffice does just fine. Not even Office 2003 can open Office 2007. I sent a simple email from my Outlook 2007 to Outlook 2003 and the recipient could not open the email. Microsoft changes the file format for the sole purpose of spurring people to pay for upgrades.

jbh001 wrote:Ogg has had a hard time gaining any traction. It is more likely that current mp3, aac/mp4/H.264, and Adobe Flash technologies will continue to be the mainstream formats developers will code for.

ODF also has its critics.

The Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD format war was just recently settled. The battles in these other format wars are still ongoing. In the tech arena, it seems that the Church is (usually) a follower instead of a leader, probably because they have other more important priorities than to try to influence technology trends.

The point isn't to influence trends. OGG is an open format. No one has to be sure they are licensed properly to use it, where MP3 is a close format and one has to be sure to comply with the EULA. I am not even suggesting doing away with DOC or MP3. I am simply suggesting that in addition to those they offer OGG and ODF. As for the ODF scandal, it really doesn't matter since Microsoft's OOXML format was adopted we ALL willl be using that eventually.

ubuntuFan wrote:I am not even suggesting doing away with DOC or MP3. I am simply suggesting that in addition to those they offer OGG and ODF.

Who do you mean by "they"? Where exactly are you suggesting that these additional document formats be "offered"? On this forum? On Church web sites? In MLS documentation? Depending on your response, there are diffferent people involved and different implications.