Will Apple support ODF with iWork 07?

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darth_appledarth_apple
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
I was reading on on a Linux site (http://www.linux-watch.com/news/index.html) that Google has un-officially joined the ODF alliance and that got me thinking, will Apple decide to support ODF aswell?



Quote:



During the 4th of July week, Google quietly joined the ODF Alliance. The Alliance seeks to promote and advance the use of ODF. The ODF's membership already included non-profit groups and government agencies, as well as major corporate ODF backers such as IBM and Sun Microsystems Inc.



There has been quite a bit of positive activity in the ODF world of late (Belgium, France, Denmark) and all of this points to ODF's growing momentum around the globe."



I hope that Apple will shed some light on this subject at the WWDC (or if not, will someone who's going please ask?)



Anyways, I would love Apple to be able to adopt ODF and be able to support Microsofts OpenXML format (mostly for compatability between iWork and Office, besides that I could care less for OpenXML)



Here's an article about iWork with some posts at the bottom of the page about this topic http://www.oreillynet.com/mac/blog/2..._a_little.html

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    I hope so. +1 karma points if they do.
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  • Reply 2 of 12
    trobertstroberts Posts: 702member
    I believe ODF became an ISO standard this year so maybe Apple will include it in Pages 4 since it is too late for Pages 3.
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  • Reply 3 of 12
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    Apple joined OpenXML (Microsoft's proposal), no ODF, so they'll likely primarily support OpenXML, though they could always support both.
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  • Reply 4 of 12
    dave k.dave k. Posts: 1,306member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by troberts

    I believe ODF became an ISO standard this year so maybe Apple will include it in Pages 4 since it is too late for Pages 3.



    Why is too late for Pages 3? Apple can't issue an update for this?



    Dave
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  • Reply 5 of 12
    trobertstroberts Posts: 702member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Dave K.

    Why is too late for Pages 3? Apple can't issue an update for this?



    Dave



    I do not think supporting ODF, or any file format, is just a matter of issuing an update, but I do think it does take some planning to implement properly. I went to Wikipedia and it looks like there are file extensions for different types of documents:



    .odt - text documents (Pages?)

    .ods - spreadsheets (iWork spreadsheet app?)

    .odp - presentations (Keynote)

    .odg - graphics (DTP/Pages? or GIF, JPEG, TIFF, etc)



    Everytime I hear people talking about ODF it seems to me they are only talking about text documents since that type of application is most likely to be used by everyone.
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  • Reply 6 of 12
    frank777frank777 Posts: 5,839member
    After six years of my begging and pleading for a simple, modern, OS X-compatible spreadsheet, one finally appears for the platform.



    The Mac platform features some of the weirdest timing by developers. It looks like a good product for a great price. Hopefully, they can partner with Nisus or Mellel to avoid being blown away by iWork '07.
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  • Reply 7 of 12
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Frank777

    one finally appears for the platform.



    That looks to me like a FileMaker database. In fact, I have books from INtex, from way back in the early 90s; they focused a lot on FileMaker back then.
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  • Reply 8 of 12
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    Yeah, it's a FileMaker Runtime-based app. Might as well use Google Spreadsheets.
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  • Reply 9 of 12
    frank777frank777 Posts: 5,839member
    Wow, you're right. That looks like more of a Cocoa app than Filemaker does.
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  • Reply 10 of 12
    mr. memr. me Posts: 3,221member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Frank777

    After six years of my begging and pleading for a simple, modern, OS X-compatible spreadsheet, one finally appears for the platform.



    The Mac platform features some of the weirdest timing by developers. It looks like a good product for a great price. Hopefully, they can partner with Nisus or Mellel to avoid being blown away by iWork '07.



    What is wrong with Mesa or Mariner Calc?
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  • Reply 11 of 12
    mr beardsleymr beardsley Posts: 365member
    I know you guys probably want to be able to open documents created in ODF, which we'll have to wait and see if Apple adds that to iWork. However, if all you are interested in is having Apple provide a file format that is "open", then have no fear as Apple provides that already. Here is some reading if XML file formats float your boat.



    iWork File Formats
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  • Reply 12 of 12
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Mr. Me

    What is wrong with Mesa or Mariner Calc?



    You beat me to it. Mesa's been around since NeXTSTEP.
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