[ODFPlugtest] Mail from Thierry Hoornaert

Mon Jun 4 00:39:31 CEST 2012

To all,

Thank you for your feedback.
I'm still anxious to get feedback from the LibreOffice and OpenOffice guys.

The topics of my original e-mail were relevant at the time of PlugFest Brussels. Most of them still are.
They should be retested with the most current versions of the different software.
As conversions depends on the software used, results depends on programs used to create, convert and open.

Please also read the remarks in the mail here under (starting with th:)
See also the source files attached.
I would be happy to provide more information if necessary.

Notice that Word 2010  (14.0.6112.5000) has problems with some content when opening Bon-cde FaxPrix_fr-BE.odt.

Thank you all for looking into the matter.

Best regards,
Thierry Hoornaert
Senior Consultant

Telephone : +32 3 450 89 80
Mobile : +32 473 29 58 08
Email : thierry.hoornaert at lettergen.com
LetterGen
Groene Hofstraat 31, 2850 Boom, Belgium
www.lettergen.com

-----Original Message-----
From: plugtest-bounces at opendocsociety.org [mailto:plugtest-bounces at opendocsociety.org] On Behalf Of John Haug
Sent: dinsdag 15 mei 2012 0:39
To: ODF Plugfest mailinglist
Subject: Re: [ODFPlugtest] Mail from Thierry Hoornaert

A little late, but I looked into the comments about Word below.  Can we get a little more info - perhaps example files - about some of them?

- ODT input fields are worthless after conversion; is there a hidden magic setting, like with check boxes ?
What type of input fields?  There are some ODF fields such as text:variable-input and text:user-field-input that have no corollary in Word, but others should work.
TH: Please let me rephrase my question: What type of ODT field (setting) converts to Word input fields?

- Better copy from MS Word text to ODT text.
Copying between an OOXML file open in Word to an ODT file open in Word?  That should work the same as saving to ODT in Word.
TH: No, it is copying between a DOC or DOCX) file open in Word to an ODT file open in LibreOffice (or any other ODF editor). It is very important for us to guarantee corruption-free copying of text and formatting.

- Word ignores page breaks in ODT tables.
Which type of page breaks?  For example, Word does not support the fo:break-before and fo:break-after attributes for row and column properties.  On file load, Word applies the fo:break-before attribute to the document as a page break before the table that is separate from the table.  Similar for fo:break-after (page break after the table).
TH: CTRL+ENTER page breaks in a Word table will insert a page break at the cursor, which can be very useful. 
Unfortunately, LO 3.5.2 and OOo 3.3.0 do not let the user insert a (manual) page break inside a table. Instead, they apply the fo:break-before attribute to the document as a page break before the table. 

- Pictures loose their settings when converted .
Which picture properties were found to be lost?
TH: e.g. a watermark (Format Page > Background Picture, Centered) defined using LO 3.5.2 or OOo 3.3.0 do :
- disappears when opening the (LO 3.5.2 and OOo 3.3.0) ODT file in Word 2010 (14.0.6112.5000);
- disappears when saving (LO 3.5.2 and OOo 3.3.0) to DOCX (W2007/2010 or OXML) and opening the DOCX file in Word 2010;
- is stretched over the page when saving (LO 3.5.2) to DOC (W97/2003) and opening the DOC file in Word 2010;
Also a page oriented placed picture ) defined using LO 3.5.2 or OOo 3.3.0, saved as DOCX,  will not be displayed in Word 2010;

For the other comments, they fell into areas where Word does not support the feature.

Thanks,
John

John Haug - Standards Professional, Office Standards and Interoperability

-----Original Message-----
From: plugtest-bounces at opendocsociety.org [mailto:plugtest-bounces at opendocsociety.org] On Behalf Of Michiel Leenaars
Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2012 1:02 AM
To: plugtest at opendocsociety.org
Subject: [ODFPlugtest] Mail from Thierry Hoornaert

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: Test items
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:44:15 +0200
From: Thierry Hoornaert <thierry.hoornaert at lettergen.com>
To: Michiel Leenaars <michiel at nlnet.nl>

Hi Michiel,

Our LetterGen is a professional document generation solution that is using xml data and predefined ODF files (with variables and embedded
logic) to create very personalized documents (letters, contracts, forms
etc.) with speed and professional quality. The result are ODF files.
These ODF files should have the same looks in OpenOffice,  LibreOffice, MS Word or any other (ODF-compatible) wordprocessor.
These files could also be converted to PDF and DOC/DOCX format without loss of quality nor content.

Things we/our users struggle with in OpenOffice and LibreOffice:
- Selecting text that is in front of graphics is not possible without the keyboard (click and drag, shift-click).
- Frames (very important to us) crashes the application if one decimal tab is placed in the (smaller) cell.
- It is somewhat difficult to select text that is close to frames. A magnet zone of around 3 mm around frames to help select them is too much.
- It is awkward to try to type text inside a frame as clicking will not show a blinking cursor.
- Page breaks can be very difficult to see with pages full of text. We miss a clear way to see hardcoded page breaks.
- There should be a way to calculate full columns or rows (= sum (a:a)) with the adding of columns or rows in mind.
- The locale setting (./,) has too much influence on documents (e.g. one document partly in US-English and partly in Dutch and/or French).
- Page oriented pictures cannot be placed in header/footer.
- Form elements are not flexible (in size).

Conversions to/from Word:
Sections, header and footer position, form elements, pictures etc. are not compatible
- ODT input fields are worthless after conversion; is there a hidden magic setting, like with check boxes ?
- Multiple pages styles are not properly converted to sections (Word does not know about page styles)
- Better conversion from ODT sections to MS Word sections (with respect to Write protection).
- Better copy from MS Word text to ODT text.
- Word ignores page breaks in ODT tables.
- Pictures loose their settings when converted .

That will be it for now.

Met vriendelijke groeten - Bien cordialement - Best regards,

Thierry Hoornaert
Senior Consultant

Telephone : +32 3 450 89 80
Mobile : +32 473 29 58 08
Email : thierry.hoornaert at lettergen.com
LetterGen
Groene Hofstraat 31, 2850 Boom, Belgium
www.lettergen.com

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