Need the SXW viewer

[anvilsoup]

There's a OOo to MSOffice converter here:
http://oooconv.free.fr/engine/OOOconv.php
for those who neither want to wait for OOview, nor download OOo.
There, that should satisfy everyone.

[BuckSinister]

I refuse to install open office. The idea that i have to give 90 mbs of disk space to OOo and have it hog up my memory infuriates me

[bhorst]

[petameta]

[goa103]

Hi,

Happy New Year 2004 everyone.

I decided to search for an OOo viewer because my friend is japanese. She wrote a document using Japanese OOo instead of Word using Windows XP (Japanese too). However the document she wrote is in french (I'm french too... yes posting on an english community :p). Anyway she tried to save as Word but it seems OOo.jp can't handle french documents. I will probably post about it someday, just trying to fix it right now. Not the first time I report an OOo bug anyway .

So I searched for « viewer » on the forum and found tons of topics. That one is the first, I also have to read 10 others... So here comes some thoughts, remarks and suggestions I had while reading the whole discussion (very interesting) :

- what is a SWX file ? (no association) : I mean no one knows what a SWX file, I'm not even sure that what SWX means. So when someone receives a SWX file, what should it do ? With a « readme.openoffice.writer » it could do something but SWX doesn't mean anything. Search for help on Google ? Visit the « SWX Swiss Exchange », « downloads.sybase.com/swd/swx », « MitekFactoryOutlet.com », etc... Nothing about OOo.

- what if you can't convert your document to Word ? (see my previous comment). That's why we could all use a SWX viewer. I should say an OpenOffice.org Writer Document viewer because SWX doesn't mean anything (3 letters extension...)

- Could use a IE, Nescape/Mozilla/Firebird OOo viewer (like PDF, Word...) : document viewer embedded in all your favorite applications (web browser, email client...)

- disk space, memory, install : so you would ask a user to wait for 2 hours to view a
single file ? It takes 2 mins to view a PDF document if Acrobat Reader is not installed, yet. Download (2 steps, see below) Acrobat Reader (only 16 MB), takes 2 mins to install, and voilà. You can view your PDF file. What about an OOo document ? Just try to download it (takes hours even for a computer guru like me), once you found a way to download it (see below),... Wait 30 mins (on my ADSL 512 connection) to download... Wait wait... Then I think you need to install JRE (!)... Wait... Install... If it works OOo is installed and you can view AND edit your file, it's not a viewer, it's an editor with tons of useless features to view the file. Who needs a Bold button of Format menu to view a file ?

- export to HTML/PDF : can't trust OOo when it comes to export, It can't handle my files (complex documents). Moreover converting a document from one format to an other means you will probably lose some information, I don't know of any converter that is 100% perfect.

- is there a SWX file reader/opener for MS Word ? Not sure... it would allow MS Office users to view SWX file. We think the OOo way but what about being more « open » to commercial applications ? I used to write my documents with MS Office and only switched to OOo because MS Office 97/2000 were too unstable and expensive. I don't think OOo should be the only « office suite », open is the way, alone is not a solution.

- Players we know (so players ARE useful) : Macromedia Flash Player, Adobe Acrobat Reader, MS Word Viewer, Winamp/Zoom Player (using OOo to view a file would be like using Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro to view a video)... Long is a the list . I can't believe some people don't understand why an OOo player/viewer is ESSENTIAL. OOo is an office suite, to WRITE document first, not to VIEW them. Like Adobe Photoshop is an image editing tool... But IrfanView or ACDSee are viewers... To view « proprietary » Adobe PS files (.PSD). Just thinking that we could use a « document viewer » that supports PDF, DOC, RTF, HTML... That would be great . I think IE really acts as a « beacon » to view documents (ActiveX rulez). UNO for OOo ?

- Send Document as : current features are not well implemented as you can't send your document as HTML, only SWX of PDF . And that's the « open » way ? ^^.

- Steps to download OOo (from OpenOffice.org) : Download > « Latest Build: OpenOffice.org 1.1 » > « Latest Build: OpenOffice.org 1.1 » (again !) > « Installation Instructions & Guides, Windows & Linux » > Select Language... System... ?????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO ONE WILL EVER DOWNLOAD NOR TRY TO INSTALL A PRODUCT IN 10 STEPS. It's completely un-user-friendly.

- Steps to download Adobe Acrobat Reader (from www.adobe.com/products/acrobat, if you search for « acrobat reader » on Google you directly jump to the download page) : Select « Acrobat Reader » from the « Acrobat family » combobox or click the « Get Adobe Reader » button, Step 1 of 2 (2 steps !) : Language, Platform, Connection speed ; Step 2 of 2 (doesn't even reload the page) : click Download. AND VOILÀ.

These 2 last remarks really scared me. Seriously. I forgot how complex it was to download and install OOo. I mean no one « normal » would even try to install it. There's no « get » or « download » icon to quickly download and install OOo. See the Acrobat Reader way, 2 STEPS ! The website is anti user-friendly, hard to browse, hard to find info... And I gave up at 10 steps ! Then you have to wait, install, reinstall, try, launch... Longer, harder and weaker. The current, actual, boring OOo way. Faster, easier, stronger should be the way to go, the Acrobat Reader way. I can't believe they didn't market research these ways of architecturing their information on OOo.org. We have a lot to learn from Adobe and Microsoft. I think they forgot that, they chose the geek-way instead of the user-way. Why do complicated when you can do simple ? (french axiom, not sure of the translation).

Damn, that time I have been very hard on OOo but it's for the best. I also reported tons of bugs I found while writing my documents. And that's how things are and work, you have to tease the bug to make it better... Something like that. You can't just think that everyone is an OOo guru yet, nobody knows OOo. I mean NOBODY. It's new, SUN can't be compared to Microsoft when it comes to promote a product, an « office suite ». And EVERYBODY knows MS Office. So my idea is to think simple, think « user ». What does a user want to do with a document it receives ? It wants to view it. Not to edit it. Same goes for graphics files (JPG, PNG, GIF, photos), text documents (HTML, DOC, PDF...) or media files (videos, mp3s, songs, musics, trailers...). Viewers are USER FRIENDLY softwarers, editors are not meant for users but for editors, creators, professionals. If a user has installed Adobe Acrobat (Distiller), it can edit its PDF documents simply by clicking an edit button from the Acrobat Reader (Viewer), then the user becomes an editor, a creator. From user to editor.

I hope there's some OOo developers or architects around because I think our remarks could really help them (modestly ^^) to improve OOo. At least redesign the website because I can't even think about asking my girlfriend to jump into that mess. Maybe I should, just to see if I'm right. No no I'm sure, I know users (hope ^^). I also think the OOo Reader + Suite is not bad as It would allow « us » to convert a visitor to a reader, from the reader they could choose to download and install (One-Click ! -> Amazon :p) OpenOffice.org Suite. That's how things should be , IMHO ^^.

All your remarks, comments and suggestions are welcome !
JM
_________________
An OOo mascot designer

[petameta]

Some very good points ! Especially the website could be a lot better. As a personal workaround, I mail friends the direct link.

Some corrections: It's a sxw-file, not swx. Doesn't help much on google though.
You don't have to install Java to install OOo. Just select "without java" during installation. OOo will give you a message that some features will not work, but it installs fine.

I can't follow your point why installing OOo is so hard. I think it's a piece of cake. Start setup.exe and follow instructions, you can't do much wrong.

I often give OOo CDs to friends. I have built a simple installer. It starts automatically when the CD is inserted, and offers a button "Install OpenOffice". Can't be easier than that. If there's enough interest, I can upload it, it's a simple script for wxbasic.

[Guest]

http://www.pcwelt.de/downloads/office/buero-anwendungen/28803/

[goa103]

o3read (http://siag.nu/o3read/) is just a converter, not a stand alone viewer.[/url]
_________________
An OOo mascot designer

[8daysaweek.co.uk]

avantman42 has posted something relevant to this thread click below:

OOo Viewer available (requires Java)
_________________
James
www.8daysaweek.co.uk - A User-Focused OOo site

[Punkt]

I'd love to see a sxw - rtf converter dll just like MS Office has its MsWrd832.cnv and MSConv97.dll. Total Commander (www.ghisler.com) can use these dlls to view Word documents.

[8daysaweek.co.uk]

[goa103]

[anon]

A viewer would also good for distributing sxi presentation files.

Seems to be a very microsoft - like approach to assume that everyone has your software.

Since the export of ppt files from OO doesn't actually work (the MS viewer can't read them), the lack of a stand alone sxi viewer makes the OO impress app almost entirely useless for distributing presentations.

[MidwestPCSpecialists]

[Guest]

IndeView - Independent Presentation Viewer

http://www.indeview.org/