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SteveLee
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 Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 6:38 am Post subject: Need the SXW viewer |
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I have the source from a OSS project where a lot of documentation is in SXW format.
Is there a viewer (WIndows Explorer plugin?) so I can read them without download/installing all of OOo?
If not is there a way. I note they are .ZIPs but the required XML schemas are missing and even if I had them I dont fancy wading through XML.
Steve |
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nobody
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| Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 10:29 am Post subject: sxw viewer |
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Hi,
There is no sxw viewer currently available, although it is a somewhat common request. It seems that the feeling is, that the reason MS word viewer is so popular is because people who don't have word don't want to have to buy it. Since nobody has to buy OOo, there shouldn't be a problem to download and install it, the thought goes. |
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Curtz
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Joined: 19 Feb 2003
Posts: 554
Location: In vino veritas!
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| Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 11:04 am Post subject: |
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Only nerds like us download 70mb, unzip and install a 140mb suite to view a single file. You have to adjust to how casual users react to such a situation.
The best thing to do is to export a document as a PDF file and distribute it. OpenOffice 1.1 can do that.
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BR Curtz
OOo 2.0.4 on rock solid Windows 2000 (English, SP4) |
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SteveLee
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| Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 12:16 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks Curtz
Oh well I gues I need to start shovelling coal onto my dialup to raise some steam and get downloading  |
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Ed
Super User
Joined: 28 May 2003
Posts: 1040
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| Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 12:21 pm Post subject: |
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In many situations, exporting as PDF will not be the best solution.
What if you have a file you have been working on, then decide to send to someone? Would it be easier to send the file as it is in SXW format, or open up OOo, open the file, export as a PDF, close OOo, locate the PDF file you created, email it, then delete the PDF file from your own computer? It would be much easier if the person at the other end had a simple SXW viewer on his computer. Also, PDF files created by OOo do not always contain all the correct formatting.
Not many people would want to download and install the whole suite to view a few files once in a while. The best solution would be a small downloadable viewer, which could be downloaded quickly even over a slow internet connection, and would be able to display SXW files correctly.
I have searched all the palces on the internet that I could think of trying, and have had no success in finding an SXW viewer
Incidentally, I have never seen any version of Microsoft Word viewer newer than 97. If I could get a Word XP viewer, I could finally get rid of the fullversion of Word, which is cluttering up my disk space, and I only ever uset to open files which ignorant people send to me in DOC format. Could someone please point me in the direction of a Word XP viewer? |
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SteveLee
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George
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| Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2003 4:43 am Post subject: |
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As a user who was sent an urgant file to edit and post on my website, from a totally computer illiterate Chairman who uses OOo, I spent five hours trying to download the 54mb of OOo. only to have it fail on the last 3mb. Bugger that for a game of soldiers, I'm sending a stiff email for him to start using something that is more compatible with the rest of the business world.
No viewer - no good. |
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DannyB
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Joined: 02 Apr 2003
Posts: 3991
Location: Lawrence, Kansas, USA
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| Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2003 5:38 am Post subject: |
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| George wrote: | | I spent five hours trying to download the 54mb of OOo. only to have it fail on the last 3mb. |
Did you know you can get a split download set of the very latest version from here...
http://www.oooforum.org/downloads.php
I found this link right on the front page of OOoForum.org (the forum you are now reading).
| George wrote: | I'm sending a stiff email for him to start using something that is more compatible with the rest of the business world.
No viewer - no good. |
Maybe rather than suggesting that he switch software from something that is open and free to something that is closed and expensive, you should suggest something that is more constructive.
One such suggestion might be that when he intends to send an OOo document to someone else, that he first save it in Word format.
Another useful suggestion might be to save as PDF if editing is not required. That is pretty darned widely viewable. (You did indicate that only a viewer is needed, so the document must not be for editing.)
| George wrote: | | As a user who was sent an urgant file to edit and post on my website.... |
Here you indicate that editing is required, so what you need is unclear.
If the file is intended to be *displayed* on a web site, then it could/should be saved as HTML, or again as a PDF.
If the file is intended to be *downloaded* from a web site, then it could be saved as either PDF or Word. In no case would I make the file available in *only* Word format. If the file is for others to download and edit, it would be really nice to make the file available as Word and some other format such as maybe RTF or HTML.
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Want to make OOo Drawings like the colored flower design to the left?
Last edited by DannyB on Wed Sep 10, 2003 6:15 am; edited 1 time in total |
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DannyB
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Joined: 02 Apr 2003
Posts: 3991
Location: Lawrence, Kansas, USA
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| Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2003 6:09 am Post subject: |
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| Ed wrote: | | What if you have a file you have been working on, then decide to send to someone? Would it be easier to send the file as it is in SXW format, or open up OOo, open the file, export as a PDF, close OOo, locate the PDF file you created, email it, then delete the PDF file from your own computer? |
Were you aware that in the 1.1 versions (starting with 1.1 beta) you could directly e-mail your SXW to someone? Or you can e-mail it as a PDF attachment? None of the cumbersome process you describe. Just go to the File menu, pick Send and then one of the two submenu choices...
File --> Send --> Document as Email...
File --> Send --> Document as PDF attachment...
Okay, upon second reading, I see you are assuming that you are not in OOo to begin with.
| Ed wrote: | | It would be much easier if the person at the other end had a simple SXW viewer on his computer. |
Seems to me like the only thing missing here is a third choice....
File --> Send --> Document as Word attachment....
This would be even simpler than the other end having a viewer.
| Ed wrote: | | The best solution would be a small downloadable viewer, which could be downloaded quickly even over a slow internet connection, and would be able to display SXW files correctly. |
I am not convinced that a viewer would be all that much smaller than the entire office suite.
Here are my arguments *against* having a viewer.
One implementation approach is to start a separate costly development effort to build an optimized viewer. This is probably not the best use of OOo development effort. Much better is to make OOo so attractive that people will use it and make it become the *leading* office suite.
The other implementation approach is to just re-use code from OOo and build a view-only application. This approach is not likely to give a much smaller viewer than most of OOo. The viewer still must support much of Draw, for example.
OOo is made of a large collection of UNO objects. If you collect together the subset of objects you need to make a viewer, minus some user interface for editing, you probably end up with most of OOo. Some of the UNO components will not have all of their functionality used, but since they are the same object implementations in the source code, they have their full size, including code that is never called. One could argue that throughout OOo conditional compilation could be used to build objects with smaller subsets of interfaces that support view-only. This effort must touch much of OOo and ends up turning into the first implementation approach I mentioned above.
It seems to me that the main purpose of Word having a "viewer" is because not everyone has word because it is expensive. This problem simply does not exist with OOo.
| Ed wrote: | | PDF files created by OOo do not always contain all the correct formatting. |
Maybe development effort would be better spent fixing this?
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Want to make OOo Drawings like the colored flower design to the left? |
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DannyB
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Joined: 02 Apr 2003
Posts: 3991
Location: Lawrence, Kansas, USA
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Sam I am
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| Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 12:41 pm Post subject: |
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| DannyB wrote: |
Here are my arguments *against* having a viewer.
.. snipped...
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What about Impress? I'm converting all my slides from .ppt to .sxi. But I have to convert them back to .ppt as other machines (classroom computers at our university) don't have OOo installed.
If there is a viewer for .sxi, I can ditck MS forever.
Sam |
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DannyB
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Joined: 02 Apr 2003
Posts: 3991
Location: Lawrence, Kansas, USA
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| Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 12:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Sam I am wrote: | What about Impress? I'm converting all my slides from .ppt to .sxi. But I have to convert them back to .ppt as other machines (classroom computers at our university) don't have OOo installed.
If there is a viewer for .sxi, I can ditck MS forever. |
It seems that you want an Impress viewer that you could install onto every machine. But if you can install custom software onto every machine, then why not just install OOo?
Again, I would still argue that an Impress viewer would be a significant fraction of the size of the fullblown OOo, assuming that the OOo code was reused. Or a separate development effort for a slim-trim viewer could be expended. Wouldn't this effort be better spent on OOo? There are no *cost* issues with installing OOo anywhere that you would install a viewer.
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Want to make OOo Drawings like the colored flower design to the left? |
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GraemeWi
OOo Enthusiast
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 117
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
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| Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 1:36 pm Post subject: |
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In StarOffice 5.x there was a Impress player available from Sun - I downloaded it somewhere, from memory it was around 6 meg. Of course since then the file format has changed substantially etc!
---update---
I've downloaded a fresh copy of the Impress viewer, loaded a presentation into OOo Impress and saved as StarOffice 5.2 Impress (sdd). The player worked fine with the resulting file.
----update---
Do a search on Google for "sop-5_2" which will turn up several FTP sites with the file. Check for your OS and language before downloading.
Windows users can get it from here: http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/bilkent/services/admin/bcc/staroffice/dnload.htm
Cheers,
G
Last edited by GraemeWi on Sun Sep 14, 2003 2:20 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Ed
Super User
Joined: 28 May 2003
Posts: 1040
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| Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 1:40 pm Post subject: |
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| DannyB wrote: | | Again, I would still argue that an Impress viewer would be a significant fraction of the size of the fullblown OOo, assuming that the OOo code was reused. Or a separate development effort for a slim-trim viewer could be expended. Wouldn't this effort be better spent on OOo? There are no *cost* issues with installing OOo anywhere that you would install a viewer. |
An important factor here is the amount of space a full OOo instalation would take up on the hard drive. Also, I would have thaught that a viewer would be quicker to load up than the full program, so saving time when viewing files.
If a "slimline" viewer could be created, I don't think it would draw attention away from improving OOo, since it could be done as a separate project, by a different team of developers.
A number of forum users have said when discussing the use of XML-based file formats that the benefit of disclosing the code is that anyone could easily create a program capable of opening them. If it is indeed so easy (I have no programming knowlege), then why has no one made and published such a program? |
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Guest
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| Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 9:18 pm Post subject: |
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| Here's a thought. OOo is open source, so write your own viewer. |
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Perhaps the file formats are close enough to 2000 that it will not matter.