Free OpenDocument Converter, your opinion and help

[LarsB]

Hi all,

yesterday evening I released the first version of my
OpenDocument Converter AODC (An OpenDocument Converter).
Whith this converter all windows user will have the possibility to
read and edit files in the OpenDocument textformat even they don't
have OpenOffice or another Office Suite with OpenDocument
support installed. All OpenDocument handling will be done by
my AODL library.

Now, to optimize the application I need as much feedback as I can.
So it will be nice if you could try it out and post your suggestions
and criticism. Of course I'm most interested in contents that
couldn't be converted.

Notice, that the converted file will be a HTML file which is optimized
to be displayed in all popular Webbrowser and Microsoft Word (Vers. >= 2002).
The decision to generate HTML instead of generate a Word document
directly, based on the idea that all user should be able to read and edit
the OpenDocument files even if they don't have MS Word.

Here a little screenshot:


As I mentioned, I need the feedback to optimize the application
and it would give me great pleasure, if you help me by posting
your feedback.

More info and download: http://aodl.sourceforge.net/AODC.html

Cheers
LarsB
_________________
AODC - A free OpenDocument Converter
AODL - An independent OpenDocument Library C#
EmbeddedOpenOffice .net UserControl C#
EmbeddedOpenOffice Visual Studio .net Add In
http://www.OpenDocument4all.com/

[James Miles]

Hi Lars,

This looks interesting. The machine i'm on at the moment does not have open office installed but i'll check it out ASAP.

Cheers,
James.

[LarsB]

Hi James,

thanks for your reply! The trick is that you don't need
OpenOffice. You can use the Help.odt file, which is
part of the download package, to test it out.

Cheers
LarsB
_________________
AODC - A free OpenDocument Converter
AODL - An independent OpenDocument Library C#
EmbeddedOpenOffice .net UserControl C#
EmbeddedOpenOffice Visual Studio .net Add In
http://www.OpenDocument4all.com/

[Gabor]

Hi Lars,
Without trying it, it is obvious that what you created is a great development, something that should be there, out of the box, with OOo to give it to anybody with only MS.
However, perhaps you will excuse some minor remarks.
Microsoft supplement .net framework may have developed a lot but it has an ill fame and a bad notation for its vulnerability. Whether it is true or not, probably I am not the only person who avoids installing it.
I don’t know if it would be possible at all or if it is worth the amount of work for you but including former OOo file types (sxw and the like) would not be a bad idea.
Since OOo2 has lots of bells and whistles and a different look but at the moment it is far more immature than OOo1, probably lots of people will stick with OOo1. Not to speak of such suites which were developed legally based on OOo1 and have been in use and have become somewhat known elsewhere too. In Hungary MagyarOffice is such.
Also, when the MS declaration of an open file format becomes reality there is a chance that even present-day champions of the oasis-backed formats will jump at them and forget odt and the like all of a sudden.
Gabor
PS. Try to make this a sticky otherwise it will go down the list too soon, directly to oblivion. And that would be a big loss for everybody.

[SergeM]

What need your software exacly : only .NET ?
Excuse me I have not checked your sofware because I have difficulties with Windows world.
I will try it later. Thanks again for your work.
_________________
Linux & Windows OOo3.0
UNO & C++ : WIKI
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Using_Cpp_with_the_OOo_SDK
In French
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/FR/Cpp_Guide

[LarsB]

Hi Gabor,

thanks for your answer. I've already thought about ipmlementing
also the "old" OpenOffice document format sxw. It shouldn't be
a too big problem, because both OpenDocument and the OpenOffice
format based on smilar Xml definitions. Because of so much
discussion in the internet about Microsoft and support for
OpenOffice, i concentrated on the OpenDocument format Also
I guess that that is the format of the future.
I used .net to develop all that apps and libraries, because Microsoft
will move more and more into this technology and if Microsoft
Vista will be released, there's no additional install of the framework.
Also there's not really a XML library for C++ available which reach
the state of the Xml .net implementation.

At least, thank you very much for your feedback and I will set
this Thread to Sticky. In the hope that, it will not be removed
and I get more nice answers like yours.

Cheers
LarsB
_________________
AODC - A free OpenDocument Converter
AODL - An independent OpenDocument Library C#
EmbeddedOpenOffice .net UserControl C#
EmbeddedOpenOffice Visual Studio .net Add In
http://www.OpenDocument4all.com/

[LarsB]

Hi Serge,

yes it's the truth it only depend on .net and I think many
Windows User have this already installed.
I think that's nearly what all people are looking for,
if they talk about bring OpenDocument and MS Office
together.

Cheers
LarsB
_________________
AODC - A free OpenDocument Converter
AODL - An independent OpenDocument Library C#
EmbeddedOpenOffice .net UserControl C#
EmbeddedOpenOffice Visual Studio .net Add In
http://www.OpenDocument4all.com/

[James Miles]

I've now tested the converter out, it works great.

Also, Gabor i think you'll find that your fears re the .NET Framework are completely unfounded. Windows users won't have a problem installing the .NET Framework.

Infact most big rollouts come with the .NET Framework preinstalled these days.

Cheers,
James Miles.

[9point9]

I would think it makes more sense to make it a cross platform program like OOo is itself and that means no .NET. I would also like the ability to use it on the command line.
_________________
Arch Linux
OOo 3.2.0

OOoSVN, change control for OOo documents:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ooosvn/

[LarsB]

Hi 9point9,

.net don't mean that it couldn't be used also Linux machines. The
main work is solved by my underlaying library AODL. Which is
also written in .net, but didn't use Microsoft specific Namespaces.
So that, if Mono is usuable, i will try to make a Mono version of
the library and additional move for a Linux vers. the Gui to GTK#.
I will also think about your suggestion about the command line.

Cheers and thanks for your reply
LarsB
_________________
AODC - A free OpenDocument Converter
AODL - An independent OpenDocument Library C#
EmbeddedOpenOffice .net UserControl C#
EmbeddedOpenOffice Visual Studio .net Add In
http://www.OpenDocument4all.com/

[Laurent Godard]

Hi lars
what about a python approach
you have great xml libraries taht would be usefull

btw, i didn't find the license on the website
and, sorry, no MS at the moment

For a command line tool, it would be interresting, yes

thanks for sharing this

Laurent

[LarsB]

Hi Laurent,

first thanks for your reply. Of course, Phyton could be
a language alternative, but the whole underlying library
has nearly 16000 lines of code and still growing. Also
I'm not the great Phyton programmer
The tool AODC itself is published under the GPL license
and the underlying library AODL is published under LGPL.

Cheers and thanks for your reply
LarsB
_________________
AODC - A free OpenDocument Converter
AODL - An independent OpenDocument Library C#
EmbeddedOpenOffice .net UserControl C#
EmbeddedOpenOffice Visual Studio .net Add In
http://www.OpenDocument4all.com/

[mrandersen]

I think this is a great effort and accomplishment.

Certainly it is something that has been missing.

I would like to see a version that also supports Calc.

This is a bridge across both worlds.
_________________
Live long and Prosper.

[LarsB]

Hi,

first thanks for your reply. It is nice to hear that the application
is from interest.
Before I start the calc resp. the spreadsheet implemtation of the
OpenDocument format, I will try to make the text document
implementation as good and stable as possible. But when
it's done I will start immediately.

At least, because of the great user feedback I could fixed
the first bug, which wasn't covered by one of the many
NUnit tests. The result is a new bug fix version 1.0.0.1.

Cheers
LarsB
_________________
AODC - A free OpenDocument Converter
AODL - An independent OpenDocument Library C#
EmbeddedOpenOffice .net UserControl C#
EmbeddedOpenOffice Visual Studio .net Add In
http://www.OpenDocument4all.com/

[billyboy]