*.xls import filter quality *.sxc filesize, moving selection

[Guest]

Hi all,

Right, yesterday I decided to install OpenOffice.org v1.1.0 and give it a go. I must say I'm impressed so far. I was wondering how Calc would compare to MS Excel so I did some testing. First I imported three *.xls sheets which I scanned for possible errors. Secondly I saved them in *.sxc format. Finally I compressed the original *.xls files with the RAR-algorithm and then compared all filesizes.

About errors after importing: I can be brief about it. So far I have found only 1. My sheets contain hyperlinks, editorial notes, frozen row as header, all of which are flawlessly transferred to Calc. The only thing I had to do is to change one of my columns date format. Further I have one remark. I did a thorough search on how to move a selection of cells (In MS Excel you only have to move your mouse to the border of the selection in order to achieve that operation) but I couln't find a drag & drop-alternative in OO and had to resort to the cut/paste command. I could only do the trick with 1 cell.... Then about 20 minutes later I found the way to do it!! Click with your mouse on the first cell, then hold the left mouse button and drag your desired range. Then click anywhere in your selection do not release the mouse button and move the selection to its destination.

The filesize (in bytes):
*.xls *.xsc *.rar
FilesizeTest1 27136 11934 8024
FilesizeTest2 112128 29571 32388
FilesizeTest3 1276416 142012 216268

Unfortunately I couldn't post a chart yet (I apologize for the terrible layout) but in test 2 and 3 *.xsc even outperforms the *.rar-format with 9% and 34%(!). Since OpenOffice uses the ZIP-algorithm I'm puzzled about what causes this phenomenon. Is the underlying xml-format just that efficient? I know for sure that the ZIP-format cannot account for a 34% filesize reduction. Suggestions anyone?