View MS Word 2007 (.docx) files in Firefox without Office 2007

You wanted to view a Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) file but you don’t have MS Office 2007, not to worry. Now you have a Browser plugin, OpenXML Document Viewer.

The OpenXML Document Viewer application is a browser plugin, that can be used on computers which don’t have Microsoft Office 2007, to view the Word 2007 files using just the browser. The OpenXML Viewer browser plugin translates the Word 2007 file into HTML so that it can be viewed on a browser. You can not edit the document.

OpenXML is a free and open standard from Microsoft.

You can get this plugin from CodePlex.

This plugin supports Firefox browser on Microsoft Windows (XP, Vista, Server 2003, Server 2008)and Linux (tested on OpenSUSE 11)

The browser plugin has been packaged as a Firefox extension (OpenXMLViewer.xpi). Just open this .xpi file in Firefox

And install. Now you can open a .docx file in Firefox. Check the Readme.txt and other documents provided provided with the plugin for more information.

Check here the same document as seen with Word 2007 and in Firefox Browser

The above screenshots are just for showing how the .docx files are seen in MS Word 2007 and Firefox browser, but you should remember that you can view the .docx files in Firefox with this plugin even if you don’t have Office 2007.

You can download this plugin from CodePlex.

This has been developed by MindTree Consulting Ltd. in Technical Support from Microsoft.

Open XML and ODF

Here I am putting some of thought expressed in recent posts by various people, so that the points expressed reach more people to better understand.

* jlundstocholm of A 'mooh' point' in his post IBM is now fighting from the trenches blogs about how IBM is blocking comments and using their blogs as mere portals with no user-interaction ... at least not interaction of the people opposing their views.

To the posts many have commented with replies like :...."It seems Microsoft bloggers have a much less strict moderation policy and are more willing to discuss with opposite minds......"

 

* Another blog post Who Loses If OpenXML Loses? (link to pdf document) from Patrick Durusau, project editor of ISO/IEC 26300 (the Open Document Format (ODF) specification), as well as the ODF Technical Committee Editor in OASIS puts across checklist of who loses if OpenXML does :

• National bodies lose an open and international forum for further work on DIS 29500.
• Microsoft based third-party vendors may be excluded from contracts because Microsoft has no
  ISO approved format.
• ODF has no ISO-based formula definitions to insure compatibility between OpenDocument and
  OpenXML.
• ODF has no ISO-based definition of MS legacy features for an ODF extension.
• ODF has no ISO-based definition of the current MS format for mapping purposes.

These thoughts from an editor of ODF is quite significant. He goes on to say : "Passage of OpenXML in ISO is going to benefit OpenDocument as much as anyone else" and puts forward some specifics:

OpenDocument currently lacks formula definitions for spreadsheets. (To appear in OpenDocument
1.2.) Many core financial functions in spreadsheets are undefined except for actual Excel output. That
output varies by version and service pack of MS Office. What happens if OpenDocument and
OpenXML reach different definitions of those functions?

OpenDocument does not presently support legacy features of Microsoft formats. That will be easier
with a formal definition of those features. Without OpenXML, OpenDocument has no authoritative
definition of those legacy features. That delays OpenDocument supporting them in some future release.

OpenDocument does not have a robust mapping to the current Microsoft format. That requires an
OpenXML that has completed the standards process. If OpenXML is unclear, it must be fixed in order
to create a robust mapping between the two.

The bottom line is that OpenDocument, among others, will lose if OpenXML loses.

That says it all.

The same reference is also given in "The fate of ODF if Open XML loses" by Aatish Ramkaran. 

Since February, Patrick Durusau has been releasing letters calling for sanity around the FUD campaign surrounding Open XML. He has discussed issues ranging from the openness of Open XML to possible co-evolution with ODF.

 

* Another of Aatish Ramkaran post "Some comparisons between Open XML and ODF" compares the two on some of the points:

"Anti-Open XML lobbyists have long been crying foul on some of the flaws in the specification.

Two main points emerge from their perspective:

1. ODF is already an ISO standard, therefore there is no need for Open XML.
2. Open XML has a number of flaws which make it unsuitable for becoming an ISO standard.

The first point ignores the fact that Open XML and ODF were created to fulfil different needs.

Open XML provides complete support for representing (with 100% fidelity) the billions of existing Microsoft Office binary documents in existence today.

Based on the second point, ODF should have none of the flaws Open XML has, because it's already an ISO standard.

However, the fact remains that no standard is created perfectly the first time around. That's what the maintenance process is for.

In fact, ODF v1.0 (the only ISO standard of ODF) has no definition for spreadsheet formulae, but this is being addressed in v1.2 (as part of the maintenance process), which still needs to become an ISO standard.

After the BRM, 98.73% of the proposed changes based on the comments were accepted. This was a huge leap forward in the technical quality of Open XML.

Check the post for the full story.

Reading all these should clear many of the doubts, I hope.

Many more Countries saying YES to OpenXML- Results Today !

The final results of the OOXML standardization debate are expected to be announced by ISO on Monday March 31, As we look back now many countries have said YES to OpenXML changing their previous stand. Unfortunately India said NO. Check out an interesting post about it at : Witness the Academia - Industry divide! This was inspite of Indian IT majors like Infosys, NASSCOM,TCS and Wipro voting YES for it.

But Countries like Norway, South Korea, Denmark , Finland, Czech have now said YES for OpenXML.

HP is also in favor of OpenXML.

Read all about it at Brian Jones: Open XML Formats

I hope now the FUD campaign and process attacks from the anti-Open XML group will reduce now. Let us wait and watch the final results of this voting which will be declared later today.

UPDATE : ISO to announce Microsoft Open XML result on Wednesday, 2nd April.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) said it would reveal on Wednesday whether Microsoft had won the support needed to have its document format made into a global industry standard.

"Because ISO needs first to inform its worldwide membership of national standards bodies of these results, a press release on this subject will be issued on Wednesday, 2 April, 2008," ISO spokesman Roger Frost said in an e-mail message.

Open XML and Cross-Platform Implementation

I came across an interesting post from EricWhite, who has explained nicely showing an example about platform neutrality of Open XML. The opponents of Open XML who say that Open XML is tied to one particular platform are spreading disinformation.

He says : "The description of paragraphs, styles, workbooks, worksheets, rows, and cells don't have anything to do with whether you are writing code for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, or the iPhone. However, there are parts of the Open XML specification that the opponents of Open XML have said are platform dependant, such as the specification of embedded, linked objects, but this simply isn't true"

He gives the example of ThinkFree.com, which allows users to access Open XML documents via a web interface, or through a rich client interface. The rich client interface is supported on Windows, Linux, and Macintosh systems.

Here's a screen clipping of an Open XML document that is being edited using ThinkFree.com. The screen clipping is of the Firefox web browser, and shows the editing of a document in a browser window.

And the same document in Excel 2007 : He also shows that ThinkFree's rich web client runs using the Java Plug-in 1.6.0_05 which uses JRE version 1.6.0_05 Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM. ThinkFree's server is a Linux server running Apache: Open XML embodies good cross-platform design in number of ways :

Open XML is based on standards that have been implemented on many platforms: XML and Unicode.

Open XML is based on the widely deployed ZIP file format, as documented in the PKWARE specification. Open XML only uses the DEFLATE decompression method, which the first and most commonly implemented compression method for ZIP files.

Several countries wanted improved interoperability with existing W3C standards by eliminating dependencies on specific Web browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, or Apple Safari. In the BRM, it was proposed to have a mechanism where applications can customize content for browsers according to their support for different levels of W3C HTML, XHTML, and CSS content.

Btw, I didn't knew about ThinkFree, which has nicely implemented Open XML. ThinkFree is a Korean company that is making an on-line office platform that uses the Open XML file format. It allow users to edit documents online.

Thanks Eric.

For more details please check Eric's blog post Open XML Sets the Standard in Cross-Platform Implementation

Bill Gates on Open XML, Standards and Digital Archives

Check out what Bill Gates has to say about Open XML, Standards and Digital Archives when asked by Washington State Congressman Brian Baird during a U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Science and Technology meeting earlier Last week.



As we are building up lots and lots of records that one want to preserve so as to access it in future. These Digital Archives covers lot of peoples' activities, like those parents who want to go back and get essays from Children, Researchers may want to go back and get different experimental data and libraries have large collections in digital formats.
And Microsoft has been engaged in Standard process and a Standard called OpenXML has been put before ISO. And OpenXML to become ISO standard is important so that such people like families, researchers and archivist will be able to access information from the past and use it to interact in the future. Such data mining will help a lot in various fields including technology and innovation.
(Thanks Craig.)

Microsoft Opens Up Office Formats

Check out this Recent development as Posted at "Pranav ... Blogging":
Opening it all .... Office file formats are under OSP and YESOOXML

I am posting the same here :

Wow ... great one, here are the details

-Mapping documents in the binary format (.doc; .xls; .ppt) to the Open XML format

- Microsoft has officially placed its Office binary file formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt) under the Open Specification Promise (OSP) and make the documentation available for download (http://www.microsoft.com/interop/docs/officebinaryformats.mspx).

- Under the OSP, Microsoft irrevocably promises that it will not assert any Necessary Claims against anyone for making, using, selling, offering for sale, importing or distributing any implementation covered under this promise http://www.microsoft.com/interop/osp

- Microsoft has also sponsored a open source project on SourceForge (http://b2xtranslator.sourceforge.net/) to create software tools, offer guidance, and show how a document written using the Binary Formats can be translated to DIS 29500 (Ecma 376 - Office Open XML). The resulting translators will be available under the open source Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) license.

- Here are a few articles in InfoWorld, Redmond Developer News, ComputerWorld, and BetaNews

Thanks Pranav !

Open XML Theme Builder

The Open XML Theme Builder is a tool that helps with the creation of theme files (*.thmx) that encapsulate the visual appearance and formatting of a document in order to help create a better looking document. So it helps in creation of custom themes or modify the existing ones. Theme files can be used by Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, Excel 2007, and Word 2007.

If you are running Windows XP SP2, please ensure that you have the .Net Framework 3.0 and the Office 2007 Primary Interop Assemblies installed prior to using this tool.

The tool lets you open a theme, adjust any of its elements, test it, and save it. While modifying the existing themes (* .thmx files) , found in the 'Document Themes 12' folder of the Microsoft Office installation directory, be sure to first make a copy of the existing themes before tweaking them so that just in case, you can have a backup.

You can download this tool from : http://www.codeplex.com/openxmlthemebuilder

From the same link you can also get the .Net Framework 3.0 and the Office 2007 Primary Interop Assemblies required if you are installing it on Windows XP SP2.

Common Myths About Open XML

I came across this post , OpenXML: Microsoft gets it right, will India too? from Abhishek, where he talks of why India should reconsider its stand on OpenXML and I too agree with the views expressed.

India had decided to vote against, when it was put forward for ratification as a ISO standard in Sept 2007 . I hope India will get it right this time and will reconsider the stand on OpenXML.

As you know, Ecma Office Open XML ("Open XML") is an international, open standard for word-processing documents, presentations, and spreadsheets that can be freely implemented by multiple applications on multiple platforms. Open XML is currently in the process of obtaining ratification as a global standard with the ISO (International Standards Organization).

As part of the ISO/IEC standardization process Open XML has moved through a contradictions phase, a ballot phase, and is now in the ballot resolution phase. The ISO/IEC has scheduled a ballot resolution meeting on February 25th-29th, 2008 in Geneva, to discuss comments received during the ballot phase and proposed dispositions from Ecma International.

As of now, MS has provided solutions to all 3,522 comments that were raised on the specification by various national bodies. So India has time to study the specifications and solutions provided till Feb.25 before the ballot resolution meeting in Geneva. Hope to see India reconsidering its stand and supporting Open XML.

Here are some common myths about Open XML being dispelled, here I am putting them briefly, please check the respective links for details:

Myth 1: There should only be one document standard

No single file format can meet all the needs of governments, enterprises, and consumers today. Customers should have the ability to choose what format best meets their needs. Innovation and competition is best served by letting the marketplace determine the winner among competing standards. The idea that the first standard to make it through ISO should somehow be declared the winner is a bad precedent for future standards development and for competition and innovation in general.

Myth 2: The Office Open XML specification is flawed because it was developed in isolation

Ecma Office Open XML was developed over the course of a year at Ecma International with input via Ecma's Technical Committee 45 (TC45), which included information technology companies (Apple, Intel, Novell, Microsoft, NextPage, Toshiba), reputable government institutions that archive documents (The British Library, the U.S. Library of Congress) and power users of information technology (BP, Statoil, Barclays Capital, Essilor). While Microsoft made a significant contribution to the development of Ecma 376, the initial draft received considerable development and enhancement through the work of Ecma TC45, resulting in the specification growing from 2,000 to 6,000 pages, which constitutes the current Ecma standard.

Why didn't Microsoft simply work with the original ODF people to help build their specification?

There are at least four good reasons why this was not a valid option:
1.ODF started out and was largely completed as an XML format specifically supporting OpenOffice with a tight scope around that product.
2.It was not until 2005 that the ODF specification was offered up as a general XML office document format and consequently renamed to ODF.
3.No opportunity existed for Microsoft to actually participate in this full process given both the original scope and the six months between the re-naming of the spec to ODF and its subsequent approval by OASIS as a standard.
4.The scope of the ODF specification never included even the basic requirements that Microsoft required to support a fully open format and nor did the OASIS technical committee want to include these requirements. They include:
-Spreadsheet formulas
-Tables in presentations
-Accessibility features
-Custom-defined schema support
-Custom metadata

Myth 3: Governments around the world are adopting ODF and rejecting Office Open XML

Recent events in the United States, Denmark, and Switzerland demonstrate that governments are increasingly declining to pass new legislation that would give a "preference" or mandate a specific file format and are instead allowing the marketplace to pick the best format or formats.

Myth 4: Open XML has Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Issues

Opponents of Open XML have manufactured supposed intellectual property rights "issues" where none exists, ignoring the fact that ISO/IEC has already approved Microsoft's proposed licensing terms and refusing to acknowledge that Microsoft worked with and obtained the approval of key open source community voices in formulating its licensing approach. Additionally, these critics are conveniently forgetting that Sun Microsystems' IP covenant is nearly identical to the approach taken by Microsoft.

These are some of the myths dispelled which will help to understand Open XML better.

For more details please refer to : http://www.openxmlcommunity.org/

What are the benefits of Open XML Formats?

Ecma Office Open XML File Formats overview