OpenDocument Format

"While OOXML-compliant software seems conspicuous by its absence, ODF goes from strength to strength: there is literally no contest between the rival standards in this respect."

"The ODFDOM Toolkit API is a framework written in Java and designed to provide an easy common way to create, access and manipulate OpenDocument format (ODF) files, without requiring detailed knowledge of the ODF specification. The purpose of these tutorials is to get you started with the toolkit as quickly and easily as possible."

"when you want to unzip an ODF or OOXML file, there is no bash completion for those documents types. I hacked the /etc/profile.d/complete.bash file of my Suse box to make it work."

"I occasionally get a question along the lines of: "What has the ODF TC been doing for the past couple of years?" The following timeline should give you an idea."

"Be sure and make the upcoming free Web version of Office 2010 work with the world-standard Open Document Format (ODF) and the open source OpenOffice and its related alternatives from Day 1. The rest of the world believes in ODF and its lovely file compatibility to make it much easier for users anywhere to share their documents without vendor lock-in and problems. You began working on this in earnest with Office 2007 Service Pack 2, but its time to really hit the ball a mile. No more half attempts just to try to score some points. Instead, make ODF compliance a key feature and watch Office 2010 head out of the sales park. Besides, imagine the goodwill generated by such a statement of cooperation. Just do it."

"This article will explain basics of ODF format, and specifically its implementation in spreadsheet applications (OpenOffice.org Calc and Microsoft Office Excel 2007 SP2). Presented is a demo application which writes/reads tabular data to/from .ods files. Application is written in C# using Visual Studio 2008. Created .ods files can be opened using Excel 2007 SP2 and OpenOffice.org Calc."

"Your life would be easier if there were a document format that all word processors could use freely, that was created in open debate, publicly documented, and widely accepted as a standard. That's what a group called OASIS set out to create, and in 2006 their "Open Document Format" (ODF) was adopted as an international standard. Lots of word processors, free and commercial, adopted ODF and pledged to support it"

"a number of organizations and ODF implementors are working together to organize a second ODF Plugfest in parallel with the upcoming OpenOffice.org Con 2009, that will take place in Orvieto (Italy) in November. Tentative dates for the ODF Plugfest are 2-3 of November, stay tuned for more."

"I would have expected Microsoft to deal with confusing bits of the ODF specification by referring to existing implementations. How did OpenOffice.org deal with formulas in ODF 1.1? If nothing else, I would have liked to see the Excel team provide users with a pop-up dialog advising that their ODF spreadsheet formulas had been stripped out."

"For the first time ever, it is now possible to read your OpenDocument files from OpenOffice.org, KOffice, AbiWord and Lotus Symphony on your Symbian Smartphone using Open Source software"

"Standards always imply wide public access, an openness of the standard in both setting of the standard as well as access to the standard. It is therefore important to realise that an Open Standard would necessarily have to meet higher standards of openness than those provided by article 41 of document SCP/13/2. It is furthermore important to add that 'de facto standards' are typically not standards, but vendor-specific proprietary formats that were, as the secretariat correctly pointed out in the introduction to this discussion, 'strong enough to impose themselves on the market.' It is for this imposition on the market that 'de facto standards' are commonly used to describe monopolistic situations and corresponding absence of competition, which conflict with the basic purpose and function of standards."