Introduction
OpenDocument Format (ODF) is the name of a set of file formats for office applications (edition text, spreadsheets, slide presentations, database, image manipulation, etc.) developed to be offered as an open standard and, therefore, likely to be adopted by any person or institution. In this way, the distribution documents in these formats makes it much more practical, since it is only required the use of compatible programs, independent of operating system or platform.
In this text, the AbbreviationFinder offers an approach to introductory the OpenDocument Format and provides some details about its main features and advantages.
What is OpenDocument Format?
When you hear questions such as “what is OpenDocument Format?” or simply “what is ODF?”, a connoisseur of the subject you can only answer that it is of the formats of the files OpenOffice.org or LibreOffice. The answer is not incorrect, but is incomplete: the idea is that the ODF is supported by various applications, not limited to one or the other.
Having as its original name, the OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications, the ODF came about on the initiative of the OASIS(Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards),an international organization created with the aim of developing and promote standards for digital formats, especially for use with on the Internet. The basis of the ODF is a schema XML created by the developers of the initial OpenOffice.org.
ODF 1.0 was approved in may 1, 2005, receiving the approval ISO 26300, which attests to its quality. For the case of a default free, any software can implement it. To encourage this practice and to refine the standard, in march 2006 was created the ODF Alliance(which is also represented in Brazil), having as members the various companies and entities, among including: Corel, EDS, IBM, KDE, Novell, Oracle, Red Hat, phpMyAdmin, GNOME, among others.
Types of files in the ODF
As already said, the ODF has focused on applications for the office, that is, text editors, spreadsheets, slide presentations, databases, handlers of images, anyway. Thus, it is desirable to know the types of files forming the ODF. For this, the list below associates the type of application extension used:
There are also specific extensions for templates, that is, files that serve as templates for new documents:
Worth mentioning that the types of files ODF are not limited to these.
The structure of an ODF file
When a document ODF is created, the user sees it as a material single, but, in fact, a set of files and folders to it. Here are the main:
– content.xml: the file that stores the contents of the document created by the user;
– meta.xml: stores the “metadata” of the document, or is, information such as author name, modification date, the amount of words used, etc.;
– styles.xml: contains styles for the document, for example, specific formatting for paragraphs, and lists;
– Pictures (folder): the folder that stores the images in the document.
These and other files or folders “come together” to form a single document in the end. It is clear that the files and folders vary according to the extent crafted, but the principle is worth for virtually all formats of the ODF.
Advantages: reasons to use ODF
The adoption of open standards has many advantages, to the contrary, organizations such as OASIS there would be. Imagine, for example, that the authorities of a country have difficulties to transmit the digital document to the government of another nation because it uses different formats. Well, just that both make use of Microsoft Office, the solution for offices more known to the the market is not the same? Only that it is not as simple as that.
Microsoft Office is a product of excellent quality and account with features absent in other office suites, however, this is a solution paid. This means that, depending on the institution and your amount of users, the price with the purchase of licenses can be high. In addition, for the case of a product proprietary and closed-source, developers of other office suites, end up facing difficulties to create programs compatible with their formats.
On the other hand, with the use of standards open, that is, formats whose source code is available to any person or entity, the developers can learn more easily what to do for that their software to be compatible with them. In this way, the documents always behave the same way (at least theoretically), regardless of the application used to manipulate it.
In addition, the open standard tends to enable higher-quality results, since a number of large of entities participates in their development, increasing the evaluation criteria, implementation of features and security. This occurs because the institutions involved want best performance, more efficient communications, greater protection and wise use of computational resources. It is more difficult to ensure these aspects when only a the company takes care of all of the standard.
There are other aspects to consider: each company uses platforms that meet the needs of your business, but the market increasingly requires communication and interoperability. Thus, it may be a waste of efforts and money to prepare versions specific of the same document so that it is accessible to each of their destinations.
To better understand this point, let’s take an example closer to the reality: imagine that an editor of a magazine use only GNU/Linux. One day, this editor received a sheet of calculation for the complex done in Microsoft Excel, but the document has not opened correctly in LibreOffice suite office installed on your computer, because of the large the amount of resources used in the file. As it can’t (and you may not want to) spend money on buying a license of Windows, and then an Office license, the writer sees forced to turn to a colleague who uses these software. The fault of the LibreOffice, which is unable to open a document more complex of Excel? No, because the Microsoft formats are developed with a focus on their products, reason by which only the company sure how to implement them.
Imagine, then, what would happen if a company that has always worked with a standard little-known turning out to be forced the adoption of other solution because the supplier of the first bankrupt? What to do to access the documents created up to then, there is seen that the new set of software is incompatible with the previous one?
With these scenarios, it is possible to recognize the advantages of open formats, such as OpenDocument Format. In summary, open standards are concerned with the interests global and gives the user greater freedom of choice as for the software you want to use.
Software compatible with ODF
The number of software compatible with OpenDocument is fairly large. This aspect is quite positive, because the more recognized for a standard, more compatibility, he will find in the market. The following list shows the main software or services that work with ODF, even if only partially. A complete and updated list can be accessed in this Wikipedia link:
Office programs:
- LibreOffice;
- Apache OpenOffice.org;
- AbiWord;
- StarOffice;
- Microsoft Office from version 2007 (but with limitations).
Online applications:
- Google Docs;
- ZOHO.
Other:
- phpMyAdmin(export data in the format .odt);
- Copernic (able to index ODF files in their searches).
Ending
The OpenDocument Format can even be an unknown the vast majority of users “common”, but your use happens in various parts of the world, especially in the media, government and corporate. In Brazil, for example, the ODF account with the approval of the ABNT since 2008 (the norm NBR ISO/IEC 26300) and it is not difficult to find it in use in certain public offices. In addition, the development of the standard not to: the ODF is divided in versions like 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2, making it clear that there is concern to improve the formats of ODF, as well as make them suitable to the various applications.
As you can see, it is not the desire to overthrow proprietary standards that motivates the existence of the ODF, but rather needs such as interoperability and compatibility in creation and distribution of documents. It is clear that this is not an easy job: in addition to the development work and specification, it is necessary to also to convince users and to deal with competing projects, especially the Office Open XML (OOXML), a set of open standards proposed by the Microsoft.
