ODT file format support

[PaoloT]

Hi,

I just heard from Ioa of Literature & Latte (Scrivener) that the ODT (OpenDocument Text) file format can preserve image links to external image files.

This is something huge, considering that both DOCX and RTF scramble them, by changing their name and finally recompressing and rewriting them at their convenience.

This would mean being able to import styled text into Publisher, with the links to the original image files intact. Hours, days, weeks of work saved.

Links to external image files are of growing importance, in a time when documents have to exist both as PDF files and Web sites.

The ODT file format is open, free, documented. It is also the native file format of one of the most widespread word processors (LibreOffice Writer). It is also the format mandatory in the European Union.

Obviously, I would be incredibly happy if it was added to the text formats supported by Publisher.

Paolo

 

[PaoloT]

6 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Should you perhaps update the topic title to reference ODT? 

Oh my. My fingers wrote faster than my mind. Title fixed.

Paolo

 

[Affinityconfusesme]

+1

[MikeW]

2 hours ago, PaoloT said:

Hi,

I just heard from Ioa of Literature & Latte (Scrivener) that the ODT (OpenDocument Text) file format can preserve image links to external image files.

This is something huge, considering that both DOCX and RTF scramble them, by changing their name and finally recompressing and rewriting them at their convenience.

This would mean being able to import styled text into Publisher, with the links to the original image files intact. Hours, days, weeks of work saved.

Links to external image files are of growing importance, in a time when documents have to exist both as PDF files and Web sites.

The ODT file format is open, free, documented. It is also the native file format of one of the most widespread word processors (LibreOffice Writer). It is also the format mandatory in the European Union.

Obviously, I would be incredibly happy if it was added to the text formats supported by Publisher.

Paolo

 

First, I'm all for supporting the .odt file format.

But as I previously wrote. Word can also link and maintain file names.

What Serif Affinity Publisher cannot do is import the Word file with linked images, embedded only. QXP, ID, etc., can import a Word document with linked images and maintain the link path.

So...Serif needs to support .docx/.odt file formats that have linked images in the document altogether. Without that, the simple act of adding .odt support, while meaning greater flexibility, doesn't achieve your goal.

[bbrother]

Quote

German state (Schleswig-Holstein) gov. ditching Windows for Linux, 30K workers migrating.
Schleswig-Holstein, one of Germany’s 16 states, on Wednesday confirmed plans to move tens of thousands of systems from Microsoft Windows to Linux. The announcement follows previously established plans to migrate the state government off Microsoft Office in favor of open source LibreOffice.

↑Sharon Harding, 4/5/2024, 9:03 PM, arstechnica.com
For those more interested, here is the link to the article ↓
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/04/german-state-gov-ditching-windows-for-linux-30k-workers-migrating/

There's a pretty good chance that there will be more such decisions in the future, also in other countries and not only in the state sector.
I also suspect that among current Affinity Publisher users there is already a large part of them who use Open Office or Libre Office.

Serif you should seriously consider supporting not only the ODT format as the OP suggests, but also ODS. That would be a good decision.
From a business point of view, it is better to stay ahead of trends - but you probably already know that.

[PaoloT]

After a project that started as Markdown, and should have ended up in Publisher, I had to surrender and generate the final PDF in Word. Rebuilding everything in Publisher would have been an incredibly huge effort. I knew that Publisher can't output data that can be easily reused, but in the end it can't even import structured projects blending text and images. I really hope there will be some more effort on data exchange.

Paolo