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List:       koffice
Subject:    MS Export filters.
From:       Tom Kaitchuck <Stacdaed () home ! com>
Date:       2002-02-06 1:00:43
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On your sight you list Microsoft Word 97/2000, PowerPoint 97, and Microsoft 
Excel 97/2000 export filters as non-existant. However you do have these to 
some extent. (I'll explain)

In windows the 3 letter extention determans the application associated with a 
file. However the applications must also be able to determan the data type on 
their own.

This means that if you take a rtf and *name* it with a .Doc, it will open in 
word flawlessly. This is very useful since the .Doc is always associated with 
word and you don't need to explain to the other person how to import or why 
you don't use word. (to avoid deceiving people you could use filename.rtf.doc)

This same trick works with power point and an rtf named .ppt. Every a full 
blank line is a new slide. Anything on the far left is a title. Anything 
indented one tab is a bullet, (2 tabs sub point etc.) and No there are no 
backgrounds colors or images. But it is better than nothing) You might want 
to add this format any way to have outlines made form presentations anyway.

You can also use html for ppt that gets you the same thing and you can have 
colored text but nothing else. Html does *not* work with word as it assumes 
it to be plain text (Of course they both work with plain text.)

Finally I would make the assumption about Excel and a CSV(comma separated) or 
TSB(tab separated) but I don't have excel to test. (Also could try html table 
but I doubt it.)

Anyway I think implementing this as .rtf.doc format would give you word 
compatibility for nearly everything. Also as long as the word user does not 
enable the feature to re-write the file every save, and only save changes 
(Default). Then I believe that this would Kword and MSword users to exchange 
documents easily. So I think this would be a great thing to include, as it 
would give the compatibility many people want with minimal coding and without 
reverse-engineering any protocols.

I look forward to hearing form you, 
Tom Kaitchuck

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