Today I received my first ODF-file in e-mail, .ODT to be specific. It is an ISO-certified standard that is used by about 5 persons on the planet. In the end I’ll share how I managed through this situation without having to install any third-party additions.
Before that you must first read the whole boring story rant:
I was arranging an Internet connection to a conference room where we are going to learn Silverlight in an internal study group tomorrow. The connection must be arranged through an external provider which is why I was dealing with them in the first place.
It was frustrating from the start as I had to print out a PDF, fill it by hand and then fax it to the company and hope that they received it (they never confirmed it or anything). Web forms must still be too modern for some ISP’s, I guess.
Anyway, today I received an e-mail that the connection has been setup and that the attachment has all the necessary information – in .ODT-format! Contents was just few IP-addresses etc text data that could have been in the e-mail body as plain text.
Sure, ODF is an "open standard" and everything, but still in practice it is an annoyance for everyone else: Microsoft Office users, which is the majority, like it or not.
To be fair, non-Office users don’t like receiving files in Office 2007 (or earlier format), but at least the .doc is supported by all the current office applications already. Average MS Office users may not really think about it when sending files as attachments in latest format. They don’t do it because they are mean or because they want to force some format of their preference to other people.
However, personnel of this company in question must be technical enough to use more established standards, like plain text, when it is enough. PDF is the next step, when advanced formatting is necessary. Product-specific formats are ok, when agreed by both parties.
Because of this, I refused to install any ODF-importers. I had peeked into the XML, of course, but I was too busy to start stripping off the tags. I searched for an alternative solution as I wanted to print the information for clarity.
Solution – Zamzar!
I found this excellent, free online conversion service, Zamzar, that converts between most known file formats. Just select a file, choose format, enter e-mail and click Convert!
Soon you’ll have the file waiting in your inbox without the need of installing any importers or exporters, no matter which office product you personally prefer.
I don’t really care that the ODF exists, but as of now, it isn’t that widely spread that you can send it everywhere – ISO or not. For the same reason I don’t send Office 2007 files to everybody, even though it is already more widely used than all the ODF-supporting products added together (and multiplied few times over).
Microsoft has just released a public beta of the WorldWide Telescope. 
Posted by jemm 
