RE: MS Word docs to OpenOffice: a summary

["Jonathan West" <jwest -at- mvps -dot- org>]

>
>
>
> Can macros ever convert? Are VBA and its incarnations copyrighted by
> Microsoft, or are they available for anyone to implement?

I suspect that Microsoft holds a good deal of copyright and other IPR over
VBA, and if anyone tried to do a clone, Microsoft's lawyers would be all
over them. Even if Microsoft didn't have a good case, they would have the
resouces to make it prohibitively expensive for anyone to defend a suit.

>
> I imagine you could implement your own OpenOffice macro language and then
> try to map to it from Office files, but that would be a scary undertaking.
>

Strangely enough, Microsoft themselves have just tried to do this, not for
VBA, but for VB6. Their new VB (VB.NET) is very incompatible with VB6 - you
can't copy & paste even the smallest code fragment from the old to the new,
and expect it to work. They have produced a migration wizard which is
intended to port VB6 applications to the new language. It doesn't work very
well, and doesn't get you anywhere near having compilable, runnable code in
the new version.

I hope they don't take it into their heads to do anything similar to VBA. In
fact, Microsoft is holding a public chat tomorrow (Thursday) on the future
of Office, and I think I will go along and ask them some very pointed
questions about this.

Come along and watch the fun (or even join in!) <g>

Details are below, times are Pacific daylight time.

Thursday, May 23
10:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M.

Topic: The Future of Microsoft Office

Bring us your great ideas about the next version of Office-those key
features, that cool functionality you want and need. Chat with director of
Office Program Management Heikki Kanerva, who plays a major role in driving
the vision and feature set for future versions of Office.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/officetalk.asp




While I'm about it, there's also one today that might be of interest to you,
about document security.

Wednesday, May 22

10:00 - 11:00

Topic: Office XP Document Security

Whether you're an administrator, a developer, or an end user, security is a
constant concern. Talk with Office expert Jack Randall about Office XP
Document Security, and learn about document passwords, encryption, digital
signatures, and other Office XP security features. Read his recent community
article on the same subject at
http://www.microsoft.com/office/techinfo/enterprisezone/itcolumn07.asp.


I get notices of these kinds of chats fairly regularly. Would you like me to
post to the list on a regular basis those that may be relevant to you, for
instance on Office, HTMLHelp or related subjects?

Regards
Jonathan West



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