Microsoft Word Formats
Microsoft Word Formats
(OP)
I am now running an up-to-date version of Microsoft Office here. I have just created a zip file with drawings and a requisition form. The form is in Microsoft Word format, and I deliberately saved in the old 97/2000 doc format. When I tried to add this to my zip archive, WINZIP simply loaded the file and showed me the XML data.
I am pretty certain that XML is part of the new version of Word. The old format was something binary. I am concerned that the person o the other end of this, may not be able to read the latest version of Word.
Has anyone else seen anything like this?
I am pretty certain that XML is part of the new version of Word. The old format was something binary. I am concerned that the person o the other end of this, may not be able to read the latest version of Word.
Has anyone else seen anything like this?
JHG






RE: Microsoft Word Formats
On the other hand, maybe BECAUSE you have asked to downgrade, MS-Word may be using XML as an intermediate format.
While XML is NOT the native format of old Word files, it is very likely that old Word does import XML.
RE: Microsoft Word Formats
The new OpenDoc and Word formats both are zip archives containing XML files. The files appear to be XML. I did not examine them closely. I don't see why they would be RTF. There is no need to contain an RTF file into an archive.
RE: Microsoft Word Formats
TTFN

FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
RE: Microsoft Word Formats
RE: Microsoft Word Formats
FWIW, XML is not aimed a replacing HTML because they're not substitutes for each other. You can write your HTML in XML compliant format, and it becomes XHTML (very roughly speaking). It's XHTML that is supposed to supersede HTML, not XML. Lots of people got confused by this distinction and assumed XML was a web language. It's not, it's something far more general than that. Think of it more like a container format like a database than a language format like HTML. It can contain HTML, but it can't replace HTML.
Secondly, newer Office files have .docx extension, not .xdoc.
Thirdly, the files don't necessarily "include formatting for use on the WWW". They just use the XML format to encapsulate the file data - the file data is still Word data or Excel data or whatever. Sure, it makes it easier to parse the document using web services, but that's by-the-by. Whatever is parsing the file still needs to understand the actual data content of the file, which could be anything. Just like someone reading a database file could identify each of the fields but not necessarily the content of those fields, someone reading an XML file could identify the elements but wouldn't necessarily know what to do with the content of each.
RE: Microsoft Word Formats
Thanks.
I have tested that. Word makes an absolute shambles of HTML, hand coded with NOTEPAD. Word is designed to put text on paper, rigorously formatted. HTML is designed to place text on all sorts of things, definitely including computer screens.
XML is a replacement for SGML (Standardized General Markup Language). HTML is an SGML document type. XHTML is an XML document type. Word's text is another XML document type.
RE: Microsoft Word Formats
Francis
www.controldraw.co.uk
www.s88control.blogspot.com
RE: Microsoft Word Formats
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?