LibreOffice has published a migration guide to ODF and has criticized what it calls ‘blocking’ that Microsoft uses in its formats of proprietary documents to maintain mastery of its productivity and collaboration solutions.
Document formats are essential in the digital world And the debate among the owners, the open and their interoperability has been running for decades. Those responsible for LibreOffice, surely the greatest alternative to the Microsoft Office suite that dominates the office segment with its local and cloud versions firm, believe that proprietary formats such as the docx of the Word text processor or the XLSX of the spreadsheet Excel Excel They limit users to a specific supplier and your commercial strategies, which “They tend to exploit them to the fullest in every way”.
LibreOffice, as he recently made by pointing out the “real costs” of migration to Windows 11 and therefore his commitment to Linux, accuses Microsoft of using deliberately Excessively complex file formats to limit consumers and companies to use their Microsoft 365 and Office products. And particularly the Open XML (Ooxml) Office of Microsoft, found in the .docx and .xlsx files.
Both are XML file collections that define the structure of a document, but LibreOffice argues that Microsoft was “Using them as a weapon” By making them unnecessarily complicated so that competition products would analyze them, which generated strange format problems when an .docx file opens in a solution of competition, such as LibreOffice.
Therefore, it continues to defend ODF (OpenDocument), An open standard that is not controlled by any company In particular, it offers an open and standard alternative that protects users and their privacy, promotes interoperability, long -term access and data ownership.
Migration Guide to ODF of LibreOffice
In his last guide, LibreOffice maintains that the use of proprietary formats It endangers privacy and threatens long -term access and data ownership compared to the “transparent” specifications of ODF. In his opinion, its use is a fundamental step for users in terms of privacy and digital sovereignty.
As for migration, LibreOffice proposes a small, but clear guide that breaks down the migration process so that the transition is fluid, efficient and sustainable, both at the individual level (where the problems are practically non -existent) and at the business level, where “Problems exist due to owner format blocking strategies”:
Step 1: Understand ODF and its advantages
- Without dependence on a single supplier: freedom to use any compatible software.
- Better long -term accessibility, robustness and storage stability.
- Transparency and security, thanks to full fulfillment of open specifications.
- Better interoperability between platforms and tools.
Step 2: Document the inventory to define conversion priorities and estimate the necessary effort for migration
- Identification of file types (DOCX, XLSX, PPTX) and their number.
- Analysis of documents to distinguish between active documents (periodically used), those that can be filed and obsolete documents.
- Analysis of documents with complex format or embedded multimedia content.
Step 3: Plan the migration workflow
- Convert mass documents or gradually as necessary?
- Pilot phase with a small group of users to identify any problem with documents before mass conversion.
- Training of users on migration and creation of a support service for conversions and backup management.
Step 4: Convert documents to the ODF format
- Use the Export Function of LibreOffice (‘Save as’).
- Use batch conversion tools for large volumes.
- Validate converted files to guarantee the format and integrity of the data.
- Make a backup of the original files until migration is completed correctly.
Step 5: Migration monitoring
- Update of internal policies for ODF to be the default format for the creation and shared use of documents, and to avoid return to proprietary formats.
- Monitor the comments of users and trends in the creation of documents and solve problems in a timely manner.
- Integrate ODF compatibility into business software platforms and use automatic conversions when possible.
