Questions on upgrading file formats for OO3

[Alexandre Enkerli]

> 	- OO3's format is richer than many of the formats it can write to
Yeah!

> so some features might be dropped on write (attachments, for example)
Expected.

> 	- Make the document untitled, forcing the user to pick a new file to 
> save to.
Like TextEdit? Ugh!

> - Set the document title to Filename.xmloutline so that when the user 
> saves, they'll get a native file
Nice!

> - For formats like OPML that are used for sharing this would be really 
> annoying
Yes, OPML files should stay as is.

> unable to distinguish between the two files in Finder
Couldn't you use a different extension, like .oo3?

> - We could also optionally delete the original file
No! Why would you want to do that?

> - Prompting them on open that they won't be able to use the extra 
> features would be annoying
If so, the prompt could be disabled.

> - At a minimum, we want to prompt the user if they are using features 
> that aren't supported by the target format
Yes. It's expected. As the OO3 format is the least lossy format, it 
should be the format used except when the user specifically wants an 
exchange format.

> it would be annoying to get a warning that images can't be saved in 
> plain text.
Again, the user should be able to disable it "don't warn me next time."

> how often they use sharable formats
A fair deal but for very specific purposes. It's usually expected that 
an app will keep a doc in the least lossy format internally and be able 
to export it to other formats afterwards, with some loss of information.
The exported versions are usually meant for specific purposes and the 
lost features are not supposed to matter in those purposes. In this 
perspective, an OO2 doc is no different from an HTML export... The most 
important thing here is that the added features in OO3 might be used in 
any document regardless of origin and conversion should preserve as 
much as possible. For exchange purposes, OPML should be used. 
Typically, one would like to keep the doc in OPML internally and 
convert to OO3 (à la TextEdit cmd-shift-t) to use extra features.
Here's a scenario:
I upgrade to OO3. After reading the document outlining changes from 
OO2, I'm advised to update my documents to OO3 to take advantage of 
these great new features. After doing a backup of most of my OO2 docs, 
I bulk update them to OO3. The original are kept for archival purposes 
and the new files are either in a separate folder or at least have a 
slightly different icon (with a '3' on). I work with my old outlines, 
add attachments (yeah!), feel good about upgrading until someone needs 
one of my outlines in OO2. No biggie, I do a "Save as..." to OO2 and 
send the file. Or, better yet, save it as OPML so Radio, MyMind, and 
Buzz users can use it.

>  and whether/why you'd want to keep using the OO2 format
Nope! Might keep a copy of the original but not go back and forth...

> (sharing with other users on your network, for example?)
Either thedoc is converted back to OO2 or all users have upgraded to 
OO3.