Questions on upgrading file formats for OO3

[Fraser Speirs]

On 14 Jan 2004, at 20:05, Timothy J. Wood wrote:

> - If we are able to write the source file format, just open the file 
> w/o any warning panel
> 	- For advanced users for compatibility formats, this is really nice 
> since you can just open/save the document
> 	- For novice users, they might use some feature of OO3 that can't be 
> stored in the destination format.
> 		- Prompting them on save might be bad since they may have put a 
> bunch of work into their document
> 		- Prompting them on open that they won't be able to use the extra 
> features would be annoying

In this situation, perhaps you could warn the user when they attempt to 
use a feature that can't be written out, and at that point give them 
the opportunity to upgrade to native.

> - Pop up a panel giving the user the option to upgrade the file or 
> leave it alone
> 	- Maybe store their answer in the resource fork
> 	- Not really nice for people using files in CVS or other non-HFS 
> aware situations, though.

Please, please try and avoid using the resource fork!  I put OO files 
in CVS a fair bit, and their great strength is that they're 
fundamentally textual.

>   I'm hoping to avoid some really complicated solution here, so people 
> have comments on how often they use sharable formats and whether/why 
> you'd want to keep using the OO2 format (sharing with other users on 
> your network, for example?), that will help us come up with the "least 
> bad" solution here :)

When I share the contents of an OO document, I create in OO and then 
export to HTML or RTF.  Generally, I don't collaboratively edit 
documents with other people.  I don't have any particular need to keep 
the OO2 format going forward.

Cheers,
Fraser
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