I'm impressed. OpenOffice gets rid of the idea of having its own Desktop, so you can easily just open the Writer word processor -- and you can retain it in the system tray to speed further use. Details at http://www.openoffice.org

The native file format is XML. When you save a document it creates a file with an .sxw extension, but that is actually a standard Zip compressed file that can be opened from within a program such as WinZip to reveal the other parts of an XML file, the style definition documents...I didn't realise there could be so many other parts to an XML document. (OO can save in several formats including flavours of Word).

I installed the XML import plugin from InDesign's second disk, unzipped the OpenOffice file to a separate folder, clicked the new Import XML item under the File menu and told it to import the file which appeared to be the content of my document. I got a sudden extra pane within the InDesign document window containing a long list of XML styles, but nothing in the document, until I realised that one of the styles had a tooltip which said there was text associated with it. Dragging that over to the document did produce the text from the original document, with lots of strange red marks where there could have been line endings. I suppose I'll have to start reading the instructions.

We live in interesting times...

Also relatively new is ThinkFree http://www.thinkfree.com/, a US$49.95 office suite for Windows, Macintosh, Unix and Linux platforms and which is licensed to the user rather than the software, with the idea that if the user is away from their base they can download or use the program across the Internet even if that involves using a copy for a different platform. ThinkFree is based in Cupertino, California, and employs about 70 people worldwide.

The entire suite comprises less than 10MB of Java code, which is automatically delivered and upgraded over the Internet to any computer with a Java-capable browser. For slow connections, or for use where there is no online connection, it can work offline. It is claimed to be compatible with MS Office files.

Companies financing ThinkFree include Prism Venture Partners, Tredegar Investments, TIAA, Samsung, LG, and CSK. That's a formidible list of companies who are (or were) paying a lot of license fees to Microsoft.

There's a flyer with more details at http://www.thinkfree.com/company/office_flyer.pdf. 467kb.

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