Panther's TextEdit to Open MS Word Files 158
2muchcoffeeman writes "Further signs that Jobs and Gates probably won't be vacationing together anytime soon: New Damage has what looks to be screenshot proof of Panther's TextEdit.app opening a Microsoft Word .DOC file. Panther beta users who have tried this report at MacSlash that it works, to a point. So what's next? Is Apple now going to bring back the late, great MacWrite Pro?"
That's not only awesome, but.. (Score:1)
Re:That's not only awesome, but.. (Score:3, Funny)
syntax coloring is for people who make mistakes
PDF (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:PDF (Score:3, Informative)
Re:PDF (Score:2, Informative)
If anyone is interested, a PNG file of the image in the PDF is 2KB larger than the PDF itself.
Re:PDF (Score:3, Interesting)
Okay, so compress that PNG via pngcrush and then compare the filesizes. The PNG implementation of just about anything that creates PNG is usually pretty badly done. Considering the age of the PNG format, this is rather puzzling to me.
Re:PDF (Score:3, Interesting)
open
Look familiar? (on preview: drop the space in "QuartzD isplay" that slashcode put there)
Re:PDF (Score:5, Informative)
Re:PDF (Score:2)
I'm ignorant, so I can't tell if this is funny or true. Regardless, wouldn't EPS (encapsulated PostScript) be a better capture format than PDF.
EPS can go straight into LaTeX and Framemaker, for example.
Re:PDF (Score:3, Informative)
I had no idead EPS could manage and update Postscript coordinate points from Global to Local, on the fly?
Re:PDF (Score:2)
Er, uh...all I know is that I could take the EPS files outputted from gnuplot and import them into Framemaker documents. It worked really well for complex charts, where trying to juggle GIF image resolutions would have been a disaster.
Also, this was years ago, so I could be mistaken.
Re:PDF (Score:2)
Re:PDF (Score:2)
Jesus Christ, How Hard Is This To Get Straight (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Jesus Christ, How Hard Is This To Get Straight (Score:2)
No nobody ever officially called it "Display PDF" BUT it uses the "PDF" format to "Display" stuff on the screen the same way Display PostScript uses the PostScript format to display stuff on the screen. So to someone familiar with Adobe's Display PostScript saying that Quartz is essentially "Display PDF" makes perfect sense and in two words conveys exactly what Quartz is.
Re:, How Hard Is This To Get Straight (Score:2)
An AC said:
>Quartz is not "Display PDF". Don't know where
>you saw or why you decided to make up that
>retarded name
It's a fairly standard descriptive term among NeXT users.
>Quartz uses the Generic PDF format as an engine
>to Quartz.
What is ``Generic PDF''? There's PDF ver
Re:PDF (Score:2)
It's not funny.... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Grab.app (Score:2, Informative)
But here are the defaults:
COMMAND + SHIFT + 3
capture whole screen and save on desktop
COMMAND + CONTROL + SHIFT + 3
capture whole screen and save in clipboard
COMMAND + SHIFT + 4
capture selection and save on desktop
COMMAND + SHIFT + 4 (+ CONTROL when releasing mouse)
capture selection and save in clipboard
COMMAND + SHIFT + 4 + SPACE
capture the window you click on and save on desktop
If you hold CONTROL while c
Re:PDF (Score:5, Informative)
A good slashdotter would peek in the file and notice this:
Producer: Mac OS X 10.3 Quartz PDFContext
It would have been kind of cool if the window would be rendered in vector graphics, in the reality, and directly displayed to PDF. A vector desktop still seems to be a dream, or did I get something wrong?
A vector desktop (Score:3, Interesting)
When I first heard of Apple using display pdf for the gui and high resolution icons in something named "the dock", I was hoping that they had implemented what SGI did with their OpenGL--vector graphics on the desktop. Now, that was (is still? been 10 years, kinda hazy) an amazing desktop. each window had
Re:PDF (Score:2)
Openoffice.org? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Openoffice.org? (Score:2)
Re:Openoffice.org? (Score:3, Interesting)
Apps like Oo.O are run at start, and left running. Along with Safari, Mail, iTunes, Reason, SlashDock, etc. etc.
2gb of RAM seems to help. Why 'open & close'...'open & leave running', I say.
Re:Openoffice.org? (Score:4, Insightful)
NSText (Score:5, Informative)
TextEdit is a very simple program. Apple even supply the full source for it in the developer tools under
All the real work is done by standard Cocoa classes NSTextView and NSTextStorage. If TextEdit understands Word files, it means that they have added the support to these standard classes. That means that *ALL* cocoa applications will inherit this functionality.
NSMicrosoftDoc (Score:2)
Not necessarily. That would be very nice of them, but I think we're more likely to see some kind of file translation API before we see esoteric document formats being folded into NS classes.
Re:NSMicrosoftDoc (Score:2, Insightful)
- (BOOL)writeRTFDToFile:(NSString *)path atomically:(BOOL)flag;
- (BOOL)readRTFDFromFile:(NSString *)path;
It's not a lot more esoteric to add support for
There's one way of finding out.
Anyone with access to Panther want to run class-dump on TextEdit and see what's in it?
Re:NSMicrosoftDoc (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Openoffice.org? (Score:3, Interesting)
Then your java apps (or python or whatever) can just talk to it via java objects (or whatever).
Makes it trivial to create word doc's.
In a day I made a web page where you could type in a web url or upload a word document, and it would create and return a pdf.
Apple is stepping up (Score:4, Interesting)
Apple is taking on all the big boys...something you just don't see these days. It's very exciting. And let's all be honest. Why do Mac users buy MS Office? Because it's good? Nope. So they can open up
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:2, Informative)
Like surfing the internet is something everyone needs to do with their computer, enough to make it part of the OS! What are these guys thinking?
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:2)
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:4, Insightful)
When did Microsoft ever MAKE money from IE for Mac?
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, this is what I've always hated about both companies. They *need* control over their platform. Apple has a draconian rule over their hardware, and is pushing for more of the same in software. Microsoft will simply crush opposition in software, but is pretty reasonable about hardware (drivers are another issue).
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:3, Insightful)
Again we see the difference between a healthy company where there are alternative platforms and an unhealthy monopoly. The disagreement with tactics is contextual--if Apple had 90%+ of the market they would get DOJ heat as well.
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:1, Insightful)
I think you're missing something fairly obvious.
The people who look at Apple's recent efforts and go "Yay!" and the people who look at Microsoft's and go "Boo!" are two completely different sets of people.
Believe it or not, most of the world has no problem with Microsoft's business plan, or Apple's, or most anybody else's. We like getting well-integrated applications for our computers. Some of us
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, this is what I've always hated about both companies. They *need* control over their platform. Apple has a draconian rule over their hardware, and is pushing for more of the same in software. Microsoft will simply crush opposition in software, but is pretty reasonable about hardware (drivers are another issue).
To each his own. I've never held it against Cuisinart that I can't use cheaper Hamilton-Beach parts in my food processor. I don't begrudge the fact that I can't buy a Hyundai Town Car. I don't hold it against Apple that I can't call up Bob's Discount Apple Parts and build my own OS X box.
Apple makes a damn solid product, box to bits. Part of the reason they can do this is that they don't need to waste time and money trying to support several thousand incrementally different sound cards, network adapters, modems, video cards, mainboards, etc.
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think so really. If MS announced that Office was going to support OpenOffice native formats and KOffice formats then would we be upset? Probably not.
The difference is that Apple is supporting more standards and formats, while MS typically tries to force their own standards on you to the exclusion of all others. And when MS does implement other people's standards they typically throw in some proprietary 'feature' that fosters incompatibility.. That's what we scream bloody murder about.
Apple's versus MS's tactics (Score:5, Insightful)
Aren't those the same list of things that if done by Microsoft would have you screaming bloody murder though?
No, absolutely not. The things that have bugged me have been:
All that Apple has done is to push standards, make excellent use of open standards and Open Source APIs, and apply a consistent and elegant design aesthetic to their OS and their applications. In short, they have excelled through integrity and hard work. If Apple has an unfair advantage, it is only that they have applied a greater effort than others seem to have the courage to do.
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:5, Insightful)
Thats kinda silly-- Apple does control their hardware-- nothing draconian about it.
AS to their software, they are not trying to be the only software provider for their platform-- they spend millions every year building free development tools, and working to get the message out.
They built safari and then released a killer webkit to allow any app builder to easily put a html renderer (or web browser) into thier app. This isn't draconian-- they recognize that there are a lot of apps that could use web or http access conveneintly for unexpected things, and so they provide support for it.
Apple is really kicking ass in developmetn tools-- they aren't top of the line yet, but they have a lot more momentum than even open source ones like eclipse. They want everyone to develop for the mac platform.
The only places where they are competing head to head with third party developers are ones where those developers are working to kill the mac platform.
Premiere on the mac SUCKED and has sucked for years, driving many Mac users to windows. Office is designed to do the same thing.
Thank god apple is finally going after those people who are working to undermine their platform and showing that the best of breed video editing (for instance) is once agian on the mac platform.... and with good reason given the great multimedia platofrm they've built with quicktime and their hardware.
This isn't control-- its support for the platform!
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:3, Insightful)
Not at all - Apple wins customers by making products which are better (or better value) than the competitor's offering.
Yes, iMovie is (effectively) free, and perhaps that discourages the light users from buying high-end packages from third parties. But that's obviously not Adobe's core market, and when you want to move to a more advanced program you can freely choose between Final Cut or Premiere,
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, iMovie is (effectively) free, and perhaps that discourages the light users from buying high-end packages from third parties.
I can't imagine Joe Consumer dropping several thousand on a pro-level video app just to edit his vacation movies, can you?
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually it is good. It does not conform 100% to the apple OSX guidelines, but it is close enough for me. Its also fast and stable.
It is also nice to be able to create documents and share them with those less fortunate (Windows people). There is no spreadsheet program that is near what Excel does.
Openoffice.org is great and all that, but until they can get it to run outside of an X window system, it can't compete with MS Office on the mac.
If Apple wants to kick MS square in the nuts, they need to put out some kind of competitive office suite that opens up, and saves MS office files. It would not surprise me if they did the same thing with OOo as they did with safari. Apple has been burning alot of bridges lately with MS and there is only one left that I can see hat matters any (MS Office)
Excel for Mac has more features than for Windows (Score:2, Informative)
Indeed. Excel vX for Mac is superior in some ways to the Windows version. Where I work at present I do not have access to any serious database and statistical analysis software, so I'm stuck using Excel to manage a list. The Mac version makes it is easy to use Excel like Access, since it includes a feature called "list manager" which allow
OpenOffice on the Mac (Score:3, Informative)
Of course Panther has built-in X11, but we don't know yet whether it will be any prettier than the X11 beta. My fingers are crossed.
Re:OpenOffice on the Mac (Score:2)
Re:OpenOffice on the Mac (Score:2)
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:3)
If i could keep powerpoint from crashing.... anytime!.. it would suck a lot less.. honestly, it could only suck more if it was PowerPoint for Mac version 4.2.
Apple is 3/7ths of the way to Micro Soft independence.... mail, browser, presentation...
word processing, spreadsheet, small database, and drawing (a la Visio) need to be done (though you could argue that FileMaker Pro is the database app.. they need a FileMak
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:4, Interesting)
EntourageX is #3 on my list, and I'm looking forward to the improved mail.app in Panther, as it is right now, mail.app is completely unusable for someone bumping into EntourageX's 4GB database limitation. I want it faster, a lot faster before I start deploying it. We used AppleScript for the QuickMail Pro-> Entourage migration (a bigger upgrade than going to Mail.app will be), so that won't be a big hassle.
G5s this Fall !
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:2)
AppleWorks has all these functions, which could be polished a bit or rewritten in Cocoa.
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:2)
MS Office is nothing but fast and stable. Word is probably the slowest app on Mac OS X ever, even with only a few pages of text.
One real Mac alternative to Excel (Score:2)
RagTime isn't only a spreadsheet, but its spreadsheet components allow me to do more than I could ever imagine trying to do in Excel. It is also a layout package and thus provides a one stop tool for data intensive publishing such as price lists and the sports results systems I cut my teeth on.
RagTime was originally developed for the Mac only but the de
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:5, Informative)
Safari was just an excuse. MSFT was planning on discontinuing IE for the mac for a long time now and Apple knew it. MSFT will use a backwards version of the tactic they used to oust netscape from the browser market. They will use their browser monopoly and IE features integrated into Longhorn OS to marginalise the OS market. You'll need Longhorn to access web services (banking, bill payment, etc.) that Microsoft plans to make "essential" and exclusive to windows users. That way they attack Apple and any other OS rivals simultaneously. Damn those MSFT busienss strategists are smart...
Why? Because it makes sense.
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:5, Interesting)
July 4, 2006
Dear Mr. Bank CEO,
Apple customers + Linux customers are about 7% of the desktop market. The xxx Bank web banking solution doesn't support anything but Internet Explorer which is not available on any platform but Windows. As a shareholder, I'm concerned that we're losing customers and money because of this. I intend to bring this up at the shareholder's meeting. You're in the business of making the bank's shareholders money, not shilling for Microsoft. There is *no* reason not to support everybody's computer platform. Their money spends just as well.
Sincerely,
Large shareholder mac user
Re:Apple is stepping up (Score:2)
Personally, whenever I see a service that requires Windows (and only Windows) to access it, I avoid it.
I changed banks because the internet banking client was Windows only (they've now gone web-based). The only thing I still have to do via Windows when it comes to interacting with outside groups is tax lodgement. If the Australian government ever releases a M
This won't replace office until (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This won't replace office until (Score:3, Funny)
[] Make a better product and make us look like fools
[] Make a better product but watch it fail as we FUD you to death
[] Sell yourself to us
Mac IE (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course MS gets scared and stops making IE for Mac.
Now come on. Everyone knows Microsoft dropped its support for IE because it wasn't making any money. ;-)
On a more serious note, considering that the browser was a freebie, why didn't Microsoft continue to improve it after its initial release? Does anyone remember the fancy flash animation MS produced starring "Zippy" that showed IE with a built-in media player and other nifty features? WTF?
Your point about MS Office is right on, though. Initially
This might work, but then again maybe not... (Score:5, Insightful)
If Apple can create a filter that preserves complex formatting, it should be on to a winner for home users. However, I somewhat doubt that Apple can do so, when Microsoft's own versions of Office can't even cope with changes in the file format...
Re:This might work, but then again maybe not... (Score:3, Informative)
Myself, I'll stick with AppleWorks and its imperfect importing and exporting capabilities. I just need it to export my resume to Word format from time to time for the HR departments that only want Word formatted documents, and the one or two outside Word documents I have to open per year.
Re:This might work, but then again maybe not... (Score:4, Informative)
Powerpoint formats haven't changed since Office 97
Freeware app that gives similar functionality (Score:5, Informative)
Here's a link to a freeware app that already enables Cocoa applications to do a similar thing, but with text only: AntiWord Service [devon-technologies.com]. It works on Mac OS X 10.1.5 and higher.
It works (Score:5, Interesting)
(no subject) (Score:1, Offtopic)
Office Package Speculation (Score:5, Interesting)
Once they have the bugs worked out, they will release Document which will be able to open
Microsoft's
The word processor is the only piece of the office package that most users need. Apple should make just Document for the PC and make it affordable. It will introduce many PC users to how software should be written. Like the iPod it will be a trojan horse that will hopefully cause them to consider a Mac for their next purchase.
Re:Office Package Speculation (Score:2)
If you're happy using OpenOffice on Windows then you're going to be happy using it on a Mac. It breaks most of the Apple UI guidelines, but in doing so looks and behaves exactly the same as the windows version.
AppleWorks IS available for Windows (Score:2, Informative)
From Apple's site:
System Requirements
AppleWorks 6.2 for Mac OS X
An iMac, iBook, Power Mac G3, Power Mac G4, Power Mac G4 Cube, PowerBook G3, or PowerBook G4
128MB of physical RAM
Mac OS X, v10.0 or later
A CD-ROM drive (for installation)
An Internet connection*
QuickTime 5 or higher (included on CD)
To use Mac
Question: what's so special about this? (Score:1)
This is a great feature, it makes my day (no sarcasm), but when all's said and done, it's just a document format.
So what I don't understand is:
1) Why would MS think this is a *bad* thing?
2) Why is everybody so enthousiastic, besides from the obvious, being that you can browse a Word document without opening Office or OpenOffice?
ps: am not trying to insult developers here, just curious what this means to you enthousiasts out there...
cheers.
Re:Question: what's so special about this? (Score:2)
HOLY FUCK. (Score:5, Funny)
So far, I'm holding up, thanks to Smallbits, my host. AWESOME host, also host of Bungie.org.
I am going to make a t-shirt that says: "I've been Slashdotted. Have you?"
Re:HOLY FUCK. (Score:1)
I hope Smallbits doesn't hate me now.
Re:HOLY FUCK. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:HOLY FUCK. (Score:2)
Fucking PDFs (Score:2, Funny)
pudge, fucking warm us with a [PDF] like google does when linking to shitty PDF files. Thank you.
Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox: PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption [useit.com]
Re:Fucking PDFs (Score:4, Insightful)
I think Jacob Nielsen is the Rush Limbaugh of design: A blowhard with no grasp of the facts.
IF he didn't pretend like his opinions were fact, or in some objective sense true, he wouldn't be as annoying.
Hell, I know people who still think images on webpages are overkill... They're free to design their sites with that in mind if they want... but they don't go telling everyone that theirs is the One True Way.
Nielson is not an authority- he's just opinionated.
Re:Fucking PDFs (Score:2)
I think this is going to be a problem (Score:2, Insightful)
Shoot me if I am being simple minded, but I think this is going to turn into a serious problem.
I think Apple is marginalising itself. The beauty of having Office v.X for the Mac is that I can handle all the files which my PC using friends and collegues send. I can edit them and send them back. (For example using "track changes" in Word.) The question them becomes: Will Apple ever be able to produce its own software which will read MS Word, Excel and Powerpoint files properly (And I mean properly, with
Re:I think this is going to be a problem (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I think this is going to be a problem (Score:3, Interesting)
This depends on whether the infinite number of monkeys MS employs as programmers can keep making enough changes to the file format between versions.
The current climate and the latest license proposals from MS have focused the minds of business pe
Emacs/GVim/Kate support for .DOC files?? (Score:2)
Re:Emacs/GVim/Kate support for .DOC files?? (Score:2)
AppleWorks (Score:2)
How is this different from WordPad? (Score:4, Insightful)
So, OS X will now have some basic functionality built into it that Windows does. That's good, but I don't think it's the end of MS Office.
Re:How is this different from WordPad? (Score:2, Insightful)
It's not the end of Office, certainly. But you have to look beyond just WordPad functionality. Being able to read a Word doc is the first step to making sure whatever alternative Apple develops for Office can actually be compatible WITH Office.
There's no sense in taking on the industry leader in bloatware, er, "productivity software" if you can't make it easy for users to read and edit their legacy documents. Without this basic functionality -- and the corresponding ability to market
Re:How is this different from WordPad? (Score:2)
The stuff in Panther is built into the OS, not the TextEdit app. Big difference.
(MS could change WordPad easily enough; creating new COM interfaces would do the trick)
Keep me guessing (Score:3, Funny)
First OSX public beta did that too... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:The question is... (Score:4, Insightful)
Darwin, however, is both open source and Free Software.
After all, when they went to BSD, they inherited most all the apps and filters from Linux too.
OS X is based on Rhapsody, which was Openstep 5.0, which was based on OpenStep 4, which was based on Nextstep 3.3, and all but OS X trace their lineage to BSD 4.3 (IIRC). OS X is based off FreeBSD, which too traces its lineage to BSD 4.4. The new Panther is supposedly based off FreeBSD 5.x series, which almost gives me wood. Linux never really gave much to Apple. Apple did, however, port Linux to a great many Macs though, and gave that project to the community.
Apple is indebted to the FSF for its use of GCC, like Next was before it, and generally has played really well with the community in recent years.
Re:The question is... (Score:2)
Mind you, that won't make RMS say nice things about Macs.
Re:To quote Cryptonomicon: (Score:2)
It might be a good thing...
Re:To quote Cryptonomicon: (Score:2)
Best thing that could happen to apple. Especially if Apple hasn't already released their office suite.
We need to kill the myth that the Mac needs office to survive right here and now.
Re:To quote Cryptonomicon: (Score:2)
Re:To quote Cryptonomicon: (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, too bad that Apple doesn't have some technology for managing calendars and synchronizing them with other networked sources that they could build upon...
Oh, wait! ;)
If Apple is pursuing a strategy of replacing Microsoft technology wholesale, then I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find an update to iSync that knows how to push bits between an Exchange server and iCal.
Seems to me that's a better rationalizat
Re:To quote Cryptonomicon: (Score:2)
The point isn't to be John Galt-- the point is to be your own person.
Maybe you need to actually read that book.
Re:To quote Cryptonomicon: (Score:2)
Well, if you'd read the book you'd realize that the post you're referring to is idiotic-- anti-intellectual.
IF you've only read about a hundred pages of Atlas, then you should try reading it again... it takes awhile to get going and initially you find yourself saying "these characters are unrealistic"... but eventually, you realize they are very realistic-- its preconcieved notions that make them seem unrealistic at first.