For anyone who has never tried it, I'll add that the open office formats are an absolute beast to export to. I can't say for sure about docx but I've done my time building a PowerPoint exporter (on top of Microsoft provided ooxml libraries even). It is complex enough that I'm not even sure such an exporter's maintenance is possible without a full time dedicated team
On Sat, Jun 26, 2021, 17:17 Tim Cross <theophil...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Brandon Taylor <donnie126_2...@hotmail.com> writes: > > > I know we’re not supposed to really even TALK about proprietary software > in FOSS communities like this one, but I can’t help but wonder if someone > > might consider making (an) Emacs plugin(s) that allow(s) a user to > export Org mode files to Microsoft Office file formats such as .docx, .xlsx > and the > > like? Or is/are there already (a) plugin(s) in the MELPA that can do > this? > > > > I don't think you will ever see full proprietary support for MS Office > file formats. In addition to the philosophical issues, there are also > practical constraints. As these formats are closed proprietary formats > owned by MS, they can be changed at will and without notice by MS, which > creeates maintenance problems, plus there is the risk you may run foul > of MS copyright or patent restrictions and you have the added overhead > of having to work with a format which is not openly documented. > > Probably the best you can hope for is support for open standards which > are also supported by MS Office. For example, ODT, CSV and maybe XML. > Unlike native MS formats, such open formats are likely to be even more > accessible (such as by other office like products) and last longer > because they are not based on some version of a proprietary format which > may arbitrarily change in the future. > > -- > Tim Cross > >
