Bug 298115 (Export-difficulties.) - Not enough options found to EXPORT from the Calligra Office Suite to MS Office and several other formats.
Summary: Not enough options found to EXPORT from the Calligra Office Suite to MS Offic...
Status: CLOSED NOT A BUG
Alias: Export-difficulties.
Product: calligrawords
Classification: Applications
Component: general (show other bugs)
Version: 2.4-snapshots
Platform: Ubuntu Linux
: NOR wishlist
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Calligra Words Bugs
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2012-04-14 11:49 UTC by Bas Roufs
Modified: 2014-03-29 02:00 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

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Description Bas Roufs 2012-04-14 11:49:56 UTC
User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux i686; rv:11.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/11.0
Build Identifier: 

Calligra is really a beautiful office suite with very interesting features. As far as I can see now, it is no problem to IMPORT MS Office generated files: doc, docx, ppt, xls, etc. However, EXPORTING to those and several other formats still are missing: in all the Calligra packages except Calligra Flow. I have examined the whole office suite via FILE > save as and FILE > export. In the case of Calligra Flow, I see enough export possiblities. From Words, Sheets and Stage I see only a very limited number of formats to export to. Eg. in Words,  I only discoverd export possibilities to PDF and a few other formats.
I would appreciate to see at least the same export possibilities as in Libre Office. In my work, such possibilities are simply essential.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Create a document in Calligra Words, Calligra Sheets or Calligra Stage.
2. Try out the options FILE > save as and FILE > export. Look at the list of formats to which the document can be exported.
3. Open a copy of the same document in LibreOffice and repeat the previous step - with a view to comparing. 
Actual Results:  
In the case of Calligra words, via BOTH FILE> save as and FILE > export, there is only little list of formats to export to: 3 ODT document variants, ODT template and HTML document.
Similar results for Calligra Stage: only export to 3 ODP variants as well as to ODP Template.
For Calligra Sheets, I see already a better list: apart from ODS spreadsheet and template, also to eg. .CSV. However a format like .xls is still not there. 
Calligra FLOW has alrealdy enough export possibilties as far as I can see now.
However, in Braindomp I see no possibility at all to save or export anything. 

Expected Results:  
First priority: insert in Braindump saving and export possibilities similar to those of Flow.
Second priority: insert in Words, Sheets and Stage export possibilties similar to those of their equivalents in LibreOffice.
Third priority: creating extra import/export possibilties in FLOW: to and from open source and perhaps a few major commercial packages. 

OS in use: Kubuntu 11.10 along with KDE 4.8.2.
Comment 1 Bas Roufs 2012-04-14 12:06:40 UTC
Versions of Words, Stages and Sheets: 2.4.2., using KDE Development platform 4.8.2.
Comment 2 Camilla Boemann 2012-04-14 12:41:40 UTC
Thank you very much for the long and thought out whish item. However it's a meta wish  targeting all applications and with an openended number of file formats. As such it can never be fulfilled.

For that reason, and because we don't use bugzilla to guide what we (Words) work on anyway: I'm going to close it, but rest assured that we are aware that we don't save to many formats, and very much would like people to contribute such code. Or funding to hire a developer to do it.

Having this bug open will not make any formats happen sooner than they otherwise would have. Thanks again for you taking the time to get involved, and please file bugs if you find any.
Comment 3 Camilla Boemann 2012-04-14 14:21:15 UTC
huh it seems you accidentally opened it again, reclosing
Comment 4 Bas Roufs 2012-04-14 15:08:16 UTC
>... However it's a meta wish targeting all applications
Of course, it's obvious that time and effort will needed to add the desired export options to all of them. It's of course not possible to build a city or a office suite in one day :-) However, on the longer run, to all of them enough export options need to be added: simply in order to make Calligra fully functional. 

> and with an openended number of file formats. As such it can never be fulfilled. 
My request is not open-ended. I try to be more clear now. 
My first priority would be the following export options :
from odt to doc (Words);
from ods to xls (Sheets);
from odp to ppt (Stage)
from Braindump to odp, ppt and some wide-spread image format, like png.

With respect to the number of export formats to be added in the longer run: the maximum number should be that of LibreOffice. I am wondering whether we could use scripts etc. from that office suite for Calligra. 

> and because we don't use bugzilla to guide what we (Words) work on anyway: 
In the KDE bug submission system, it is possible to submit a wish list, which is in my opinion, a legitimate source for setting priorities in any open source project.

> I'm going to close it
Because of the reasons summarised above, I have reopened it. 

> as much would like people to contribute such code. 
After acquiring more skills in the realm of code writing, I do want to contribute. However, I first need to acquire those skills.
No doubt, others will be interested to contribute too.

> Or funding to hire a developer to do it.
May be via sponsors like Blue Systems. Details:
http://www.kubuntu.org/news/kubuntu-to-be-sponsored-by-blue-systems

> Having this bug open will not make any formats happen sooner than they otherwise ..
In principle you are right about this. On the other hand: having this bug open helps in my opinion to stimate people to help writing the codes necessary for the export options needed.
Respectfully yours,
Bas Roufs.
Comment 5 Camilla Boemann 2012-04-14 15:51:13 UTC
Well you are pissing me off right now - I close it because i try to keep order in the hundreds of bugs i have to solve before even remotely consider creating a completely new filter.

You are bothering me with bugs about sheets, stage and braindump which i have nothing to do with.

You are wasting my time, and I actually don't care what your opinion is about how you think bugzilla works. It's a tool meant to keep track of specific tasks or problems.  It's not a place for users to dream of cool new features and demand that they stay open. If I want to close bugs then I close them. It's a tool for me so I can keep order in what I do. 

Do you really think that just because you piss me off by reopening this wish I would sudddenly be glad you did, and spend a year or more fulltime to implement a filter I have absolutely no interest in. And don't for a second think anyone but me regularly look at what wish is open. And even if someone would look at this wish do you really think they would go "oh now that was something I hadn't thought about"

Wishes is for small manageble tasks - not huge pipedreams that doesn't help us in any way in actually getting there.

We have other places outside bugzilla where we keep track of smaller feature ideas and larger pipedreams.

All your little games do is waste my time, so I don't work on bugs. Great way to help the development :(
Comment 6 Bas Roufs 2012-04-14 19:25:17 UTC
Dear Mr. Boemann,
> Well you are pissing me off right now - I close it because i try to keep...
After carefully reading my previous message, it has become clear that you have no legitimate reason at all to bully me in this way. Of course, I do respect respect your responsibilties and efforts. But this bug report is not just for you personally - it's aimed at all those who take part in some aspect of the Calligra Office suite. So, you have not the right to simply "close" it. So, I change the status of this report to "VERIFIED" and "LATER". As I said in my previous message, I do not expect the whole  "city" to be built in one day - but it's necessary to plan the construction process anyway: both at this place and at a few other appropriate forums.
If there is anything in this report relevant for you personally, keep it in mind and forget about the rest.
Respectfully yours,
Bas Roufs.
Comment 7 Halla Rempt 2012-04-14 19:34:04 UTC
Bas,

Leave off. You are not being bullied.  On the contrary, you have been the bully. 

You are trying to direct development, and you are doing that in the wrong way. Everyone in Calligra knows that we lack export filters for MS Office documents. Everyone knows that one day we will implement those. We are busy looking for funding. Adding a blanket wish for those is not helping development -- it's way too big a todo for a report in bugzilla.

Furthermore, the developers are the one who direct development. It's up to them to structure their work and todo list. If you want to make bugzilla a useless tool, then by all means keep reopening this bug and keep polluting this developer tool.

But even when we have found a way and means to implement MS Office export filters, we won't even remember this report and remember to close it; because implementing huge features is not something associated with bugzilla reports.

The people who do the development do the planning; bugzilla is not the tool we use to do planning.  It's the tool we use to track bugs and -- sometimes -- feature requests, if they are small and self-contained.

This bug report is not useful in any state to us; it is not helping us. It should not pollute our immediate todo list. Do not reopen it.