Uniform Office Format
Encyclopedia
Uniform Office Format sometimes known as Unified Office Format (UOF) is an open standard
for 'office
' applications developed in China
. It includes word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet modules, and is made up of GUI
, API
, and format specifications. The document format described uses XML
contained in a compressed file container, similar to ISO/IEC 26300:2006 OpenDocument
and ISO/IEC 29500:2008 Office Open XML.
The working group that produced the standard was founded in January 2002, and the first draft of the specification was produced in December 2005. The group producing the standard is open, with 'open-door' meetings, equitable voting by ballots, and the standard's documentation is free.
.
IPRs Issues in Standardization" conference in Beijing (April 2007), convened by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the China State Intellectual Property Office
(SIPO) and Sun Microsystems
, Scott McNealy
, the Chairman of Sun Microsystems called for a merger of OASIS
/ISO
's ODF and China's UOF.
While both formats are open, there are significant technical challenges in achieving a merger, as the two formats have made different fundamental choices in how to describe documents.
A comparison document between ODF and UOF is available from the ODF-UOF project on SourceForge.
Open standard
An open standard is a standard that is publicly available and has various rights to use associated with it, and may also have various properties of how it was designed . There is no single definition and interpretations vary with usage....
for 'office
Office suite
In computing, an office suite, sometimes called an office software suite or productivity suite is a collection of programs intended to be used by knowledge workers...
' applications developed in China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. It includes word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet modules, and is made up of GUI
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
, API
Application programming interface
An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...
, and format specifications. The document format described uses XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
contained in a compressed file container, similar to ISO/IEC 26300:2006 OpenDocument
OpenDocument
The Open Document Format for Office Applications is an XML-based file format for representing electronic documents such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents....
and ISO/IEC 29500:2008 Office Open XML.
The working group that produced the standard was founded in January 2002, and the first draft of the specification was produced in December 2005. The group producing the standard is open, with 'open-door' meetings, equitable voting by ballots, and the standard's documentation is free.
Office suites
A number of applications support the Uniform Office Format; listed alphabetically they include:- EIOfficeEIOfficeEIOffice, also known as Evermore Integrated Office, is a proprietary Office suite by Evermore software. In 2010, Evermore changed their name to Yozosoft ....
2009 is said to be based on UOF. It use binder files with file extension EIO (.eio). In latest version 5.0.1272.101 it doesn't open or save files with file extensions .uof, .uot, .uos or .uop. In documentation to EIOffice is information about possibility to publish documents in "Unit Office Format (XML)" - Go-ooGo-ooGo-oo was an office suite which started as a set of patches for the cross-platform OpenOffice.org office suite, then later became an independent fork of OpenOffice.org with a number of enhancements...
(OpenOffice.org variant) from version 3 can open and save files in "Unified Office Format" with file extensions .uof, .uot, .uos, .uop (text, spreadsheet, presentation) - OpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
from version 3 can open and save files in "Unified Office Format" with file extensions .uof, .uot, .uos, .uop (text, spreadsheet, presentation) (This also applies to version 3 of NeoOffice, a popular variant of OpenOffice for the Macintosh.) - LibreOfficeLibreOfficeLibreOffice is a free and open source office suite developed by The Document Foundation as a fork of OpenOffice.org. It is largely compatible with other major office suites, including Microsoft Office, and available on a variety of platforms...
created as a fork of OpenOffice.org, which like OpenOffice is completely free software as users are free to download, modify, use and distribute. It can also open and save files in "Unified Office Format" with file extensions .uof, .uot, .uos, .uop (text, spreadsheet, presentation) - RedOffice 4.0, a Chinese OpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
variant, can open and save files with file extension .uof - WPS Office 2009, a Chinese office suite very similar to Microsoft Office 2003 in terms of look and functionality, supports read and write of UOF format.
ODF to UOF
Software is available to convert from ODF to UOF and the other way round. The software was developed between November 2005 and October 2006 by the Open Standard Lab of Peking UniversityPeking University
Peking University , colloquially known in Chinese as Beida , is a major research university located in Beijing, China, and a member of the C9 League. It is the first established modern national university of China. It was founded as Imperial University of Peking in 1898 as a replacement of the...
.
OOXML to UOF
Software is being developed at ACT (The Institute of Advanced Computing Technology) at Beihang University to convert from OOXML to UOF and vice versa.Possibility of merging UOF and ODF
At the "WTOWorld Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...
IPRs Issues in Standardization" conference in Beijing (April 2007), convened by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the China State Intellectual Property Office
State Intellectual Property Office
The State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China , also known as the Chinese Patent Office, is the patent office of the People's Republic of China . It was founded on 1980, as the Patent Office of the People's Republic of China, the predecessor of SIPO...
(SIPO) and Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
, Scott McNealy
Scott McNealy
Scott McNealy is an American business executive. He co-founded computer technology company Sun Microsystems in 1982 along with Vinod Khosla, Bill Joy, and Andy Bechtolsheim.-Biography:...
, the Chairman of Sun Microsystems called for a merger of OASIS
OASIS (organization)
The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards is a global consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of e-business and web service standards...
/ISO
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
's ODF and China's UOF.
While both formats are open, there are significant technical challenges in achieving a merger, as the two formats have made different fundamental choices in how to describe documents.
A comparison document between ODF and UOF is available from the ODF-UOF project on SourceForge.
External links
- Another Open Document Format – From China
- More on China's Uniform Office Format (and much more)
- Chinese Office Software Standards and Inter-operation of Office Software (presentation)
- Documents promulgated by the end of the Chinese National Standard (Chinese) – CESI is the China Electronic Standardization Institute
- RedOffice/OpenOffice in China (slide 35)
- UOF and ODF comparison. Which should we choose? – Open Malaysia site, details some of the history and context of UOF
- UOF OPEN SDK(China Kingsoft)