[mso] Re: Future of Front Page?

MS has resisted the idea of 'opening' its schema specs for Office and, 
in fact, the new Office is less about Office than it is about 
repenetrating the server market. As we might recall, they were doing 
well at that until, well, a few technically important things like system 
security were ignored. New versions of Office are more about leveraging 
Sharepoint and about moving to a software system based on a subscription 
pricing scheme (kind of like the Holy Grail for developers who need 
revenue streams).

Most of what you'll find regarding Office XML schema mods regards 
working with and customizing Sharepoint services with .Net (a 'bet' that 
has been slow to pay off). For instance:
http://weblog.vb-tech.com/

There is a single site which attempts to treat the complexities of 
Word's schema in a way which would allow you to think about defining 
modifications to the schema:
http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2006/02/02/523469.aspx

But close study of the page reveals you're not likely to modify the 
schema in a dramatically useful way unless you work exclusively within 
the host application (which kills one of the dozens of possible 
definitions of 'open' in the computing world) or VSTO. It looks to me 
like it's just as closed as ever...but more complicated to work with 
than when you used VBA and the application object model.

I'm not normally into banging on Microsoft for this or that strategy. 
They tend to make bolder moves than I do and they do that well. I am 
resistant to unnecessary or unproductive change and I don't *yet* see 
that using XML is going to achieve what the market wished XML could do 
for Office applications.

Greg


Steve Fredette wrote:

>From: "Dian D. Chapman" <dian@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>  
>
>>You will probably understand this more when you start trying to figure out
>>how to customize Office 2007.
>>    
>>
>
>    If it follows XML rules, then any schema will do ;-)
>
>    Or are we going to be forced to follow MS's schemas? If so, are these 
>always called from MS site, or are they installed on the HD? Then again, 
>maybe you can't answer that right now ;-) If they are installed to the HD, 
>I'll have no problem with Office '07, but from they did with server '03 and 
>the COSYS replacement for CDONTS, I'm not a "secure" camper..
>
>Cordially,
>Steven Fredette
>President http://www.prowebsites.net
>Indianapolis, Indiana. USA (-5 GMT/UT)
>"For Your Internet Wants and Needs" Since 1997
>
>  
>

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