Norway mandates government use of ODF
Microsoft Word banished in public
NORWAY'S GOVERNMENT has mandated that its websites must use Open Document Format (ODF) for files published for use by the Norwegian public.
A reader of Groklaw kindly translated the Norwegian government's press release for publication on Groklaw's News Picks sidebar. Since that's not a persistently linkable Groklaw article, we republish the English translation below as a public service:
"Everyone should have equal access to public information: Open standards become compulsory within the government.
"The government has decided that all information on governmental websites should be available in the open formats HTML, PDF or ODF. With this decision the times when public documents where only available in Microsoft's Word-format is coming to an end.
"'Everybody should have equal access to public information. From 2009 the citizens will be able to chose which software to use in order to gain access to public information. The government's decision will also improve the competition between suppliers of office applications,' says IT-minister Heidi Grande Røys.
"This is the decision of the government:
"* HTML should be the primary format for publication of public information on the Internet.
"* PDF (1.4 or newer, or PDF/A - ISO 19005-1) is compulsory when you wish to preserve the original layout of a document.
"* ODF (ISO/IEC 26300) must be used when publishing documents that are meant to be changed after downloading, eg. forms that are to be filled in by the user.
"- Norway's Ministry of Government Administration and Reform"
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Comments
Way to go, Norway
I applaude the Norwegian government for their progressive thinking.Well done Norway
Now we just need the rest of the civilized world to take notice and follow suit. It's time to kick these proprietary document formats to the curb once and for all!Government...
...does something rational shocka!!Congratulations!
Good example for all. Congratulations!Hurray
Very good Norway. So now it's time for all the other countries to choose Open Standards.Doesn't exclude Microsoft
Don't forget that, for all the claims to the contrary, this does NOT exclude Microsoft. All they have to do is to support ODF properly in MS Office, and they are back in the game.What it does is to ensure a level playing field, and conformance to a published standard that the Norwegian government has a chance of reading in 30 years time.
pdf?
pdf ?Has anyone tried to download a pdf reader from adobe?
Adobe simply want you to buy the reader , and it costs a lot of money.Far more than what its worth.I am completely unable to download the free version from adobe.Also adobe have every intention of paying for a free reader install via advertising.So it wont be long before you find stupid freaking adverts in government documents.
in my opinion , Adobe & pdf totally suck as a public standard!
As for ODF , I've never seen a document in this format yet , but it sounds like a good thing in the long run as OD covers more than just text documents.
Has anyone tried to download a pdf reader from adobe?
Pvong,"Has anyone tried to download a pdf reader from adobe?"
Yes, million have.
Adobe's PDF reader, 'Acobat Reader', is free, and has been for as long as I can remember.
In addition, other 3rd party PDF readers are available for Windows. On Mac OS X, 'Preview' opens (and allows some editing) of PDFs.
PDF
If you don't like Adobe's PDF reader, and I don't blame you, try another one. I use evince on Linux. Surely there must be others.PDF Reader
Since when do users have to pay for Adobe Reader to open PDF files? If you don't like the official reader, there are other software out there available like Foxit Reader.The specs for PDF are opened and anyone can write application for the format. Stop ranting rubbish.
Norwegian?
I have to say, the linked press statement is written in the most english-like norwegian I've ever seen.And for whoever complained about acrobat reader: The good thing is that you don't have to use it. There's gpdf/xpdf/kpdf on the *nixes, and at least two free alternatives for windows (I think wikipedia has both linked from the PDF article, if you're interested).
Also: Good thing we got around to doing this. I expect MS Norway will have their angry letters ready by tomorrow, but that's just part of the fun.
OOXML
A little tidbit: "It has been decided to put the OOXML document format under observation until the standard is adjusted so that it can be counted as open" *.Which could mean either "... like that's ever going to happen, but now we've got something to throw at MS to make them shut up" , or "we'll back out of this and support OOXML when they force it through ISO". I'm hoping for the former, but the original wording is completely neutral.
* "Dokumentformatet OOXML er besluttet satt under observasjon i påvente av at standarden justeres slik at den kan regnes som åpen", if anyone would like to adjust my translation.
Well done!
Ccongratulations. In the hope other countries follow your steps.@pvong: stop the FUD
Go to adobe.com and the download button for the free Adobe READER is right there, on the front page! If you meant tools for creating pdf, then Google for Microsoft Save as PDF for the plugin (from Microsoft) that lets you save Office documents as PDF. Save to pdf functionality is built-in to Open Office and other free office packages, but due to a lawsuit by Adobe, Microsoft has to distribute it separately. To summarize, pdf costs nothing to read, and doesn't need to cost anything to write.Re: pdf
I think you have trouble separating the terms "standard" and "application". PDF is an open standard, that means that you don't have to use Adobe Reader. Since the standard is open, you can use whatever PDF-reader you like, like Evince, xpdf og kpdf. This is also the case with ODF, you don't have to use OpenOffice to read ODF-documents (although I would strongly recommend it).This freedom is not available in closed formats, you really can't open a .doc file in anything but Microsoft's products, although hard work and endless hours of reverse engineering has allowed you to do so in OpenOffice. I applaud the Norwegian Government, and hope that the lobbying power of Microsoft doesn't get this decision overturned.
Adobe Reader
Actually, there is a big "Get Adobe Reader" button on Adobe's homepage.It takes exactly two clicks from the main page to start the free Adobe Reader download. I just counted them.
Indeed, it is not possible to buy the Adobe Reader as it is only available for free, AFAIK. It is Adobe Acrobat Professional that costs money and that's only needed to author PDFs.
So, perhaps you haven't looked hard enough, pvong...? ;-)
@ pvong
Awww. Can't download a free PDF reader? What's the matter: did you chew a lot of lead paint when you were a baby? Or did your mummy drop you on your head? If Adobe Free Reader is just too darn tricky, you could try Foxit 2.2. If you don't know what to do, just ask your daddy.PDF viewers
pvong:Adobe's PDF viewer isn't very good, but you are not forced to use it to view PDF files. PDF is an open standard with many different implementations available on many different platforms.
I recommend Sumatra PDF (for Microsoft Windows), which is an open source PDF viewer. It is, in my view, much better than Adobe's implementation.
Here's where you can find an exhaustive list of PDF implementations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PDF_software