OpenOffice SVG Export [was Re: [Clipart] Metadata]

[Alan Horkan]

On Wed, 23 Jun 2004, Bryce Harrington wrote:

> Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 11:11:53 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Bryce Harrington <bryce at bryceharrington.com>
> To: Jonadab the Unsightly One <jonadab at bright.net>
> Cc: clipart at freedesktop.org
> Subject: Re: [Clipart] Metadata
>
> On Wed, 23 Jun 2004, Jonadab the Unsightly One wrote:
> > > I wonder whether it is better to have it a single parse() function that
> > > figures out what to do, or to break it into four separate parsing
> > > functions and require the caller to know what type of input they want.
> > > Got a preference?
> >
> > The only caveat I have to add is that some XML-generating programs do
> > not include any optional whitespace, including newlines.  OpenOffice
> > does not by default, for example (though you can get it to do so by
> > changing an option).  I don't know about any existing SVG editors'
> > doing this, but it is entirely possible that in the future some SVG
> > editor might make output that contains only one newline after the XML
> > declaration.

Firstly let me say that it is insane not to use good layout and pretty
printing in most XML particularly SVG which provides SVGZ for those who
are concerned about file size.  But still if is possible some genius will
inevitably do it (the same kind of genius thinks writing code with no
comments whatsoever is a good idea).

> Hmm, true...  We'll have to keep an eye out for that.  OOo doesn't
> generate SVG currently afaik, but you're right that other apps may
> behave differently.

Perhaps I am misinterpreting you but OpenOffice.org Draw has been able to
Export SVG for a long time (since before version 1.0 if I recall
correctly).   It is in the Export menu, but not available from 'Save As'
so it understandable that you might have missed it.

Playing around with it a recent beta I felt the SVG output had actually
gotten worse, for the examples I was testing with.  (Also it annoyingly
exported the colour values as rgb(255,255,255) and i needed hex values).

OpenOffice.org does not have any SVG import.  I'm tracking a few bug
reports and there doesn't seem to be anyone working on it either.

The openoffice file format itself does use a subset of SVG (paths at least
I forget what else and dublin core and xlink and ...) so if a developer
wanted to hack a way to generate something OpenOffice could import it
wouldn't take long (but a better long term approach would be to
leverage libgsf).

- Alan