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News Microsoft warns of Word zero-day vulnerability

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Gareth Halfacree, 25 Mar 2014.

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  1. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Gareth Halfacree, 25 Mar 2014
    #1
  2. Umbra

    Umbra What's a Dremel?

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    More people should try "Open Office" it will do what most people want for free and your not on the MS front line with all the scumbags trying to infect your software :wallbash:
     
    Umbra, 25 Mar 2014
    #2
  3. RichCreedy

    RichCreedy Hey What Who

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    I just tried the fixit on my system, and it came back as does not apply to your system, I have win8.1pro +office professional plus 2013
     
    RichCreedy, 25 Mar 2014
    #3
  4. Snips

    Snips I can do dat, giz a job

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    Unless you intend to send files to other Microsoft Office users.
     
    Snips, 25 Mar 2014
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  5. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    OpenOffice (and LibreOffice) support loading and saving to both .DOC and the new DocX format, and the latest Microsoft Office fully supports the Open Document Format used by OpenOffice. I should know: I wrote an entire book in LibreOffice, sending the files in .DOC format to the publisher. Worked fine.
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 25 Mar 2014
    #5
    Umbra likes this.
  6. Snips

    Snips I can do dat, giz a job

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    As I've said before Gareth, I've been sent files that have been unable to open within Office. It wasn't Microsoft's fault. I was even asked to download a copy of the software to be able to open the file. It never was and we never used the company again. The majority of the business world is using Microsoft Office, if you make an open version, at the very least get it to be compatible with the major player.
     
    Snips, 25 Mar 2014
    #6
  7. RedFlames

    RedFlames ...is not a Belgian football team

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    While interoperability between the two is a lot better than it was, there's still the odd issue on both sides... TBH I've had more grief with stuff done in iWork [Pages, Keynote and Numbers] than Libre/OpenOffice...

    That said, are RTF documents that common any more? Haven't come across/been sent one in ages...
     
    RedFlames, 25 Mar 2014
    #7
  8. RichCreedy

    RichCreedy Hey What Who

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    yeah I've had customers who have had issues with libre office and open office files when trying to use word/excel files.
     
    RichCreedy, 25 Mar 2014
    #8
  9. wolfticket

    wolfticket Downwind from the bloodhounds

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    Word is quite good though... Especially if you use the bits that most people don't use, and for a lot of people it's what they're comfortable with.

    Compatibility is a moot point as it works both ways, but I haven't found it to be perfect by any means working in either direction or indeed between different versions of MS Office..
    Most office packages will open files created in others but whether they'll look the same is another matter.

    This sounds like a fairly niche exploit since it relies on using Word to preview emails via Outlook. Not a huge issue for most users.
     
    Last edited: 25 Mar 2014
    wolfticket, 25 Mar 2014
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  10. theshadow2001

    theshadow2001 [DELETE] means [DELETE]

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    Compatibility is ok not brilliant. I reckon most users Professional or otherwise would be fine with what Libre office offers. But they use ms office at work so they use it at home.

    Certainly I'll never buy office off of ms when Libre office us around.
     
    theshadow2001, 25 Mar 2014
    #10
  11. Umbra

    Umbra What's a Dremel?

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    I'm sure it is and I'm not disputing that but I'm too tight to buy software that I don't use that much especially if a free open source program does what I want :D
     
    Umbra, 25 Mar 2014
    #11
  12. Alecto

    Alecto Minimodder

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    Why would this be an issue? Microsoft Office is incompatible with different versions of itself so anybody locked into M$ Office ecosystem (either by foolish personal choice or by company decision) is already familiar with formatting getting lost when sending stuff around. Don't want your documents to get all messed up? Don't use M$ Office.
     
    Alecto, 26 Mar 2014
    #12
  13. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Why wasn't it Microsoft's fault? It certainly sounds like it was as much Microsoft's fault as OpenOffice's fault.

    Tell you what, let's get scientific here. You make a file in Word, save it as DocX, and send it to me. Then post a screenshot of Word displaying said file in this 'ere thread. I'll download the file, open it in LibreOffice, and post a screenshot of the same file - and we'll see how good the compatibility really is.

    You up for that, Snips?
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 26 Mar 2014
    #13
  14. Snips

    Snips I can do dat, giz a job

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    How about you send me the file, since that's the major issue I've had with "open" Office.

    "The majority of the business world is using Microsoft Office, if you make an open version, at the very least get it to be compatible with the major player."

    I also said that but you cut it from the quote.
     
    Snips, 26 Mar 2014
    #14
  15. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    No need for the scare quotes, Snips; OpenOffice is open. Would you like a copy of the source code?

    Here's a file created in LibreOffice and saved as .DocX (although I can provide the ODT version, if you've got a copy of Office new enough to support the Open Document Format), and here's what it should look like:

    [​IMG]​

    (Text courtesy Picksum Ipsum.)
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 26 Mar 2014
    #15
  16. Snips

    Snips I can do dat, giz a job

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    Yep, that file works fine Gareth. Is that to Microsoft's credit then?
     
    Snips, 26 Mar 2014
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  17. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    No, that's all on the LibreOffice devs; as far as Microsoft Office is concerned, that's a native DocX file. Now, if you want to paint Microsoft in a good light, try it again with the Open Document Format version. If Office loads that without corruption, then yes; that would be to Microsoft's credit. (It should, by the way; as far as I'm aware, ODT support in the latest Office is pretty solid.)
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 26 Mar 2014
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  18. Snips

    Snips I can do dat, giz a job

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    Yep, on this device it's only using Office 2007 and it works fine. So is that to Microsoft's credit?
     
    Snips, 26 Mar 2014
    #18
  19. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Absolutely it is, yes. So, we're agreed: compatibility, at least for word processor documents, between LibreOffice and Microsoft Office is fine these days. Huzzah!

    Which means, of course, that this:
    has come to pass; the LibreOffice team did "get it to be compatible with the major player." Not bad for a freebie, hey?
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 26 Mar 2014
    #19
  20. theshadow2001

    theshadow2001 [DELETE] means [DELETE]

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    My only major complaint with Libre office writer is the image scaling tool is rubbish. If that was on par with Word it would be superdeeduperdy
     
    theshadow2001, 26 Mar 2014
    #20
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