The World of Windows

In early June we told you about public availability of libmspub — a library for reading Microsoft Publisher files and converting them to OpenDocument and SVG. It's time for an update. Work on this library, including reverse engineering of PUB files, is a Google Summer of Code 2012 project. Brennan Vincent is the primary developer and GSoC student who is mentored by Fridrich Štrba (LibreOffice) and Valek Filippov (re-lab). There will be certain issues with the built-in SVG converter that are easy to predict. First of all, SVG doesn't yet have pagination, and according to Tavmjong Bah, an Inkscape's representative in the W3C SVG working group, it's a low priority feature at this point. SVG also doesn't have a notion of linked text frames, albeit this could be solved thanks to recent Adobe's work on CSS. And then there is the whole sad story of flowed text in SVG. The example below is a good illustration of that, because contrary to that LibreOffice r...

When we began planning how touch and new types of PCs might work on Windows 8, we recognized the need to provide an effective method for text entry on tablets and other touch screen PCs. Since Windows XP SP1, which had Tablet PC features built in, Windows has included a touchable on-screen keyboard. But those features were designed as extensions to the desktop experience.  For Windows 8, we set out to improve on that model and introduce text input support that meets people’s needs, matches our design principles, and works well with the form factors we see today and expect to see in the future. I’m writing this blog post on our Windows 8 touch keyboard using the standard QWERTY layout in English. As I look at it, the keyboard seems very simple and sort of obvious. This comes partly from having worked on it for a while, but also because keyboards are familiar to us. But there is more here than meets the eye (or, fingertips). We started planning this feature area with no preco...

Reading Microsoft Publisher documents with LibreOffice Draw has just become available thanks to Google Summer of Code program. Fridrich Strba officially announced public availability of libmspub, a free library for reading and converting MS Publisher documents. The code will be first used in LibreOffice 3.7. So far the library is capable of reading v2003+ files with bitmaps, basic text formatting features (typeface, font size and color), shapes with fills. Here is an example from stocklayouts.com opened with LibreOffice Draw: There will be certain issues with the built-in SVG converter that are easy to predict. First of all, SVG doesn't yet have pagination, and according to Tavmjong Bah, an Inkscape's representative in the W3C SVG working group, it's a low priority feature at this point. SVG also doesn't have a notion of linked text frames, albeit this could be solved thanks to recent Adobe's work on CSS. And then there is the whole sad story of flowed ...

With Windows 8, Microsoft has created an operating system that is, at least in part, genuinely usable with nothing more than fingers. While it took the company a long time to recognize that finger-based touch systems were more approachable than stylus-based ones, and that touch-based software needed to be designed to accommodate the imprecision that fingers imply, Microsoft has its finger-based platform at last with the new Metro-style interface and new Metro-style applications. Office 2013, however, isn't a new Metro-style application. Instead, the suite contains two Metro-style Office apps: a new OneNote client (that will work alongside a regular desktop version) and a Lync client. Everything else is a desktop application, which poses a problem. Office is an important product for Microsoft and makes up a significant part of the Windows 8 sales pitch. Windows RT, the ARM variant of Windows 8 that will be used on the company's Surface tablets , will ship with Word, Excel, Pow...

Three years ago I was lucky to join the Windows Phone team at a time when we were “resetting” our approach to mobile operating system software. We made big changes to our design, our approach to partners, and our platform. The result was Windows Phone 7. Now it’s time to start telling you about the next exciting chapter of our story: Windows Phone 8. Officially announced this morning in San Francisco, it’s the most advanced mobile OS Microsoft has ever made and will arrive on new phones later this year. Many of Windows Phone 8’s new capabilities come from a surprising source: Windows, the most successful and powerful operating system on the planet, and one used by more than a billion people. Yes, you read that right: Windows Phone 8 is based on the same core technologies that power Windows 8. As a result, Windows Phone 8 will unleash a new wave of features for consumers, developers, and businesses. Today I’ll give you a high-level sneak peek at the Windows Phone 8 platform and tell ...