Uniform Office Format (UOF; , "standard text general"), sometimes known as Unified Office Format, is an

open standard An open standard is a standard that is openly accessible and usable by anyone. It is also a common prerequisite that open standards use an open license that provides for extensibility. Typically, anybody can participate in their development due to ...

for

office An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform Business administration, administrative Work (human activity), work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a po ...

applications developed in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. It includes word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet modules, and is made up of GUI,

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

, and format specifications. The document format described uses

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...

contained in a compressed file container, similar to

OpenDocument The Open Document Format for Office Applications (ODF), also known as OpenDocument, standardized as ISO 26300, is an open file format for word processor, word processing documents, spreadsheets, Presentation program, presentations and ...

and

Office Open XML Office Open XML (also informally known as OOXML) is a zipped, XML-based file format developed by Microsoft for representing spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents. Ecma International standardized the initial version ...

. The working group that produced the standard was founded in January 2002, and the first draft of the specification was produced in December 2005.

Application support

Office suites

A number of applications list support for the Uniform Office Format; listed alphabetically they include: * EIOffice 2009 is said to be based on UOF. It uses binder files with

file extension File or filing may refer to: Mechanical tools and processes * File (tool), a tool used to remove fine amounts of material from a workpiece. ** Filing (metalworking), a material removal process in manufacturing ** Nail file, a tool used to gen ...

EIO (.eio). In the latest version 5.0.1272.101 it doesn't open or save files with extensions .uof, .uot, .uos or .uop. The documentation of EIOffice states it is possible to publish documents in "Unit Office Format (XML)" * OpenOffice.org and

LibreOffice LibreOffice () is a free and open-source office productivity software suite developed by The Document Foundation (TDF). It was created in 2010 as a fork of OpenOffice.org, itself a successor to StarOffice. The suite includes applications ...

from version 3 can open and save files in "Unified Office Format" with file extensions .uof, .uot, .uos, .uop (text, spreadsheet, presentation) (This also applies to version 3 of NeoOffice, a popular variant of OpenOffice for the Macintosh.). * RedOffice 4.0, a Chinese OpenOffice.org variant, can open and save files with file extension .uof. * WPS Office claims read and write support of UOF since 2009, including UOF 2.0.

Filters and converters

ODF to UOF

Software is available to convert from ODF to UOF and the other way round. The software was developed between November 2005 and October 2006 by the ''Open Standard Lab'' of

Peking University Peking University (PKU) is a Public university, public Types of universities and colleges in China#By designated academic emphasis, university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the Peop ...

OOXML to UOF

Software is being developed at ACT (The Institute of Advanced Computing Technology) at Beihang University to convert from OOXML to UOF and ''vice versa''.

Possibility of merging UOF and ODF

At the "

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland that regulates and facilitates international trade. Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that g ...

IPRs Issues in Standardization" conference in Beijing (April 2007), convened by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the China State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) and

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...

, Scott McNealy, the Chairman of Sun Microsystems called for a merger of

OASIS In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment ISO The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ; ; ) is an independent, non-governmental, international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Me ...

's ODF and China's UOF. While both formats are open, there are significant technical challenges in achieving a merger, as the two formats have made different fundamental choices in how to describe documents. A comparison document between ODF and UOF is available from the ODF-UOF project on SourceForge.

UOF 2.0

UOF 2.0 was released in 2011, with support from WPS Office.

References

External links

GB/T 20916-2007 中文办公软件文档格式规范
''(GB / T 20916-2007 Chinese office file format specification)'' updated 1 September 2009 (Simplified Chinese) * . * . * . {{Document markup languages Markup languages Document-centric XML-based standards Computer file formats Standards of the People's Republic of China