XPS Viewers

I’ve seen several comments and questions about viewers for XPS – even some articles that have said that XPS won’t be successful because it only works on Windows platforms!  <sigh> so hard to keep people from making stuff up to create interesting stories about XPS.  That was one of my motivations to write my earlier blog entry about XPS being cross platform.

 

On the issue of viewers, I thought it would be a good idea to set the record straight on what we are doing here in Building 2 about viewer support across different platforms.  1st – we are building a viewer on top of Windows Presentation Foundation.  This viewer is supported on all platforms that WPF is supported: 
Vista, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.  The viewer is integrated into IE, supports viewing XPS documents (really), searching text, read/write digital signatures and read/restrict with RMS.  This viewer is  built on WPF which makes it a good reference for how to render an XPS document correctly.  Our goal is to make the specification unambiguous enough that you won’t have to go to the platform to determine how to render correctly – but in the case the situation comes up, this viewer is the appropriate one to look at.

 

Download the WinFX Runtime Components September CTP to experiment with the integrated viewer and give Microsoft some informed feedback.  Here’s a latest screen-shot of this viewer:

 

 

Other Windows Vewers

We are currently working on a simple stand-alone viewer (not integrated into IE) that will also be supported from
Vista through Windows 2000.  Currently this viewer will not support RM and Digital Signatures, but it may in the future.  Sorry – have to be a bit cagey on the ship date right now until our plans get more solid.

 

Other Platform Viewers

We are planning on having viewers that support Mac and Unix—cross platform support is a critical part of the XPS story.  I also know that there are several third-parties looking at building solutions for other platforms – so potentially the market will deliver something on its own, which would be great. 

We are kicking around the idea of having a contest and giving out prizes for the best Mac/Unix-Linux/other-platform viewer. I’d love to hear your thoughts on what would help motivate people to create viewers on their favorite platform.

 

So short story;

 - Windows
Vista through Windows 2000 > Yes

 - Mac, Unix, Linux > Yes, but post-Vista launch.

 - Think you can build a better viewer than Microsoft? > Go for it!

Save as XPS in Office “12”

Recently, I have had a number of questions on this and I am happy to confirm that Office “12” will support a native Save as XPS feature in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, Visio, OneNote and InfoPath. This, of course, raises a whole bunch of additional questions for me to answer: -          What’s XPS? -          Why would I want to use XPS? -          Isn’t Windows already doing this? -          How does this relate to the Save as PDF feature? -          How do I view an XPS document? I’ll take these in order, but first, a picture (from a current build of Word): What is XPS? XPS, or the XML Paper Specification, is Microsoft’s new electronic paper format for exchanging documents in their final forms. This Office feature provides a one-way export from Office client applications to an application- and platform-independent, paginated format. More information on XPS is available on Andy Simonds’ blog and at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/. Unlike the Office Open XML Formats, XPS does not attempt to capture the full structured richness of an Office document. As an electronic paper format, it is all about a high fidelity representation of the output only. Because of this, creation of an XPS document from Office is a one-way, export operation. Why ? XPS is an electronic paper format built around the same Open Packaging Conventions document structure as the new Office file formats. This means a Zip container and XML content. (Brian Jones writes lots on Office’s use of the Open Packaging Conventions.) As such it plays well with other technologies like Microsoft Information Rights Management (IRM) and is open to developers to read and write, using APIs in the Windows Presentation Foundation or any other tools capable of working with XML and Zip. This openness makes XPS convenient for a range of scenarios in which it is useful to inspect or modify the contents of the “paper” programmatically. How does this relate to the XPS print driver? The Windows Digital Documents team is delivering a print driver with Windows Presentation Foundation that will enable all applications that can print to create XPS files. The support for XPS output in Office “12” goes beyond what is typically passed to a printer, including the supporting information to enable, for example, working hyperlinks, searching, efficient representation of transparency and gradients, accessible documents, and document rights when the source document has restricted IRM rights. So Office is supporting two electronic paper output formats? Yes. We think choice is a good thing. How do I view an XPS document? With an XPS Viewer, of course. You likely don’t have one of these yet, (unless you have the Windows Presentation Foundation September CTP) but Microsoft is committed to delivering viewers for Windows Vista and downlevel versions of Windows, with Windows Presentation Foundation, and directly or through partners, for a range of other platforms. Of course, if you don’t like any of these viewers, the format is open and documented and you could always write your own. Watch this space. I’ll be writing more here about XPS, and Office electronic paper output in general, in coming weeks.

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TechSoup Stock New Product Alert – May 2007

This month, I am pleased to announce two new donated products at TechSoup Stock – Symantec’s new Norton 360 security suite and Business Objects’ crystalreports.com report-sharing service.

 

Mark May 23 on your calendar! TechSoup Stock and GrantStation will offer a special one-day discount

(http://ga0.org/ct/npLRaAn1F4WL/) on a GrantStation membership, which is designed to help you boost fundraising efforts. This offer is now available for U.S. and Canadian public libraries, in addition to nonprofit organizations. If you have nonprofit colleagues that could benefit from this special offer, please forward this information to them.

 

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SYMANTEC NORTON 360 — NEW

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Symantec’s newest security suite, Norton 360, keeps your PC and data secure. Norton 360 is a comprehensive solution that combines Symantec’s proven security and PC tune-up technologies with new automated backup and anti-phishing features, providing a full circle of protection.

 

Norton 360 is available on TechSoup Stock for administrative fees of $15 to $24 (compared to retail values from $70 to $240), thanks to a generous donation from Symantec. Norton 360 comes in packages of 3, 15, and 30 user licenses.

 

Learn more about this product and place your request:

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ELIGIBILITY: U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofits, Canadian Registered Charities, and U.S. 501(c)(3) libraries

 

Browse all Symantec products and learn more about Symantec donation programs here:

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Review the Symantec donation program restrictions:

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GRANTSTATION SPECIAL EVENT: MAY 23

============================================

Boost your fundraising efforts with GrantStation! For only 10 hours on May 23, specially discounted one-year GrantStation memberships will be available to eligible nonprofits and public libraries for only $99, thanks to an extra-generous discount offered by GrantStation. This offer will be open from 7 a.m. to

5 p.m. Pacific time (10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time) on May 23; after 5 p.m., our usual administrative fee of $399 will apply.

Organizations may renew their existing memberships with this special offer.

 

GrantStation membership includes:

o Access to online resources that will help you identify potential grantmakers for any given program or project at your nonprofit or public library.

o Easy online access: you do not need to download or install any software to use GrantStation.

o Online tutorials on how to write compelling letters of inquiry and grant requests.

o An informative weekly bulletin, The GrantStation Insider.

 

Visit TechSoup Stock and place your request on May 23 (7 a.m. to

5 p.m. Pacific time)!

 

Learn more about this special offer and GrantStation:

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UPDATE: U.S. and Canadian public libraries are now eligible for the GrantStation program!

 

ELIGIBILITY: U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofits and Canadian Registered Charities; U.S. and Canadian public libraries. View eligibility

restrictions:

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CRYSTALREPORTS.COM PROFESSIONAL EDITION

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New at TechSoup Stock, the crystalreports.com report-sharing service allows organizations to instantly share crucial information via the Web. Organizations can make their reports available for up to 10 people to view on the Web from anywhere in the world, whether or not they have Crystal Reports installed on their computers. Besides Crystal Reports and Crystal Xcelsius, information can also be shared in PDF, Excel, and Word formats. NOTE: the Starter Edition of crystalreports.com is included with any Crystal Reports XI product.

 

This product is available at TechSoup Stock for an admin fee of

$85 (compared to a retail value of $3,600), thanks to a generous donation from Business Objects. Learn more and place a product donation request:

http://ga0.org/ct/h7LRaAn1F4W1/

 

Learn about all donated products from Business Objects:

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Ask your questions about Crystal Reports in this forum:

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SPECIAL TECHSOUP EVENT — DISASTER PLANNING ============================================

Join us on TechSoup from May 9-11 for a free, three-day online event at: http://ga0.org/ct/y7LRaAn1F4OK/

 

Is IT the only thing you should consider when preparing for a disaster? How should you budget for disasters and planning?

 

Join us as we discuss these and other questions at TechSoup’s Disaster Planning and Recovery online event. You will learn how to create a disaster-preparedness plan and what you can do to recover from a disaster. This asynchronous event will be hosted and moderated by Don Cameron, a board member of the Sahana Project, and Kevin Lo, an analyst with TechSoup’s Healthy and Secure Computing program. We hope to see you there.

 

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TAKE A TECHSOUP SURVEY!

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We would like to learn how you use TechSoup’s full range of services so that we can serve you better. Take the “How You Use TechSoup” survey to enter a drawing to win an iPod Shuffle or an Amazon gift certificate.

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If you have questions about our donation programs that were not addressed by this email or the program pages on our web site, please feel free to contact our Customer Service Department via email at newproducts@techsoup.org or call us at 1-800-659-3579, extension 700. TechSoup Stock Customer Service is available Monday-Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific time. In addition, you can get answers to your questions at our online Email and Answer Center at http://ga0.org/ct/hdLRaAn1F4OC/.

 

Sincerely,

 

Rebecca Masisak

Vice President and General Manager

 

TechSoup Stock

Bringing technology donations to nonprofits http://www.techsoup.org/stock