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Ask HN: “Git” for Microsoft Office?

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Re: Ask HN: “Git” for Microsoft Office?

#31

Post by prepend »

theshrike79 wrote: post #5

O365 has had live editing for a while now[1], it's not even that hard to use. You can have that Golden Version and everyone can suggest changes and edits, then the document owner can accept or decline the edits. [1]: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Collaborate-on-Word...

I find if I enable edit permissions, people can do more than suggest changes, they can make them. An editor can turn off tracking, that has to be done frequently to fix formatting and layout issues, and changes aren’t visibly tracked.

I wish there was a “pull request” for office with a permission that allowed suggestions but not edits.

Re: Ask HN: “Git” for Microsoft Office?

#32

Post by globular-toast »

One thing I did to make this hell more tolerable is I would write all my documents in org-mode (markdown) and use Pandoc to convert to MS Word format for distribution. My Word documents actually looked better than everyone else's. I was still able to use git to control the source of the documents.

Less than a year later I left that job. I'd rather learn a trade than be paid to use MS Office.

Re: Ask HN: “Git” for Microsoft Office?

#33

Post by amaajemyfren »

arethuza wrote: post #19
jedieaston wrote: post #7

Technically, tracked changes and SharePoint. But in practice, you’d rather send the changes to the project owner via carrier pigeon. I’ve looked into what it would take to make a git style system for docx (since it’s just zipped XML, right :D), and the file format was a nightmare whenever an edit was made. Someone smart should take a look at it, as there would be a massive market for a DVCS for Office files. Imagine…

My wife is a laywer and she and her colleagues (and the other lawyers they are working with) pretty much base their workflow for revising documents on track changes. I've never heard her complain about it.

Maybe she is used to it? I have used track changes and it is good and all ... but it may not be exactly the same as being able to know where and when a change was done, by whom, and with the reasoning sometimes added with it that comes from VCSs like SVN and GIT.

Re: Ask HN: “Git” for Microsoft Office?

#34

Post by prepend »

jedieaston wrote: post #7

Technically, tracked changes and SharePoint. But in practice, you’d rather send the changes to the project owner via carrier pigeon. I’ve looked into what it would take to make a git style system for docx (since it’s just zipped XML, right :D), and the file format was a nightmare whenever an edit was made. Someone smart should take a look at it, as there would be a massive market for a DVCS for Office files. Imagine…

Not laws, but some US gov tech strategies and policies are tracked and edited in GitHub. It looks like it’s not the literal authors making changes, but someone is making changes to markdown documents.

For example, the Federal Data Strategy, https://strategy.data.gov/overview/, is created from https://github.com/GSA/data-strategy

It’s been nice to follow updates and the specific changes using git diffs.

Re: Ask HN: “Git” for Microsoft Office?

#35

Post by yspeak »

Nongeeks haven't been living with this. They (mostly lawyers) use document management version control systems like iManage ( https://imanage.com/product/document-email-management/) and professional comparison software like Workshare Compare https://www.litera.com/products/legal/workshare-compare/ (orders of magnitude better than tracked changes in Word though Word has gotten better over the years).

Re: Ask HN: “Git” for Microsoft Office?

#36

Post by gspr »

saurik wrote: post #23
i0nutzb wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Docx & co are XML based, but they are _zipped_, therefore binary. Which make a version control pretty much impossible.

I mean, git supports applying filters on the file for exactly this purpose? The content that is being compressed is likely going to still diff poorly, but git also supports custom differs for example that purpose, so I don't know why you are saying "impossible".

> I mean, git supports applying filters on the file for exactly this purpose?

Indeed, pass (https://www.passwordstore.org/) uses this to allow diffing and sane tracking of its password files, even though they are binary encrypted GPG blobs.

Re: Ask HN: “Git” for Microsoft Office?

#37

Post by MikusR »

arethuza wrote: post #15
tiffanyh wrote: post #11

I assume you’re not using the online version of Office 365. It’s collaboration capabilities are better than most people give it credit for.

Collaborative editing is supported by the desktop apps as well - I use it in Word a lot and it works pretty well. Your document has to hosted in SP online though.

Or Onedrive.

Re: Ask HN: “Git” for Microsoft Office?

#39

Post by delcaran »

If you use svn or git to track your files, both TortoiseSVN and TortoiseGIT when asked to compare two files (ie, "diff from last revision) will spawn the version manager integrated in office.

Is not perfect but it works.

Tested with TortoiseSVN 1.11.1, TortoiseGIT 2.10.0.2, MS Office 2010 on docx documents.

Re: Ask HN: “Git” for Microsoft Office?

#40

Post by jandinter »

Working on it: https://julesdocs.com

It’s very hard though, because the files combine data and styling. Plus, the data is spread over several XML files.

If you want to message me: jan at the domain above

Edit: While Google Docs, Office365 and other collaborative editors are great for editing a document at the same time, from my point of view the real power of Git is branching, merging, and having a concept of distinct versions (which may consist of several files).

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