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Ask HN: “Git” for Microsoft Office?

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

#101
post #96

Use sharepoint, office365, and Teams. It versions, it supports collaborative editing, no more mailing things around, and so on.

This is the correct answer, both Office 365 and SharePoint natively version documents. It is the closest built-in thing you will get to Git for Office

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

#104
You should take a look at libreoffice collaborative feature, with the basic "track changes"[0] settings.

You can even work with multiple users as the same times (for example when opening files via webdav with nextcloud, or any other way to share your data) !

Edit: There's some recommendations on versionning odt files by using .fodt extension [1].

[0] https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Track_changes

[1] https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Libreoffice_and_subversi...

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

#105

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 distinc…

Is this implemented as a git plugin?

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

#106

Is there anything out there, capable of working with MSOffice stuff in a granular and collaborative way? No, but people seem to get work done anyway. It's very strange to me. My current and previous jobs are very corporate, so much of the business and IT uses Office products all the time. I somehow managed to set the standard that I don't do it that way. I still have to sometimes, but it's not very often. The key is…

We used to get work done anyway by sending around zips of the whole repository, but we changed our ways because we had the technical skills to do it. MSOffice users will never be able to write a VCS for documents so they're stuck with whatever the software vendor provides

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

#107

Is there anything out there, capable of working with MSOffice stuff in a granular and collaborative way? No, but people seem to get work done anyway. It's very strange to me. My current and previous jobs are very corporate, so much of the business and IT uses Office products all the time. I somehow managed to set the standard that I don't do it that way. I still have to sometimes, but it's not very often. The key is…

You must be a blast to interact with socially.

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

#108
post #76

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…

Or even just OneDrive -- SharePoint isn't strictly necessary anymore.

OneDrive is a client and api grafted on top of sharepoint. It's all sharepoint under the hood.

You also dont need to use OneDrive to sync SharePoint, you can use the File > Open menu to open in Word, Excel, PowerPoint to open files directly.

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

#109
post #73
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, our Sharepoint implementation is "in progress", so $deity knows when we'll be able to use this consistently... Thanks anyway, I guess it's my only option.

Does this somehow prevent you from using Groups/Teams? >if the same slide is present in 15 Powerpoint decks any edit will require tons of mindless and error-prone copypasting This is exactly what you want SharePoint for. Have 15 people open the same PowerPoint deck, in desktop PowerPoint, editing the file simultaneously. It's fully versioned and you have no merging of files back together.

15 people opening the same deck is not the same as 15 people opening 15 different decks that have just one slide in common.
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