computer science

Uniform Office Format

Uniform Office Format is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Uniform Office Format rather than just read about it. In short: Uniform Office Format (UOF; Chinese: 标文通, lit. "standard text general"), sometimes known as Unified Office Format, is an open standard for office applications developed in China. It includes word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet modules, and is made up of GUI, API, and format specifications.

Key takeaways

Uniform Office Format belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Uniform Office Format to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Uniform Office Format from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Uniform Office Format (UOF; Chinese: 标文通, lit. "standard text general"), sometimes known as Unified Office Format, is an open standard for office applications developed in China. It includes word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet modules, and is made up of GUI, API, and format specifications. The document format described uses XML contained in a compressed file container, similar to OpenDocument and Office Open XML. 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 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 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.

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 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, Scott McNealy, the Chairman of Sun Microsystems called for a merger of OASIS/ISO'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 Archived 28 May 2018 at the Wayback Machine (GB / T 20916-2007 Chinese office file format specification) updated 1 September 2009 (Simplified Chinese) "Another Open Document Format – From China", Standards (World Wide Web log), Consortium info, 8 November 2006. "More on China's Uniform Office Format (and much more)", Standards (World Wide Web log), Consortium info, 22 November 2006. "RedOffice/OpenOffice in China", OOoCon (PDF) (presentation), OpenOffice.org, 2006, p. 35, archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2011, retrieved 8 November 2006.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Uniform Office Format

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Uniform Office Format claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Uniform Office Format before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Uniform Office Format ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Uniform Office Format

In research: Uniform Office Format appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Uniform Office Format in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Uniform Office Format is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Computer file formats, Document-centric XML-based standards, Markup languages, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Uniform Office Format outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Uniform Office Format in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Uniform Office Format means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Uniform Office Format out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Uniform Office Format in simple terms?

Why does Uniform Office Format matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Uniform Office Format?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Uniform Office Format.