Use a more widely known document format (.docx, .odt…) instead of .protondoc
I recently tried to edit a document offline with OnlyOffice from my Proton Drive folder (synced with my account), and to my surprise I found that the document wasn’t supported because its format was .protondoc !
Moreover, when I save a Word document as .docx on my computer and then edit it online, a second document is created in the .protondoc format, and again it can’t be edited with OnlyOffice because the format isn’t recognized !
Why doesn’t Proton use a more common format? Is this a constraint of end‑to‑end encryption?
Anonymous
shared this idea
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Daniel
commented
Proton recently posted on Reddit sharing its future roadmap:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonDrive/comments/1w77ee6/docs_sheets_whats_coming_before_2027/?solution=5478a09b40441a2f5478a09b40441a2f&js_challenge=1&jsc_token=2824be10929bdc604753c70a67a1c331e5750d8120518a8340ce9fb5e4634294&jsc_orig_r=&share_id=xu7j0R5zKn-YJuQf8JbZO&utm_content=share_button&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1From the Reddit post:
"Docs: ODT import/exporttired of proprietary Microslop Office formats? suffer no longer!
open document format support is coming to Docs."
How is proprietary .protondoc any different than Microslop here? Import and export is very good. But we need native support out of the box for every document of choice, and not yet another propietary fileformat no-one asked for.
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Daniel
commented
This is a very important feature request. If Protons office suite is to be relevant and taken serious in discussions regarding digital sovereighnty, they must embrace open formats, and not creating a new lock-in within their own ecosystem.
Related issue covering import and export is an important addition, since it adds the support for these formats: https://protonmail.uservoice.com/forums/932839-proton-drive/suggestions/48607370-proton-docs-import-export-odt
However, import / export is not the same as native edit support for ODF file firmats (including, ODT, ODS etc).
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Henri van der Merwe
commented
Google and Microsoft should have taught us that proprietary formats are a problem.
I will not move to an environment that does not natively let me edit files that are in a format compatible with multiple platforms - ie Open Document Format.... -
Erik
commented
.odt should be the default document format. I am not sure what the idea behind the .protondoc format was. Exporting to docx is a useful feature. The perfect solution would be the one that Microsoft Onedrive has (the user can chose default file format (DOCX or ODT) when creating new docucuments).