MS Word to OO Writer

[Riki]

Is there a simple way to convert Microsoft Word to Open Office Writer. A friend of mine was writing a story with Word but no longer has Microsoft Office and would now like to continue with OO Writer. Any tips?

[fraxinus]

OO Writer will open and edit any .doc or .docx files that (s)he has. What your friend sees in OO will be very similar to Word 2000 or 2003. There are some differences in menu layouts and options, but it is easy enough to get started.

Your friend can then choose either to go on saving files as .doc or to save them using Writer's native .odf format. I myself would like to go over to .odf but I stick with .doc as my default in OO Writer, as I am constantly exchanging files with Word users.

[Riki]

Fraxinus, I omitted to mention that he is running Vista with OOo. He refuses to pay M$ for M$ Word.

[T6]

same applies but not sure if openoffice can handle in windows properly docx, the 3.2 version supposedly does it very well but i haven't tested it

in the microsoft website you can find a microsoft office 2007 converter, it converts from docx to doc, also ppt and xls between other formats

the conversion is not perfect but is very good

[Meemaw]

same applies but not sure if openoffice can handle in windows properly docx, the 3.2 version supposedly does it very well but i haven't tested it

I got a new work computer with Win7 on it. I refused to make the boss pay for MSOffice and then not use it: I am using OO.... so far, I've had no trouble opening anything (and have been sent 2 or 3 docx files, which opened fine.)

I use OO, Firefox, Thunderbird, Gimp, Inkscape and Scribus. MS Works was free on the computer, but I've never used it.

Hope this helps....

 

[fraxinus]

Fraxinus, I omitted to mention that he is running Vista with OOo. He refuses to pay M$ for M$ Word.

My OO experience is almost entirely with Linux, Riki. However, I'd be surprised if the Windows versions behaved much different (although I know that many Linux distros, like ours, now package Novell's Go OO, which differs in some respects from the 'vanilla' versions from Sun).

My current install (3.1 from the repo here) seems to open .docx files fine - actually 2.4 did so as well.

The problem many of us have with opening docs created in Word 2007 is that Microsoft's default font for that version, Calibri, is not freely available to people who do not have Office 2007 apps. Therefore, those not using Word 2007 can struggle to get docs to appear in the way that they did to their creators. (Surely this is by design on MS's part - they want to 'encourage' users either to use Word 2007 or to shell out money for their shiny new font.)

If this is a problem, and if you have a Windows box or VM, you can get hold of Calibri and hack it onto your system by downloading MS's free PowerPoint viewer for Windows - Google will offer detailed instructions. I have not done this, however. Instead, I am trying to encourage my collaborators to use other fonts and avoid getting sucked into Microsoft's nasty plan.

[pinoc]

if he is on MS-Windows he can download the MS-Windows version of GO-OO which has better MS-compatibility than OO and he will also have less issues when switching to our OO in PCLinuxOS.
 

[Riki]

Thanks all for your input which should enable my friend to sort out matters. Appreciate your help.

[gilado]

how do i install it on pclos

[TerryH]

@Riki

If you use OOo and still want to retain compatibility with MS Word( or other MS products), you can change the default document type to save as '.doc'.  This helps when sharing documents to be also opened using MS Word.

In Open Office you go to Tools > Options... > Load/Save > General

Then from 'Document Type' drop down box select 'Text Document, then from the 'Always save as' Drop Down Box select which document type you want to use as default, i.e. Microsoft Word 97/2000/XPerent for later versions

I am currently using OOo 3.0.1, so the details shown here may be slightly different in later versions.

[pinoc]

how do i install it on pclos

look here

[Riki]

@Riki

If you use OOo and still want to retain compatibility with MS Word( or other MS products), you can change the default document type to save as '.doc'.  This helps when sharing documents to be also opened using MS Word.

In Open Office you go to Tools > Options... > Load/Save > General

Then from 'Document Type' drop down box select 'Text Document, then from the 'Always save as' Drop Down Box select which document type you want to use as default, i.e. Microsoft Word 97/2000/XPerent for later versions

I am currently using OOo 3.0.1, so the details shown here may be slightly different in later versions.

Thanks Terry. I am using 3.2 and it works fine with your instruction.