[Solved] Is OpenOffice 100% compatible with MS Office?

[acknak]

As I hear it, many companies use special software for managing incoming resumes (filing, searching for keywords, etc.) and the software only accepts MS Office documents because "that's what everyone uses." Even worse, the software may reject documents not produced by MS Office itself, even though the document is "compatible" with the .doc format.

I agree that that approach is a sign that the company doesn't really know what they're doing, but not many people have the luxury of restricting their job search to companies with competent IT & HR departments.

[firmepaza]

In Romania there are 2 main sites for jobs and both of them offer the posibility to save/view/export the resume also in pdf format. I think that users of an job site should have the posibility to choose in what tipe of file their resume sould be exported or downloaded.

[Paxwax]

Just want to say that The Ghurka's reminder 'Make sure the 'Automatic file name extension' option is checked.' when confirming a Word document, has made an enormous difference to me. I was going in circles trying to establish a Word document. So easy to forget. So important. Many thanks.

[LukeFlyswatter]

I am a wood restoration contractor in Jacksonville, FL. and I use an estimating software for my business which outputs in MS Word format. The program is a little dated, but it suits my purposes just fine. I would like to use open office instead of MS word, because I try to stay away from MS products as much as humanly possible, while still being able to function! I was turned on to open office by a friend about six months ago, and I really like it, but I'm just learning it.

The estimating software I use outputs the estimates and contracts in .rtf format, and it seems to open fine with open office, so comparability seems ok.

I didn't want to start a new thread for this, but once I'm done editing, what is the best format to save files in, so that my customers have an easy time opening them? I have run into problems with some (not so computer savvy) customers not being able to open my estimates when they are saved as .rtf.

The estimates have a logo .bmp and some formatting I don't want to lose. I don't want to convert them to nothing but text files, because I lose that presentation. What would you gurus recommend I do? Should I make these into pdf as mentioned above, and completely avoid compatibility with MS word, or the like? How would I go about it? I don't know everything about this software yet.

[RoryOF]

PDF is best, with secondly .DOC.

[FJCC]

A big advantage of the PDF format is that it will be much more difficult for your customers to edit the document. I assume you just want them to read the estimate, not change it. As for how to create a PDF, there is a button for that on the main tool bar, it is the 6th from the left on my system. You can also do it from the menu File -> Export as PDF

[acknak]

... once I'm done editing, what is the best format to save files in, so that my customers have an easy time opening them? ...

Here's how I'd handle it.

First, don't open the rtf files directly. Keep them untouched, as backups, in case something goes wrong.

Instead, do File > New > Text Document, then do Insert > File and choose your rtf file. That two-step procedure will preserve the content and formatting of the rtf but give you a document in OOo's native, best working format, ODF. You can then File > Save your edited document as ODF (.odt), without writing over the original rtf version.

For customers, as long as they don't need to change the file (right?), I would send a pdf. I can't remember ever running into someone who couldn't open a pdf, and it will preserve all your formatting, even if you use some fonts they don't have. .doc or .rtf are just asking for trouble.

[Kleptoma]

I was trying to convert my word doc from MS office to an rtf file. Is there any simple way of doing so?

[RoryOF]

Try Wordpad, which comes with Windows. OpenOffice support for rtf is not good.

[Bill]

I was trying to convert my word doc from MS office to an rtf file. Is there any simple way of doing so?

Have you tried opening the file with Writer and saving as an RTF file? Were the results inadequate?

Try Wordpad, which comes with Windows. OpenOffice support for rtf is not good.

That might work for Wordpad in XP or older versions of Windows. Support for opening DOC files was dropped for Wordpad in Vista.

[kingfisher]

In my version, there is an option to save a document in RTF format.

[kimdep]

[/quote]

Could you dumb it down a little please? I am not very computer literate. When I email my resume, created in Open Office, it opens as jibberish on the other end. I sent it to a friend with a Mac, and she could open it. What do I need to do so that potential employers can open my resume, if I don't know what system they are using? Thank you

Send it as a PDF. Anyone can open it then, on any machine. There is a PDF button right next to the print icon on the toolbar.

If they want to open it and edit it, then you need toknow what they are going to open it with. If it is OOo then you don't need to do anything. If is is Word then you need to have saved it in Word format, so that Word can understand it.

File > Save As and select 'Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP' from the 'Save as type' dropdown menu. Make sure the 'Automatic file name extension' option is checked.

It is always safer to work in the native OOo formats (.odt and .ods etc) and then use Save As to save a copy in .doc or .xls format if you need to distribute it in MS Office formats. But always then go back to the native OOo version to continue working. If the people you are sending to do not need to edit the files then it is best to send them a PDF as then no matter what office suite they use it will be possible for them to read and print the files.

When I save my OO and try to convert to MS Office, it won't let me. It makes me save it in Odf (odt). But then when I send it to someone, it will not open on the other end in MS Office. What is the problem? I am frustrated!

[RoryOF]

[When I save my OO and try to convert to MS Office, it won't let me. It makes me save it in Odf (odt). But then when I send it to someone, it will not open on the other end in MS Office. What is the problem? I am frustrated!

How does it make you save in .odt format? If you drop down the type selector on the Save As screen and select MS Office 07/2000/XP format, with "automatic file name extension" checked, it will give you a warning that some forating may be lost. This is only a warning - you can accept its advice or not, as you choose.

[Villeroy]

But then when I send it to someone, it will not open on the other end in MS Office. What is the problem? I am frustrated!

File>Send>Send as PDF

[Harshit]

I am using MS Office for making documents which includes headers and footers and size of the document goes upto 200 pages. Now when i open the same document in Open Office the page borders goes up and surrounds all header and footer. Is there any solution that if i open the document in Open Office the page border could be set below the headers??

Same way is there any provision in Open Office to go in next section of header with a click ?

[Villeroy]

Export from WinWord to .doc and try that format. The new .docx format is too complex and too new.

[Bill]

Your version of OOo is obsolete. If the problem is due to a bug, it may have been fixed in a newer version.

[Harshit]

Dear Villeroy i am using .doc formats only for my documents in one of the PC and open office in other PC. Then also i am facing problems with formatting in Open office.

[RoryOF]

As the filters for .doc formats have been reverse engineered it is likely that OpenOffice will open such files with formatting differences to MS Office. Such differences show up usually with more complex formatting, including headers/footers/ comments and tables. If formatting is required to be invariant at editing level between computers it is best to use only the same program and the same font selection, working in that program's native format.

[Harshit]

Thanks a lot RoryOF.

[MurrayScott]

I have no trouble with OpenOffice compatibility with Microsoft files but I frequently get email attachments carrying the".doc" extension that OpenOffice assumes are MS Word 97 format, then raises an error message saying "the file is corrupt and cannot be opened". Picking through such files with Notepad I found the characters "XML" and thus tried renaming with a ".docx" extension, following which OpenOffice opened them correctly.

We cannot complain about Microsoft having adopted an XML standard, but recent versions of MS Word do not appear to (always) label these as .docx files. To access these email attachments I have to find the file in the "attach" folder, rename it with a .docx extension (thus confusing its association with the incoming email) after which OpenOffice happily opens it. This is a tedious process and having to do it several times a day gets my goat. I use an old version of the Eudora email program but that does not seem to be the problem as files which do arrive with the .docx extension appear as such and are opened by OpenOffice correctly.

Since MS Word seems to use the .doc extension ambiguously, could future revsions of OpenOffice help us out by recognising that ambiguity, trying to interpret ".doc" files in either Word 97 or later XML formats?

[Hagar Delest]

Rather strange. Have not tried on Windows but I think that the extension doesn't matter if AOO is launched, it should open the file.
If even MS Office doesn't know when applying the correct extension, that's rather difficult to correct AOO POV.
Have you tried with AOO 3.4.1?

[Villeroy]

Picking through such files with Notepad I found the characters "XML" and thus tried renaming with a ".docx" extension, following which OpenOffice opened them correctly.

After 20 years of wide spread personal computing, far too many users still have no clue about files. I'm 90% sure that somebody renamed a docx file to doc and attached it to the email.

[acknak]

Rather strange. Have not tried on Windows but I think that the extension doesn't matter if AOO is launched, it should open the file.
If even MS Office doesn't know when applying the correct extension, that's rather difficult to correct AOO POV.
Have you tried with AOO 3.4.1?

No, the poster's report is accurate. I just renamed a docx file and tried to open it from AOO 3.4.1: all you get is the "document corrupted" window, and then a "nope can't do it" window if you ask to have it repaired.

If I select the correct file type, then the document opens properly.

My guess is that this is because the OOXML support is still new and somewhat in flux.

[Tauiliili]

I have emailed myself a document saved in Openoffice and I cannot open it at work. There is only MS 2003 at my work, how can I convert the document?? I do not have access to download openoffice on my work computer. PLEASE HELP!

[Hagar Delest]

You can try an online converter like zamzar.com.
Next time, export as .doc (but remember that the import/export filters were reverse engineered).

[Villeroy]

A plug-in for MS Office 2003: http://sun-odf-plugin.soft-ware.net/download.asp

[camel]

Next time, export as .doc (but remember that the import/export filters were reverse engineered).

Is that bad that they are reverse engineered (not recommended)?
So far I have always exported/imported, but more than once I got a strange error message.
I always thought exporting/importing was more reliable than online converters but I am no authority in the matter...

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[floris v]

Is that bad that they are reverse engineered (not recommended)?
So far I have always exported/imported, but more than once I got a strange error message.
I always thought exporting/importing was more reliable than online converters but I am no authority in the matter

Reverse engineering means that the filters were written based on analyses of existing documents, not on the documentation of the file structure. It's not the best way of doing things, but if the documentation of the file structure is not available or so unreadable that it might just as well not be available, it's the next best thing.

[Villeroy]

Why are the Microsoft Office file formats so complicated? (And some workarounds)
In short: For technical/economical reasons there can not be any application doing the same as MS Office without being MS Office or a very close clone of it. So install and use MS Office if you really need to work with MS Office file formats.