[Issue] Lotus Ami Pro/Word Pro support

[RoadTrip3500]

Are there plans to add Lotus file formats to Writer in the near future? Just as a test, I attempted to open a single-page Lotus Word Pro (v9.8) document in Writer 2.3 and it became 70 pages of hex. I would like to unload Lotus SmartSuite since it is no longer maintained, but I'd also like to avoid the "two-step" of having to convert all the Ami Pro and Word Pro files I have to RTF before OOo can open them.

[huw]

See issue 11215 & issue 33625. It seems it's neither simple nor imminent.

[RonIA]

Search the web for a mass convertor, one I found was FileMerlin (http://www.file-convert.com/fmn_ff.htm)

One thing to note is... Whatever you want to move to is going to require conversion at this point. Not too many things support that file format anymore.

[RoadTrip3500]

Thanks for the replies... looks like I'll be converting to RTF anyway. I have about 55 AP/WP documents still laying around, so I better get them converted before I think about uninstalling SmartSuite. Shame, because at the time, SmartSuite was less than half the price of MS Office, but OOo certainly has what I need now.

[danost]

Perhaps try going through MS Office first, then to OpenOffice

[Reevel]

StarOffice 7 had AmiPro filters and they worked quite well. But for some reason StarOffice 8 has not them any more. Frustrating as I already upgraded and there was no warnings about that (I was and still am AmiPro user and quite often need to convert .samfiles to .odt)

At the moment only word processor that has well working Amipro filters is Adobe FrameMaker. Also there is available some third party AmiPro converer for MS Word (works with Word 6-7-2000). Wordperfect's AmiPro filters suck.

Seems that StarOffice 8 Enterprise Edition still has all AmiPro filters.
http://se.sun.com/edu/pdf/so8-datasheet-051101.pdf

OK, Update: When installing StarOffice 8,to get additional import filters one must choose Custom install, and in the options window check Additional text import filters. By default it's not selected (marked by red cross)
At least with Staroffice 8 educational it gave FrameMaker mif, AmiPro Sam and many other import fillters.
Stupid thing that they are not a part of default setup configuration. Import filters are very small size anyway why not install them.

BTW, does anybody know how to get Staroffice file import-export filters to Openoffice?

[GWotton]

I'm suprised that IBM themselves are not interested in helping the conversion since they aren't producing a Vista version and have been involved with other projects like this before (their involvement with ODIN as an example). This is apparently an agreement with Microsoft who has punished IBM by delaying shipments of Windows ever since they aquired Lotus back in the late 90's. I was working for IBM then and they got me all hooked on superior software (like Lotus and Warp) and though I HAVE to run Windows I don't want to give up my Smartsuite any sooner than I have to. I've been considering migrating to OOo but since my existing materials will not conveniently convert there's little incentive. I have literally thousands of documents in LWP and it will be quite impossible to go through and convert them individually.

I also don't understand why IBM/Lotus hasn't simply decided to support the OS/2 and Linux versions of the software which would mean continued support for the format.

At least 123 files work in Calc.

[PGAGA]

Saturday 21 March 2009

BTW, does anybody know how to get Staroffice file import-export filters to Openoffice?

Part of the SO6-8 branch of OOo was a macro system which served as frontend for the Mastersoft filters (which themselves are free standing dll executables). Because of commercial licensing restrictions, that macro is not included with OOo. It's lack of inclusion with SO9 suggests that there may also have been an underlying needed code base or, more likely, the licensing agreement has ended. All that said StarBasic should have a run executable command which would run the dlls. But what is missing is the contruction dll. The Mastersoft filters break a file into component parts, then uses another filter to reconstruct the file in another format. SO5-8 used the macro to do this.

Phil