[Solved] Microsoft Office 2007-365 format (DOCX, XLSX, PPTX)

[Sergey1979]

Hi everyone!

I want to ask, why OpenOffice can’t save documents in Microsoft Office 2007-365 formats, like docx, xlsx, pptx?
I have found this feature in LibreOffice. I don’t want to switch to LibreOffice, because I am familiar to OO for many years.
Is this feature in to-do list of OO? Will it be available in future releases?

Thank you in advance,
Sergey

[RoryOF]

It needs someone to write the filters. Best to work in the .odt etc formats, rather than in proprietary formats. Ms Office can read and save to .odt, but MS, as always, has departed from the international standards

If, for what you think are valid reasons, you _must_ work in MS Office formats, use a program where these are native.

[Hagar Delest]

See: [Tutorial] Differences between Microsoft and AOO/LO files.
Even if LO has what seems to be a pretty good import/export filter, this MS Office file format was not designed to be compatible with anything else than... MS Office! So expect glitches from time to time. If you make a living from such documents, better buy MS Office then.

Note that Lo is very similar to AOO. You won't find much difference (especially if you keep the standard toolbar instead of the ribbon.
AOO development has been very limited for years, don't hold your breath!

[esperantisto]

> I don’t want to switch to LibreOffice

Well, if working with MSO formats is essential, at least install LibreOffice in parallel with AOO. And maybe you’ll decide to switch.

[esperantisto]

If you make a living from such documents, better buy MS Office then.

There is one more option, often overlooked: SoftMaker Office / Ashampoo Office. It contains licensed libraries from Microsoft, uses DOCX, XLSX, PPTX as default formats and is supposed to be really 100% compatible. I didn’t try, though.

[Hagar Delest]

There is one more option, often overlooked: SoftMaker Office / Ashampoo Office. It contains licensed libraries from Microsoft, uses DOCX, XLSX, PPTX as default formats and is supposed to be really 100% compatible. I didn’t try, though.

Thanks for the pointer, I was not aware of these possibilities. Will try to cite them next time.

[sveld]

"Ms Office can read and save to .odt, but MS, as always, has departed from the international standards"

That is not the whole story; ODF 1.2 does have some specifications which leave room for interpretation and for that reason are implemented differently (that may have been done on purpose) in MS Office vs OpenOffice/LibreOffice. This has been mostly fixed in the ODF 1.3 spec as that was one of the main goals defining it. Microsoft has been working actively on those specs amongst with TDF. Then also LO (so nor does OO) did not fully implement ODF 1.2. Currenly LO and MS both have implemented most of the ODF 1.3 specs already while OO still uses 1.2. So I guess interop between recent MS Office versions and LO should be better when using ODF.

Edit: From what I see that has been added to LO recently for interop with MS Office formats this is then also added at the same time to the "ODF 1.3 Extended" spec which will be used to drive the ODF 1.4 spec (no timefrime etc yet). That may be a smart move to get ODF spec on the same level as OOXML as there would be even less reason to use OOXML in the future.

[Sergey1979]

Hello guys!

Thanks for the replies, lets summarize everything.

If, for what you think are valid reasons, you _must_ work in MS Office formats, use a program where these are native.

If you make a living from such documents, better buy MS Office then.

For me Microsoft Office is too expensive, it costs around 239 Euro in my region.

Note that Lo is very similar to AOO. You won't find much difference...

...at least install LibreOffice in parallel with AOO. And maybe you’ll decide to switch.

Thanks, for the advice, now I am using both OpenOffice and LibreOffice on Windows.

I am also familiar with other possibility, if I need to send a document for printing, I convert it PDF format using free office suites, AOO, LO.
Better avoid MS Office formats in AOO and LO.

...So expect glitches from time to time.

Sincerely yours,
Sergey

[John_Ha]

Currenly LO and MS both have implemented most of the ODF 1.3 specs...

I am not sure that is correct. See Microsoft's Differences between the OpenDocument Text (.odt) format and the Word (.docx) format for those features of the .odf formats which Microsoft does and does not support.

There are a lot of Not supported and Partially supported in the list of function.

[sveld]

See Microsoft's Differences between the OpenDocument Text (.odt) format and the Word (.docx) format for those features of the .odf formats which Microsoft does and does not support.

That was "Last updated" in 2015; so not sure if that is really up to date.

This is more current https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/opensp ... 1ebff5e1dc

Quite a long doc so Microsoft being Microsoft I expect them not to have implemented everything (yet, if ever), but at least they work actively with "us" on the standard solving at least the bits that are implemented differently due to room for interpretation.

[John_Ha]

Thanks. I have updated the tutorial.