Hello,
my odt from LibreOffice can not open MS Office 2007 and MS Office 2010 without problems.
Also the odt from LO, like this not.
Here in filebin I have uploaded three odt, two of original from LibreOffice and the test created by myself.
My request to all of you who still work with MS here and there and have an MS Office, please try if you can open these odt files.
If yes, please write, with which Office version, and if not, then likewise.
I find this topic exciting because I have been saving all my documents with LO in odt for quite some time now - and am now shocked to find that not all MS Office can open them without problems.
I’m not sure, what #support question you’re asking: Microsoft office in different versions is unable to open some odt files? This seems to be a problem of Microsoft office and to be answered (and possibly fixed) by it’s manufacturer…
Hello @freggel.doe
Of course, it is a Microsoft problem, but also one for all those who work with Linux and use LibreOffice, believing in good faith that their odt-text documents can be opened by anyone in the world without any problems.
My support request is not about improving MS, but how to make text documents with Linux that everyone can read.
It is of course my goal to become and remain completely independent of MS. But we don’t live on an island - so I want my documents to be readable for everyone else as well, if possible. And for that I am looking for a solution.
That is easy, share only PDFs and make sure the fonts are included.
This was never the case, the odt implementation of MS Office was never competently compatible. But this goes in both ways, MS Office odt files are not competently compatible with Libreoffice.
PDFs are probably the closest you can get, a modern alternativ is a Webservice. But of course the different web services are not compatible with each other. To get 100% compatibly, you can only share documents within a Webservice and not export a document. But a Webservice does not depend on a OS, so it can be used Linux, Windows, Macs and mobile devices, and it always looks the same.
LibreOffice is able to save documents in Microsoft formats. My recommendation is in Word 97-2003 format also known as .doc. Both office applications should open it up well.
Oh, I didn’t know that and I think it’s a shame.
The question remains, what is the best way to save your documents with LibreOffice on Linux?
It is clear that one chooses doc or docx if one is often in exchange with others who only use Windows.
But LibreOffice explicitly recommends to choose odt, because all formatting is included there. And that’s how I’ve done it so far, until I noticed now that MS is only willing to open odt with error messages.
So for me now, when I send something to others, I have to open the odt before and then save it as PDF, docx or txt, just for sharing.
This is a feasible but not entirely satisfactory solution.
How do you do it?
Go to Tools/Options/“Load/Save”/General and set the Always save as: to whatever format you want to use. Then uncheck the “Warn when not saving in ODF or default format”. Click Apply and then Ok.
I would not recommend this. The doc or docx files created with Libreoffice does not look the same in MS Office. The compatibility might be even worse than with odt files. If it is a really simple document, it might work, but then you could simply use RTF.
yes, that may well be the case. It is not for nothing that LO explicitly recommends saving the odt. And for the distribution either PDF or txt. Well, that’s how I’m going to handle it now, but I’m already having to pull myself up a bit from the shock of odt not being as international as I assumed.
But again the question: Do you also use LibreOffice?
Or TextMaker, where these problems do not arise at all, because its odt can open MS without problems?
And: Do you know why Manjaro offers OnlyOffice by default? Why not LO anymore?
Yes, but mostly Nextcloud with Collabora(which is Libreoffice in a Browser) if I need to share a document with family and friends. If I need to share a document with persons that don’t have a Nextcloud account, it is PDF only, no exceptions.
Unfortunately this is only for private stuff. In my day job it is MS Office only. But sharing documents with people outside of my department it is PDF only.
I don’t have experience with TextMaker or OnlyOffice.
Hallo @xabbu,
Yes, that seems to be the cleanest solution: PDF.
But please do me a favor: Try to open these files on MS-Office and report me if it worked and with which Office.
I would like to know if the problem is unique to me.
The files can be opened in MS Office 2016 and the basic contend is same. (With contend, I mean the words, the meaning of the text). The only exception is the missing footer in 02WH_01EinfuehrungInWriter_V33.odt . But of course it doesn’t look the same, like pagebreak, style and other formatting.
Except for your simple Test LibreOffice-odt-Test.odt. It looks the same, but no surprise.
thank you, you have helped me well. So MS Word 2016 does not grumble with you? Well, most will have at least a new version like you.
I see that I send elaborate texts simply as PDF, and for me I stay with the odt.
The bottom line: still save the texts with LibreOffice in odt format. For distribution always create a PDF, or quite simply just a txt. Maybe even rtf, which is not a good format for Linux, if I’m not mistaken.
Word complained since it was download form the internet, and if you want to save, it tells you that you better use docx, but other than that, it opened the file.
Really, never expected rtf to make problems. It is a very simple format, but a letter can be saved in this format. Some might even edit it with a text editor.
Hello @freggel.doe,
how right you were with your assessment! Even if your comment had initially irritated me a bit. See what bugs.documentfoundation say:
And why would that be a LibreOffice bug if MS-Office refuses to open it? IIRC MS-Office implements proper ODF only since 2013 (or 2016? I don’t exactly remember), AFAIK 2007 does not support ODF at all and 2010 only partly for an old ODF version. Maybe Textmaker and OnlyOffice still write those old versions. You could try to set (under Tools → Options → Load/Save → General) the ODF format version to 1.2 or even 1.0/1.1 for MS-Office 2010, but that would restrict the set of stored features to a minimum you’d probably not be satisfied with. Rather use export to OOXML .docx if you want to pass on documents to old MS-Office versions, but keep storing your working copy in .odt ODF 1.3 extended for all features.
I assumed that MS-Office is the absolute standard, so to speak. And, if MS can’t open an odt properly, then it’s the fault of the others who formed it, but obviously it’s the other way around.
One learns. And it is very nice that there are the helps through the forum.
I take it there is a reason you are sharing the documents in an editable format, like, for instance the recipient will be editing or appending the document. If not then it really does not make sense to share the document in editable format, and PDF should be the preferred format.