OpenXML (docx,…) suport in OpenOffice
24 September 2007 – 4:05 pm*Update*
OpenOffice 2.3 already can open .docx files, just right-click and select to Open With OpenOffice.
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I’m starting to get .docx in my mail lately ( against my will…) and not using Microsoft Office and not beeing able to ask people to send at least .doc, I had to do some search to give some support do OpenOffice to this “format”.
Novell has created an OpenXML Translator for OpenOffice, and I found this guide at sigmundvoid. (I’ve just made some small changes)
This was tested in Ubuntu 7.04 “Feisty Fawn”
1- First you need to have ‘alien’ installed, an rpm to deb converter.
$ sudo apt-get install alien
2 - Grab yourself the Odf converter RPM, from here.
3 - Now lets convert it like this:
$ alien -ct odf-converter-1.0.0-5.i586.rpm
You will end up with a .tgz file.
Extract it to a directory:
$ tar -zxvf odf-converter-1.0.0.tgz
Now its time to copy a few files to allow us to open up our .docx file.
sudo cp usr/lib/ooo-2.0/program/OdfConverter /usr/lib/openoffice/program/
sudo cp usr/lib/ooo-2.0/share/registry/modules/org/openoffice/TypeDetection/Filter/MOOXFilter_cpp.xcu /usr/lib/openoffice/share/registry/modules/org/openoffice/TypeDetection/Filter/
sudo cp usr/lib/ooo-2.0/share/registry/modules/org/openoffice/TypeDetection/Types/MOOXTypeDetection.xcu /usr/lib/openoffice/share/registry/modules/org/openoffice/TypeDetection/Types/
OpenOffice is now compatible with the docx “format”.
In notice : PLEASE don’t send docx, at least .doc if you dont like standards…
8 Responses to “OpenXML (docx,…) suport in OpenOffice”
Many thanks!
By Tesla on 24 September 2007
Maybe you should send back a note with: “frak them .docx files. Here’s how you save them in .doc format”.
Basically, are “they” paying you to read .docx? If not… why are you accomodating their inertia?
A strange kind of inertia, as “they” had to actually install the damned thing to send it in the first place.
By Luis Bruno on 25 September 2007
Thanks for the trackback:) Glad it works! Trying to work out xlsx now:(
By Psymon101 on 27 September 2007
The new version of OpenOffice allows read/write of Office 2007 files!
By Psymon101 on 24 October 2007
That link above is dead for the download, but here is the new odfconverter. Also, the instructions above don’t work on the mainstream OpenOffice.org, but there are other ways to open .docx files
By Andrew Z on 20 February 2008
Thanks for the update Andrew Z
By iGama on 20 February 2008