Vista versus word and excel docs - cannot open?

Question

I have downloaded open office org as suggested but still cannot open word or excel doc's, any ideas please.

I can save doc's AS different files in open office and my friends can open attachments now, so one half of problem is okay. As they could not open works doc's. Arghhhhhhhhh

I am quite technical minded, not a complete novice.

Answer 1

Openoffice writer can open msoffice WORD old version documents (usually with file extension .doc). WORDS 2007 documents (with file extension .docx) will have problem opening in open office.

to solve:-
updated Word Viewer from the Microsoft website and use it to open the docx document. This document can then be copied and pasted into Open Office. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3657CE88-7CFA-457A-9AEC-F4F827F20CAC&displaylang=en)

Another possibility would be to use the free online service called docx converter (http://docx-converter.com/) which converts docx documents into doc format readable by Open Office.

Ask you friends to make documents/spreadsheet in ms-office in compability mode i.e. in 97-2003 format. office2007 excel and words has lot of Microsoft secret/confidential code and therefore hard to find converter that can be used with openoffice.

Answer 2

Hmmmm, strange one.

My thoughts are along the lines of:

1: Are the documents saved in a version that OpenOffice supports. (i.e. If they're saved in Office 2007, OpenOffice may not be able to open them). Have them saved in an earlier version of the application.

2: They may have been created in Word/Excel, but are they saved in those dedicated formats? i.e. .doc, .xls etc.
If they're saved any other way, try getting them saved in their native formats if possible.

Other than that, I'm stumped! I've never had any trouble opening Microsoft files with OpenOffice.

Hope it helps!

Answer 3

Word (.doc) or Works files?

In Open Office, use Save as... then choose Word format. Open Office isn't able to save or open Works docs, as far as I know.

Open Office opens word and excel files flawlessly on my PC. What program opens them on yours? Try changing the "file associations" to Open Office (right-click > Properties... for each file type).

Answer 4

Try right clicking a word document and selecting open with, make sure the always use this program button is on, and select the open office writer.