There's plenty of ways to convert Microsoft Office 2007 file formats (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx) to OpenOffice.org. Now OpenOffice.org 3.0 imports these Office OpenXML files natively, but natively doesn't mean a fluent translation.
Any translation is subject to imperfections. For OpenOffice.org 3.0, it is the first public release of the Office 2007 converters. Overall, it is very good, but it stuggles mainly in areas related to tracking changes, comments, tables, and drawings. You can wait for OpenOffice 3 to mature, but there's another way for the impatient.
Knowing OpenOffice.org 3.0.0's weaknesses, I designed a .docx document specially to torture OpenOffice.org and to point out its weaknesses. Here is the first page in Microsoft Office Word 2007 where the document was designed:
Here is the same .docx document on the same computer (Windows XP) in OpenOffice.org 3.0.0 using its native filters:
Finally, here is the same .docx document on the same computer in the same OpenOffice.org 3.0.0, but the .docx was passed through odf-converter-integrator 0.2.1. Notice the conversion is much more accurate:
Originally I planned to retire odf-converter-integrator when OpenOffice.org 3.0.0 was released with native .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx support, but then I realized there is still a need for high-accuracy translations. Instead of retiring odf-converter-integrator, I've upgraded it with more features (such as handling templates: .dotx, .xltx, and .potx). The latest version is powered by OdfConverter 2.5, a popular converter usually used the other way: to open ODF files in Microsoft Office.
Expect similarly better conversions with .pptx and .xlsx files, and try it yourself: download odf-converter-integrator and the reference document OpenOfficeOrg300_docx_bugs.docx.
Related articles
- OpenOffice.org 3.0's new features, an early look
- odf-converter-integrator software for converting Microsoft Office 2007 formats
- Office Compatability Pack Review
Comments
I've found the development community pretty responsive when I've filed bugs on document incompatibilities. I'm sure OOo would be even better with another talented developer testing and fixing these issues proactively.
slewis: Mainly because I am just writing a little glue (a small project) between OdfConverter (a large project) and OpenOffice.org. My project is cheap and agile. Also, as I mentioned in the article, originally I wrote it to help OpenOffice.org 2.x users before OpenOffice.org 3 had any docx/xlsx/pptx converters. Just for the OpenOffice.org project, I myself have filed 176 issues (mostly bugs) and assisted with (mostly as a QA volunteer) on 658 other issues. Going back to 2004, 49 of my 133 bug reports are still open. I test, and I have long encouraged others to test too.
Anonymous: Yes, I had it linked at the end of the article, but the link was broken. I fixed it.
Before I use odf-converter-integrator-chocolate_0.2.0-1_i386.deb with nothing error. And then your upgrade to odf-converter-integrator-chocolate_0.2.1-1_i386.deb. Now can not open XLSX anymore. Always got this error message:
Read-Error
Data could not be read from the file.
My office desktop and my notebook got same error. I think some thing with the last version.
Just curious. :-)
Those that use Novell's brand of OpenOffice.org can install OdfConverter as an oxt, but even then, I think it doesn't associate the Microsoft Office 2007 file extensions with the operating system.
In spite of my english trouale,I am trying to read and understand your writing.
And ı am following frequently.I hope that you will be with us together with much more scharings.
I hope that your success will go on.
Thanks.
I've noticed a failure regarding Notes in odt files that your test file can't pick up without a slight mod.
Some wp display the Note but then drop all the remaining content in that paragraph (AbiWord 2.6.6 anyway via portableapps.com). It resumed only with the following new paragraph. There was no way of knowing anything had been dropped.
Since the current test file has nothing to drop, it's always perfect. So, I'd add a "SENTENCE ONE, SENTENCE TWO", and a NOTE BETWEEN SENTENCE ONE AND SENTENCE TWO" in a single paragraph, and then start a "THIS IS A NEW PARAGRAPH" paragraph.
(seen with notes from OOo 3.0.0 and 3.0.1 using default built in template and saved as odt; not checked with old style notes of 2x nor with saving as doc or rtf)
bh
You might be interested to see that I've fixed the tables import in go-oo.
Here is a post on that fix.
Regards
As I have now fixed several bugs in this area, written several posts, you'll be able to find them all using the OOXML tag on my blog:
http://cedric.bosdonnat.free.fr/wordpress/?tag=ooxml.
Very grateful to ya.
Thanks, and God bless! John 3:16
But I'm still confused about the versions:
In Windows XP, I'm using Go-oo 3.1.1 which is similar to Novell's OpenOffice.org. For that reason, Novell's "OpenOffice.OpenXML Translator 3.0 e-Media Kit" can work as an extension in Go-oo. Now, which one is better; odf-converter-integrator Strawberry for Windows or Novell's "OpenOffice.OpenXML Translator 3.0 e-Media Kit"?
Plus, is there any plan or option available for Mac OS X's OpenOffice.org and Go-oo? I know that NeoOffice provides odf-converter source support; but what about the others?
If you use the Novell edition of OpenOffice.org, use their add-on instead of OCI. OCI is mainly for editions of OpenOffice.org that don't support Novell's OdfConverter.
No, there is no plan for Mac support, but maybe I'll change my mind if you donate a Mac. :)
All right, if one day I will win the lottery, you will be the second one to gift a Mac; first one is me... >;-P
Are you planning to add the odf-converter-integrator to the Ubuntu repositories? Having a Lauchpad PPA would be wonderful.