file format problem?

users
#1

Maybe I can help,
          [see notes interspersed below]

#2

        Maybe I can help,
           [see notes interspersed below]

From: Thomas Blasejewicz <nyuwa@hb.tp1.jp>
Date: Wed, Apr 6, 2016 at 7:50 AM
Subject: [libreoffice-users] file format problem?
To: users@global.libreoffice.org

Good evening
I am not sure whether this is a LibreOffice (?) problem or just MY problem.
It happened before, but I will describe the latest episode.

I was working with Writer on a Word (.docx) file. As a translation job I
was supposed to overwrite that file.

    [MsFt does not necessarily recognize LO; had you opened this in LO or
MsFt? (docx is one of MsFt's files)]

Is there any requirement to use MS's .docx format instead of the more compatible .doc format?

I do not do any translation between languages, but if you do not need to use .docx for the translated file, then I would not do so.

To be honest, the .docx format have compatibility issues between MS's Word versions. Last year, I finally convinced a MS Office user that it would be better to use .doc over .docx for the files emailed out to many users that have various versions of MS Office, and for me LO.

For me, I make all my word processing documents using .odt and then save it in .doc format for the MS Word users.

#3

    [yet another program?]

SpiderOak is not a program but a cloud storage service like Dropbox.
What I save on one computer will be synchronized (AND older versions archived) with my other computers.

    [suggestion: open LO - then attempt to open saved document, allowing it
to translate if necessary;
        hopefully, your file will re-appear.]

That did not help.
I opened the .docx file with LO in the first place, upon saving accepted the proposed (by LO) .docx format.

The file contained originally about 4300 Japanese characters.
Even though there was nothing on my screen beyond the first 1/3 of that
file, its size did not change.
When I deleted the second 2/3 of the original file, the original size of
470 kb shrank to 130 kb.
After I retyped all the lost work and saved that first as .ODT and then
later as .docx, file size was 23 and 16 kb respectively.

    [these are MsFt not LO documents.]

After the trouble occured, I copied TEXT ONLY into Writer, finished work there AND THEN saved first as .odt and then as .docx (same file)

Necessity for Word format: translation agencies send me those Word file -> expect them to be "overwritten" ->
AND expect Word files back. Which will then be sold to the clients who ordered the translations. (translation not of file formats, but of text: manuals, books, letters etc.)
If I start mumbling "I use only odt format ...", they will probably stop sending me work. Then I will starve to death ...

#4

But why don't you use MS Word then? Any old copy of Word'98 generates
perfectly valid .doc files.

#5

I strongly agree with Tim---Kracked_P_P---webmaster. But I'd also suggest that you NEVER overwrite the original document without first saving a backup copy of the original to a different name or in a different location.

-- Tim Deaton

#6

1. You receive a file in foreign file format from email.
2. You open the file directly by double-click. In most cases you get a
read-only view on that document.
3. menu:File>SaveAs...
   File Type: Open Document Text (*.odt)
   Location: Somewhere in your documents folder.
4. Now you have your personal copy to work with in the native file
format of the application you are using which is a good thing.
5. You are done with the file and send it back via
    menu:File>Send>Email as MS Office
Now you have your own working copy in your own document hierarchy, a
backup of the incoming file in your inbox and a copy of the outgoing
file in your outbox.
Next time you receive a new version of the same you start at step 1 and
overwrite the old working copy with a new working copy.