From MS Word to Writer: keeping my styles, macros, toolbars from Normal.dot

users
#1

Hello,

I'm migrating from MS Word (Office 2002 !) to LibO Writer. In Word, my
Normal.dot template contains many, many things: about 150 styles, 250
macros, some auto-insert texts, some custom shortcuts, many toolbars
and custom buttons.

How can I keep this all to use it with Writer?

In "Migration Guide: A guide to ease your migration to OpenOffice.org
from other office [suites] (2004)"
(http://www.openoffice.org/documentation/manuals/oooauthors/MigrationGuide.pdf),
I found a few things:
* AutoText entries: will the built-in method to import them still
work with LibO 3.6.2?(should I get version 3.6.2 or 3.5.6, btw? I'm
not sure I understand the difference.)
* AutoCorrect entries: there's a work-around with a macro and the
editing of a ./user/autocorr/acorrXXXX.dat file...
* Custom dictionaries: there was a work-around to import their
content, but the link to download the macro isn't valid anymore.

Do you know of a more recent migration guide, or a tutorial on the
Web, or forum post maybe? I couldn't find anything else.

Thanks in advance for your help!

#2

Am 11.10.2012 11:43, Kyla Robertson wrote:

Hello,

I'm migrating from MS Word (Office 2002 !) to LibO Writer. In Word, my
Normal.dot template contains many, many things: about 150 styles, 250
macros, some auto-insert texts, some custom shortcuts, many toolbars
and custom buttons.

How can I keep this all to use it with Writer?

In "Migration Guide: A guide to ease your migration to OpenOffice.org
from other office [suites] (2004)"
(http://www.openoffice.org/documentation/manuals/oooauthors/MigrationGuide.pdf),
I found a few things:
* AutoText entries: will the built-in method to import them still
work with LibO 3.6.2?(should I get version 3.6.2 or 3.5.6, btw? I'm
not sure I understand the difference.)
* AutoCorrect entries: there's a work-around with a macro and the
editing of a ./user/autocorr/acorrXXXX.dat file...
* Custom dictionaries: there was a work-around to import their
content, but the link to download the macro isn't valid anymore.

Do you know of a more recent migration guide, or a tutorial on the
Web, or forum post maybe? I couldn't find anything else.

Thanks in advance for your help!

This is not a free clone of some other program. All it can do is loading
.doc files fairly well. Please switch to this software or stay with WinWord.

#3

Hi :slight_smile:
Hmmm, i would try opening the template and then do
File - "Save As .. "
and save the document as an OpenDocument Format template.  I'm not sure if it would work but it's got to be worth trying. 
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#4

And with that attitude on a help list, LO is never likely to become any sort of threat to MS Office, is it?

#5

Am 11.10.2012 18:08, Tom Davies wrote:

Hi :slight_smile:
Hmmm, i would try opening the template and then do
File - "Save As .. "
and save the document as an OpenDocument Format template. I'm not sure if it would work but it's got to be worth trying.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

No, it should be ...

menu:File>Templates>Save... <any name>
... and then ...
menu:Files>Templates>Organize...
select the new template and make it the default template using the
command button on the right.

This way you get something similar like the infamous normal.dot.
Try out which parts of the VBA can be interpreted by this software (if
any). Learning a bit more about this software you may find out that you
do not need those macros anymore.
Then build your own shortcuts (which may include shortcuts to styles)
and your prefered shortcuts (which can be stored in files).

#6

Am 11.10.2012 18:36, Gordon Burgess-Parker wrote:

This is not a free clone of some other program. All it can do is loading
.doc files fairly well. Please switch to this software or stay with
WinWord.

And with that attitude on a help list, LO is never likely to become any
sort of threat to MS Office, is it?

Personally, I do not want to threat anybody or anything. This software
will never be any thread to anybody else's commercial product. When MS
Office dies, LibreOffice will die as well simply because more and more
people learn that nobody ever needed dinosaurs like these so called
"productivity suites".
It is very different from what some people expect and somebody needs to
tell about it to avoid hours of frustration.

#7

Am 11.10.2012 19:59, Tom Davies wrote:

Hi :slight_smile:
And all the offices will close and money will cease to be important and there will be peace and happiness everywhere like Star Trek.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

However, Kyla R. asked how to fuel up her new e-car and the answer is
that you must not fill any fuel into it even if the car looks very
similar like the old one.

#8

I also would like to comment on the "All it can do is loading .doc files fairly well.".
I entirely switch over to LO and find especially Writer better than Word. The styles-functionality in Writer is great. About 2 years ago I had to put a master thesis in the right format and it was a nightmare and a huge workload in WORD. In Writer I assume I could have done it in a fraction of the time and without much headaches.
What want to say is it would be nice if users of LO, who do not understand ALL the features and functionality of LO AND MSO are be careful with such negative statements. However if there are bugs or requests for new features, they should be expressed and reported. This helps LO to become more known.

#9

Am 13.10.2012 16:37, Dr. R. O Stapf wrote:

This is not a free clone of some other program. All it can do is loading
.doc files fairly well. Please switch to this software or stay with
WinWord.

And with that attitude on a help list, LO is never likely to become
any sort of threat to MS Office, is it?

I also would like to comment on the "All it can do is loading .doc files
fairly well.".
I entirely switch over to LO and find especially Writer better than
Word. The styles-functionality in Writer is great. About 2 years ago I
had to put a master thesis in the right format and it was a nightmare

Read again the original posting. This is not about "better" or "worse".
It is about how to transform a customized WinWord setup to Writer.
WinWord and Writer are completely different applications. There is no
normal.dot, templates and styles are differently organized, the API is
completely incompatible.
Any sort of "compatibility" with WinWord is about loading .doc files
fairly well. This is much more than most other text processing
applications can do in respect to Word files. Then there is a highly
experimental "macro compatibility" which tries to map the WinWord
elements in VBA to elements of its own API. As far as I know, no other
software tries to run macros of some other application and in most cases
this does not really work. Same with loading .docx files.

#10

a couple of suggestions:

          (1) choose LO as the default - in this way, these documents
should open well in LO.

          (2) When you open these documents, 'save as' using the LO suffix.

          (3) do not delete MS Word.

Hello,

#11

why not just keep both programs on the machine :wink:

Am 11.10.2012 11:43, Kyla Robertson wrote:

#12

It works for me :wink:

Hi :slight_smile:

#13

and Snow White lives :wink:

Hi :slight_smile:

#14

and Henry Ford was building indestructible cars fueled with clean,
efficient energy - all from a simple to grow plant;
           then the federal gov't stepped in at the behest of Rockefeller's
oil industry and those factories were shut down.

       Supposedly the Dutch are now growing this plant; will others follow
- that's the $64,000 question :wink:

Am 11.10.2012 19:59, Tom Davies wrote:

#15

I agree.

#16

Hi :slight_smile:
Yes, that is the best way to migrate.  Keep whatever MS Office you happen to have and install LO.  There's no reason to upgrade the MS Office so you still make the saving but you still have acess to it when you need it.  Gradually you find more and more reason to use LO as you learn more about how to use it and less reason to be pushed into using MSO. 
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#17

You can't. Nor should you.

LO is not m$. Create all your styles (not macros, they are terrible
functions to use) in LO, creating native odf files. Perform a
cost-benefit analysis of your time to learn LO, the advantages of odf,
etc. and compare to the cost of using m$ and decide which to use
accordingly.

Do not use LO as a free opportunity to write and create m$ documents.
Search this mailing archive for previous posts on this ad nauseum
topic.

#18

Hi :slight_smile:
Lol!!  Welcome back e-letter!

It seems a lot of things can be recovered and adapted for use with LO.  You don't have to start again from scratch and refuse to do business with the entre rest of the world until they start migrating away from MS.  If you did then LO would get nowhere.

It is a good idea to keep your versions of your documents in LO formats = OpenDocument Formats such as odt, as those are native to the apps.  It would mean you can rely on them much more.  If/when you have to collaborate or present your documents to non-LO users then it's best to do "Save As .." to save into the older MS formats (or the newer ones but they are a bit less predictable between different versions of MSO) such as doc (or Pdf if they don't need o be able to be edited).

Note that Google-docs, Calligra, Lotus Symphony, AbiWord and all the rest use OpenDocument Formats as their default native formats too.  Even MS Office is starting to pretend to allow people to use OpenDocument Formats although their implementation is a bit broken (what else would you expect from MS right?).

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#19

Interestingly when you start a new installation of Word 2010 it asks you whether you want it to use OOXML or ODF as the default...
I hope that's not the slippery slope of embrace and extinguish....

#20

Hi :slight_smile:
Probably is.  Even so i think it's best to berate them for their poor implementation and keep hassling them to be better at their implementation of ODF.  Like using the more up-to-date version (1.2) that everyone else is using instead of the ancient 1.1. 
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile: