LibreOffice/OpenOffice - bullets/numbering between Open* formats and MicroSoft

I use Ubuntu at home and the office but I do have to communicate with the outside world which unfortunately uses lots of MicroSoft Office in various flavors..

I've found that I can't (currently using OpenOffice) maintain bullets or outline numbering between .odt and .doc formats which is probably no surprise to anyone. Sure would be nice if someone had a fix for this issue as I see it's not unique to me. Especially since I only use Ubuntu and especially at home since I have no access to MicroSoft Word in any flavor.

My other issue is that with the OpenOffice that came native with my Ubuntu 10.04 I can't download LibreOffice for testing without blowing my OpenOffice away. That doesn't seem like a very friendly way of doing business because what if I truly don't like LibreOffice once I get it loaded? Not saying that I won't but I've been in the computer business since 1964 and know that not is all as it seems :sunglasses:

At this point I'm working on a project that needs to get done in a couple of days that uses outline numbering that also needs to be accessible to MicroSoft users. I'm sort of up a tree with not quite knowing what to do.

Any help appreciated.

Sincerely, David M. Cannell

Try doing a parallel install:
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Installing_in_parallel

Nino

David:

You should probably be aware that the automatic bullet feature (and the
automatic numbering feature) in Microsoft Word does not place the
appropriate characters within the text, as it seems to do, but simulates
them by means of templates that are stored in another part of the file
(if I understand correctly). When a text containing bullets added by
this feature is opened in a different application the bullets may change
to different characters, or to numbers, or may be lost completely.

I presume something similar happens when the process is reversed.

I would strongly advocate not using this feature at all but, if you want
bullets, to add them explicitly as characters.

For outline numbering or dynamic numbering generally I don’t think there
is any solution other than substituting the actual numbers as plain text
before converting a document.

Although they are quite specific about saying LibreOffice wipes out OpenOffice when it installs?

From https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LibreOffice

Please note OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice don’t coexist. Install LibreOffice following these instructions will effectively remove OpenOffice.org.

Thanks, Dave

Thanks Séamas, I've about reached the same conclusion just not so sure how to go about it.

Thanks again...

Despite its name, the "parallel install" does not install the software but
just copies the executables into the chosen directory. So nothing will be
wiped out or changed.

The only thing you have to take care is that your user profile does not get
altered. For this you should tweak the UserInstallation line of the
bootstraprc file as described *before* starting the application.

Regards,
Nino

Hi David,

dcannell wrote (11-04-12 17:30)

I've found that I can't (currently using OpenOffice) maintain bullets or
outline numbering between .odt and .doc formats which is probably no
surprise to anyone.
[...]
At this point I'm working on a project that needs to get done in a
couple of days that uses outline numbering that also needs to be
accessible to MicroSoft users.

Lot depends on where the documents origin.
If you have influence on the initial state (ie.e. they are from LibreOffice), you can try with e.g. some of the list styles.
In my experience maybe the representation is not always exactly the same, but at least well enough to be effective and distinctive.
And if the file finally passes you or someone else with LibreOffice, re-applying the desired list style might be simple and fast.

Ah well, you see I make some 'presumptions' in this case.
Anyway I hope it does help a bit.

Regards,

Hi :slight_smile:
You could uninstall the OOo and then reinstall it later if you have unlimited download.  The settings tend to get saved but you might want to back-up your User Profile jic.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Just remember that "they" (Ubuntu) is talking about their version
of LO. When you download LO from the DF website, you do not run into
this problem. Presently, on Ubuntu I have the following files in
the /opt/ folder: libreoffice3.4, libreoffice3.5, lodev3.5, ooo-dev,
ooo-dev3, openoffice.org, and openoffice.org3. I can run soffice from
any one of these folders (those which have a program folder).
     The Applications > Office contains Apache OpenOffice,
Openoffice.org3.4, and LO 3.4.6. (After installing LO 3.5.2, I installed
the file in the desktop integration folder. I wanted 3.4.6 to be listed
in the Office menu rather than 3.5.2 which over wrote the settings of
3.4.6 in the menu.)

--Dan

...

My other issue is that with the OpenOffice that came native with my
Ubuntu 10.04 I can't download LibreOffice for testing without blowing my
OpenOffice away. That doesn't seem like a very friendly way of doing
business because what if I truly don't like LibreOffice once I get it
loaded? Not saying that I won't but I've been in the computer business
since 1964 and know that not is all as it seems :sunglasses:

That is not an issue at all. Forget all the other "advise" telling you
to uninstall OpenOffice before installing LibreOffice (LO). When you
install LO, it installs in the /opt directory and doesn't touch your
installed OOo application.

Download both the tar.tz files for Debian -
https://www.libreoffice.org/download/?nodetect:
clink on Linux (deb): and your architecture (x86 for 32bit or x86_64 for
64bit). That will link you to (32 bit in this example):
https://www.libreoffice.org/download/?type=deb-x86
Select your language (English (US)?):
That gets you to:
https://www.libreoffice.org/download/?type=deb-x86&lang=en-US
Click on the 3.4.6 (you can install 3.5 later if you wish and even run
3.4 + 3.5 + OOo 3.2 in parallel at the same time) and download both the
Main installer and the Help file. Those will download as:

LibO_3.4.6_Linux_x86_install-deb_en-US.tar.gz

and

LibO_3.4.6_Linux_x86_helppack-deb_en-US.tar.gz

Open Nautilus and right click on the tar.gz and select 'Extract here'
for both files. That will create two directories:
LibO_3.4.6rc2_Linux_x86_install-deb_en-US
and
LibO_3.4.6rc2_Linux_x86_helppack-deb_en-US

Open a terminal and cd to
LibO_3.4.6rc2_Linux_x86_install-deb_en-US/DEBS. Install:

/LibO_3.4.6rc2_Linux_x86_install-deb_en-US/DEBS$ sudo dpkg -i *.deb

That will install LO into the /opt directory as /opt/libreoffice3.4.
Now do the same for the help file:
/LibO_3.4.6rc2_Linux_x86_helppack-deb_en-US/DEBS$ sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Now create a menu by installing the desktop integration deb:
/LibO_3.5.1rc2_Linux_x86_install-deb_en-US/DEBS/desktop-integration$
dpkg -i *.deb

I don't currently have a 10.04 installed, so if that gives you errors
don't try to install the again, and instead create your own menu.

On the top panel right-click 'Applications' and select 'Edit Menus'. Go
to 'Office' and click on 'New Item'. Fill in as:
Name: LibreOffice 3.4
Command: /opt/libreoffice3.4/program/soffice
Comment: whatever you'd like

To run: Applications|Office|LibreOffice 3.4

Sorry, can't help you with any of the rest.

Re. the bullet/numbering issue.

I have exactly this problem receiving .DOC/.DOCX files from my lawyers.

The problem isn't OO/Libreoffice specific - the same problems occur in
GoogleDocs as well, so I presume its a Microsoft issue?