LO 3.5 corrupts DOCX completely

users
#1

Hi!

I just downloaded and tested LibreOffice 3.5 on Windows 64 Bit and my test result is depressing:
LibreOffice 3.5 corrupts my DOCX files completely, so that Microsoft Word 2010 cannot open it anymore!

I tried it with simple documents and it failed completely. Word doesn't even offer to recover the document, it is just unable to open it. I think this is a huge issue for most users of LibreOffice.

On Ubuntu 64 bit, with LibreOffice 3.4, the documents were only corrupted, so that Word had to recover it (with lots of lost formatting...) but it could open the file.

I experienced a similar behaviour with xlsx, too.

I don't know, why the importer for docx/xlsx is getting worse. I hope, you guys can use this information to improve LO.

Regards,
Philip

#2

Filing a bug and attaching a "pure" .docx plus the corrupted version would be a good start towards that improvement.

#3

I did file a bug report and attached two documents, as you stated.
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=46060

Regards,
Philip

#4

This is good news; m$ users will be unable to use LO except to write
native odf documents.

Create a native odf document in LO. Open that odf document using m$o.
Write to m$ and tell them that m$ is unable to open odf files. Tell us
your experience.

#5

Hmm. That's strange you are having this problem. I run Windows 7 Home 64
bit and just created a docx file in MS Word 2007 - then modified it in LO
3.5. Afterwords, I was able to open it in Word with no problems.

Could this be a problem possible unique to MS Word 2010?

#6

Hi,

I just downloaded and tested LibreOffice 3.5 on Windows 64 Bit and
my test result is depressing:
LibreOffice 3.5 corrupts my DOCX files completely, so that Microsoft
Word 2010 cannot open it anymore!

Looking at https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=46060 and
the comments, one explanation could be:

You saved the document as ODT but named it DOCX. Are you sure, you
didn´t do that?

Stefan

#7

Office 2010 has a "compatibility mode" for files .docx created with Word 2007. Office 2007 can interoperate with Office 2010 correctly if service pack 2 is installed. Have you saved the file in compatibility mode or not? MS change its "standard" at every release...

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/officeappcompat/thread/bf4f765c-7177-454b-8a9b-e12b422ea64e/

http://word.herbtyson.com/?p=344

#8

e-letter, I really wish you would keep your rabid anti-MS self rants to yourself and just stfu.

#9

Doesn't seem to be because it doesn't happen here with MS Office 2010 and LO 3.4.4.....

#10

You really are a big DURRRR brain, aren't you?

#11

Hi :slight_smile:
The DocX implementation is not perfect in MS Word.  There is allegedly an internationally agreed 'open' standard with the same name but inevitably there are deviations from that in MS products.

LibreOffice is getting closer to the implementations used in MS Word but each version of MS Word implements 'the standard' slightly differently.  According to the Microsoft.Com website (or was it the installer for MS Office 2010) it also varies according to which OS you happen to be using.  So the way a docX is produced by MS Word 2007 on Xp may be slightly different from the way it's produced in MS Word 2007 on Windows7.  Some LibreOffice users find they become the "middle-man" between colleagues in the same office using MS Word who would normally have problems sharing files with each other because they use different versions of Windows itself.  Simply by opening and saving again in LO tends to fix the problems from either person and produces a document that magically works on both different MS Word users.

MS keeps moving the goal-posts so if a document doesn't work then just post a bug-report about it.  The LibreOffice devs then get around to 'fixing' LO so that it reads the new mess created by or desired by MS Office.

Personally i would recommend avoiding the MS formats and just stick with Odf such as Odt for word-processing.  If you need to share with MS Office users keep your original in Odt and just "Save As..." to get an MS format.  I tend to use Doc rather than DocX as it tends to get less messy.

This is just my own opinion based on experience, comments on this and other lists and from having just installed MS Office on the networked machine at work.  It's not necessarily the view of TDF as i am not even a member of TDF.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#12

Hi :slight_smile:
Actually MS Office 2007 and 2010 can both open the older Odf formats (errr Odf = OpenDocument Format which makes that sentence clunky).  To switch LibreOffice to the older format try

Tools - Options - "+Load/Save" - General

then about mid-way down the sub-page is a drop-down saying
"1.2 Extended (recommended)" click on that and roll it 2 places backwards up the list and choose "1.0 / 1.1".  Hmmm, the older format was not so great with spreadsheets (allegedly) but was totally fine with word-processing.

MS, as a professional company, obviously couldn't risk using a format that was in widespread usage for about a decade but not officially released beyond a 'beta-testing' stage.  The 1.2 standard was only fully released last year sometime and a year is not long enough for MS to respond.

Just out of curiosity why do i get tons of complaints from TDF officials when i say MicroSquish but the more derogatory term used by e-letter is apparently fine?  This is the only list that has a problem with my term.  Even MS fanboy lists seem to like the cuter term when i use it there.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile: