Microsoft Works-2

users
#1

First, I want to thank all who replied to to my first Posting.
I'm using Win7
Libre Office 3.4.4

I can now open some of the MS Works, Word Processor files (.WPS)
However, I find that any Works file .wps; that has a Table in it will
not open in Libre Office.
Am I missing something?

John.

#2

Hi John,

I can now open some of the MS Works, Word Processor files (.WPS)
However, I find that any Works file .wps; that has a Table in it will
not open in Libre Office.
Am I missing something?

Probably not, the MSWorks WPS filter was never perfect and I doubt that it will be improved. The LibO project is phasing out the former binary filters that were required to open StarOffice binary formats, so it is unlikely that any developers are going to be interested in improving the WPS import filter.

Alex

#3

Hello John,

I have MS Office 97 & 2000 that I'm willing to flash up in a virtual machine if it will help. If your Works version is old enough that the MS filters in Word 97/2000 can open your files I will be happy to convert a few to ODF for you.

By a few I mean less than a dozen. :slight_smile:

Peter HB

#4

...
Sorry to hear that. Many Win7 users may not be able to afford MS Office
proper & use MS Works. MS Works version 9.0 in Win7 (that is included
for free in most Win7 versions... at least it is in Win7 Home Premium)
is actually quite a nice suite. Were I not a linux user & used Win7
outside of testing, and didn't know about OOo/LO, I'd be quite
comfortable using it on a regular basis. Note: I am quite familiar with
MS Office 2003 and earlier (I have MSO 97, 2002, and 2003).

<http://www.microsoft.com/products/works/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=003&active_tab=Features>

I think that LO would be making a mistake by not continuing to support
MS Works files (at the the newer versions), at least to properly open
and display the files.

@John Gregson: I just did a test MS Works (9.0) file with a small table
in it. Four columns, 4 rows. When saved as an .wps the table in LO 3.4.4
appears as:

[OBJ][OBJ][OBJ][OBJ]

Test
Test1
...
Test17

In other words, the table is not present & instead converted to text.
Note: I just filled the table with Test, Test1 etc. No idea what the '
[OBJ][OBJ][OBJ][OBJ]' bits are about.

I then saved the same file (from MS Works) as a .doc file & reopened in
OOo 3.3.0 (table appears fine, albeit outside the page text borders),
and in LO 3.4.4 with the same results as OOo 3.3.0. I'd have to
uninstall LO 3.4.4 to test with LO 3.3.4, perhaps a Win7 user w/LO 3.3.4
can test as well?

#5

...

@John Gregson: I just did a test MS Works (9.0) file with a small table
in it. Four columns, 4 rows. When saved as an .wps the table in LO 3.4.4
appears as:

[OBJ][OBJ][OBJ][OBJ]

Test
Test1
....
Test17

In other words, the table is not present & instead converted to text.
Note: I just filled the table with Test, Test1 etc. No idea what the '
[OBJ][OBJ][OBJ][OBJ]' bits are about.

I then saved the same file (from MS Works) as a .doc file & reopened in
OOo 3.3.0 (table appears fine, albeit outside the page text borders),
and in LO 3.4.4 with the same results as OOo 3.3.0. I'd have to
uninstall LO 3.4.4 to test with LO 3.3.4, perhaps a Win7 user w/LO 3.3.4
can test as well?

Just tested with Win7 LO 3.3.4 I it does the same... only worse: it
strikesthrough each 'Test'.

#6

Hi,

I think that LO would be making a mistake by not continuing to support
MS Works files (at the the newer versions), at least to properly open
and display the files.

Well, the question hasn't been put to the engineering committee as far as I know, so one way for it to become more visible would be to open a bug report requesting improvement of the MSWorks import filter. As with most everything else in LO development, if people need that functionality so badly, then they can help themselves...to help themselves, by either getting stuck into the code or finding someone they can pay/bribe/persuade to fix it.

Alex

#7

Hi :slight_smile:
How do we make sure 'they' don't delete the MS Works filters?  Is it likely to be possible to move them into an Extension?
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#8

Hi Tom,

Hi :slight_smile:
How do we make sure 'they' don't delete the MS Works filters? Is it likely to be possible to move them into an Extension?
Regards from

I think you misunderstood me, or I didn't express myself clearly enough.

The WPS filters aren't going to be deleted AFAIK, just the legacy
StarOffice binary filters. These have already become an optional build
time module in the source tree, i.e. they are no longer built and
supplied by default with the basic installation set.

Alex

#9

John Gregson <jfgregson <at> shaw.ca> writes:

First, I want to thank all who replied to to my first Posting.
I'm using Win7
Libre Office 3.4.4

I can now open some of the MS Works, Word Processor files (.WPS)
However, I find that any Works file .wps; that has a Table in it will
not open in Libre Office.
Am I missing something?

Hello John,
yes, unfortunately, the library libwps (used in LibreOffice) does
not actually know how to read a table structure ; so normally,
a file which contains some tables must be converted in a new
file without any table.

This functionality is pretty difficult to add because :
- with the oldest versions of MS Works, a table seems to be
  stored in a WKS attachment ; so first, we will need to
  decode the WKS format :slight_smile:
- with the newer versions of MS Works, even if for each table,
  it seems possible to find the zones of text which appear
  in its cells, retrieving the table structure (ie. finding the
  position of each cell in the table, ... ) seems difficult :-~

       Osnola.

PS: if you want to add a bug/request for this functionality, the
best place is probably http://sourceforge.net/projects/libwps/
( tracker menu )...

#10

Hi

  I think that it would be better if LO support MS Work directly but the
windows users can instal LO or OpenOffice to solve the problems too. It
is esear for all.

Regards,

Jorge Rodriguez