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Word Processing Problems - Word,Works and Open Office!
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thistledome
Posts: 1,566 Forumite
in Techie Stuff
Hello all
I hope somebody here has had the same problem as me and can help.
OH is a small sole trader and I do the invoices. Up until this year we had a "borrowed" copy of MS Word from a family member (yes, I know -serves us right). Old hard drive died and since then we have used Works Word processor for the invoices but it drives me nuts with random crashes and other faults (i.e., click in a table and all the text disappears and other odd things).
Downloaded Open Office and it won't open Works files. When I re-saved them as rich text format it opened them but they were unusable. A 1 page invoice is now a 13 page document with a few (or no) words on each page.
What am I doing wrong?
Getting v frustrated as I've got over 400 invoices that I will have to convert. I had this problem before with Open Office and uninstalled it, but I thought I'd try again as Works is really rubbish.
I hope somebody here has had the same problem as me and can help.
OH is a small sole trader and I do the invoices. Up until this year we had a "borrowed" copy of MS Word from a family member (yes, I know -serves us right). Old hard drive died and since then we have used Works Word processor for the invoices but it drives me nuts with random crashes and other faults (i.e., click in a table and all the text disappears and other odd things).
Downloaded Open Office and it won't open Works files. When I re-saved them as rich text format it opened them but they were unusable. A 1 page invoice is now a 13 page document with a few (or no) words on each page.
What am I doing wrong?
Getting v frustrated as I've got over 400 invoices that I will have to convert. I had this problem before with Open Office and uninstalled it, but I thought I'd try again as Works is really rubbish.
Love the animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled. Do not trouble their joy, don't harrass them, don't deprive them of their happiness.
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Comments
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If you have a recent version of Works, you should be able to "Save as" in Word 97-2003 (.doc) format, and OpenOffice should open that no problem.
You may find minor formatting differences will make the layout look slightly different, but they typically aren't a major problem.0 -
Thanks very much
It did work, and the formatting was a tiny bit off, but at least it was usable and all on one page.
Another question though if it's not too cheeky, when I opened the .doc with Open Office and then closed it again it asked me to save it as an ODF. Should I? I've never heard of ODF before.Love the animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled. Do not trouble their joy, don't harrass them, don't deprive them of their happiness.0 -
thistledome wrote: »it asked me to save it as an ODF. Should I? I've never heard of ODF before.
No
Save it as Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP (.doc)
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.0 -
Blimey that was quick, thank youLove the animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled. Do not trouble their joy, don't harrass them, don't deprive them of their happiness.0
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thistledome wrote: »Thanks very much
It did work, and the formatting was a tiny bit off, but at least it was usable and all on one page.
Another question though if it's not too cheeky, when I opened the .doc with Open Office and then closed it again it asked me to save it as an ODF. Should I? I've never heard of ODF before.Hi, we’ve had to remove your signature. If you’re not sure why please read the forum rules or email the forum team if you’re still unsure - MSE ForumTeam0 -
DVardysShadow wrote: »You have had 'No'. But equally, if you are happy with Open Office then 'Yes'. You won't lose Open Office in the same way as you lost Word, so you can always download again and reinstall.
Can ODF documents be opened by Word? We don't normally have to send invoices to other companies, but if we did and they didn't have Open Office would they be able to open ODF invoices?
Sorry if that's a daft questionLove the animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled. Do not trouble their joy, don't harrass them, don't deprive them of their happiness.0 -
No, Microsoft would hate the idea of OpenOffice ever becoming popular, so I doubt they will ever include an import function for .odf files.
If you think you might in future need to send invoices via email I'd stick to .doc format.0 -
No, Microsoft would hate the idea of OpenOffice ever becoming popular, so I doubt they will ever include an import function for .odf files.
If you think you might in future need to send invoices via email I'd stick to .doc format.Hi, we’ve had to remove your signature. If you’re not sure why please read the forum rules or email the forum team if you’re still unsure - MSE ForumTeam0 -
Word 2007 with SP2 can create .pdf's directly. Now that Office 2010 is on its way, Office 2007 is cheaper than it used to be and I would have thought as a business it is worth paying for a legit copy of Office 2007 rather than the cost of time spent so far sorting out hassle.0
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Thank you all for your replies. I think I'll stick with .doc for now as it seems to work for everything I need. (Having said that, I just changed my default programme settings to Open Office and it seemed to make a new copy of my invoices for itself! I've got about 3 copies of most of them now (rtf,doc and wps) and I'll just delete the old ones).
blimey bristol_pilot, we're not ICI! My time's free as I'm a housewife and I'd rather not spend anything I don't have to - times are hard! Anway, we had a dodgy Office 2000 - I've had a look at the more modern MS Words and they look a bit high tec for my simple luddite taste.:o
I think I just need to get used to Open Office, I probably didn't give it a proper chance last time.
Thanks again all for helping.:ALove the animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled. Do not trouble their joy, don't harrass them, don't deprive them of their happiness.0
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