HELP Using word with open office

flopsy1973

Hi
Recently find myself out of a job and its been a long time since i needed to do CV etc. I have my CV saved in word format sent from my old place of work, I dont have word on my laptop but Open office writer but everytime i try and save things there i run into problems as lot of sites only accept uploads in .doc format and open office uses .odt so then i cant upload CV on to applications. there is option of saving open office in another format but what should i be using to keep the contents same as original word document ? Are there any good sites out there with guides  to help me as i am spending hours trying to use open office 
Another problem i had was i saved and opened my CV with google docs and saved to drive but how do i transfer my files on drive to my documents folder on the laptop. Any help please appreciated

Keep_pedalling

The best format for CVs is PDF which I would have thought all employers would accept. You can export any file created in OpenOffice as a PDF document. From the file tab select Export as then choose PDF. 

On a separate point, OpenOffice gets very few updates these days, and it would probably looking at moving to LibreOffice as a replacement. 

Little_bit_taller

Hi flopsy1973
If you can open your Google account on your laptop then you can just download, via the download option, the file onto your documents folder.
I would just stick to using Google Docs for editing your CV as it is free and will be supported for some time to come
Hope this makes sense.

Grumpy_chap

Keep_pedalling said:

The best format for CVs is PDF which I would have thought all employers would accept. 

I agree.
Recruitment Agencies will sometimes require a Word document as they want to edit the document to delete any personal identifiers and replace with their own branding and "Candidate 123456" anonymisation.

Neil49

You can change the default Save As settings in Open Office (and Libre Office) from odt to docx.

I'm on my Android tablet so can't check the procedure but it's in something in Settings and General from what I recall. I'm sure you can Google it. 

Alternatively, use Libre Office which definitely saves in docx once you change the default from odt to docx

YBR

As per previous posters, I'd recommend LibreOffice instead.

In LibreOffice, from the file menu you can either export as pdf or select Save as had have doc/docx as options.

(I'd expect these options to be similar in OpenOffice but haven't used it for a while)

(I'd always submit in pdf these days after an agency edited my CV format without mentioning it and I went to an interview and didn't recognise what the the interviewers had in front of them. On closer examination the content was OK, but ...).

outtatune

Don't use .doc - use .docx instead. In fact I'd be surprised if any company would accept a .doc file these days, and if they did I'd probably want to stay clear of them.

flopsy1973

Little_bit_taller said:

Hi flopsy1973
If you can open your Google account on your laptop then you can just download, via the download option, the file onto your documents folder.
I would just stick to using Google Docs for editing your CV as it is free and will be supported for some time to come
Hope this makes sense.

Downloaded fine then when i go and try save it no option to save as docx in open office?
The export works but does that change the original document so that i cant go back and edit later?
I have documents saved in odt from open office which i then cant use to upload on job sites as they dont accept odt
If i started with libre now would that work with the documents i have done so far with open office?
Is there quick way to delete the mass of rubbish in my downloads i only want to keep a few of files
Many thanks

400ixl

The easiest answer if you are familiar with Microsoft Office is to use the free online version at https://www.office.com which will do everything you need to for a CV and will allow you to also save a copy as a PDF.

Good luck with the job search.

Keep_pedalling

flopsy1973 said:

Little_bit_taller said:

Hi flopsy1973
If you can open your Google account on your laptop then you can just download, via the download option, the file onto your documents folder.
I would just stick to using Google Docs for editing your CV as it is free and will be supported for some time to come
Hope this makes sense.

Downloaded fine then when i go and try save it no option to save as docx in open office?
The export works but does that change the original document so that i cant go back and edit later?
I have documents saved in odt from open office which i then cant use to upload on job sites as they dont accept odt
If i started with libre now would that work with the documents i have done so far with open office?
Is there quick way to delete the mass of rubbish in my downloads i only want to keep a few of files
Many thanks

When you export as a PDF it creates a new file you can still edit the original odf file later, just make sure you save it before exporting on on closing it down. 

LibraOffice will be able to open all your existing odf documents it uses the same format as its default. 

400ixl

The OP really doesn't need LibraOffice, that is just adding additional software and confusing matters.

Microsoft killed the need for LibraOffice , OpenOffice and the like years ago when they launched the free online version of Office which has all the features most people need in a UI that they are familiar with from work / school.

They may be familiar with the Google suite, in which case that is also available and free.