Opening MS.doc files

[AliOop]

I use my Linux box for my own personal use as well as an on going hobbie. As such I don't need an office suite for business. So it's not of great important. Recently my wife sent me a MSWord list of things to do. A 'honey-do' list. I could not open it with Abiword or with OO. All indications point to the fact that I should be able to open these MS.doc files. I now realize how important it is to be able open those files. How do I go about doing so? What do I have to do to my Abiword or for that matter Open Office files so Windows users can open them? It might be something other know already but I find myself in the dark on this matter. Can someone enlighten me?

By the way, because I don't have a pressing for an office suite, I use Abiword because it opens faster and it does all the things I need. At this time I find Open Office a bit too bulky and cummbersome for my simple needs.

[desipher]

You have 2 options first try install open office (http://www.openoffice.org/) or install wine which is emulator to open ms office programs. (http://www.winehq.com/)

[imdeemvp]

AliOop,

you should be able to open any M$ Word document with Open Office because it has the capability.

are you sure it was written in ms word?

you said you could not open it with OOo or abiword, were there any error messages? and what version of word does she have? (sadly, there are imcopatibilities between versions of word, too)

[imdeemvp]

may i add that i've been able to open any ms word doc...including from version '97

[AliOop]

Wow! What quick replies. I received this list via an email. I'll have to look again and see what error messages I got. It's 1AM here (best time for me to fool around with my Linux) and time to hit the sack. I'll get back.

P.S. Taking notice of the times on these post, looks like I'm not the only night owl.

text maybe, but embeded grahics are just left out

[Varkk]

Tell her to use an open document format, but if all else fails just read the file as plain text and sift through the garbage that word adds in to find the text in the document

[taylor65]

Actually, just tell her to install openoffice on her Windows PC so she can share documents with linux, unix, and Mac users.

[ewdi]

I think openoffice have problem opening Office Xp 2003 doc file, it loses formating and more.

[David]

it's not a simple case of having forgotten to install the MS fonts is it? Until you do this you won't be able to open Word files and it's not installed by default for liscencing reasons.

[AliOop]

Could be David in on to something. Here is the error message:

AbiWord cannot open /tmp/Grocery/Work List-3.wps. It appears to be an invalid document

At first, because I was on my testbox (Slackware) I thought the problem was with it. Slackware is a works in progress. But that is not the case. Because Slackware does not come with OO by default I switched to my main box (Fedora) and the results are the same. A slightly different but similar message using OpenOffice pops up. But with OO a box with option for different formats, WinWord 97,95, StarOffice, etc opens. It made no different which I picked, still would not open file. Could it be the problem is missing MS fonts? I can't recall installing any fonts on the initial installation. I'm using what ever came with it. If so, how do I go about installing these fonts? Can I use Yum to do so? Thanks

[JonR]

Originally Posted by AliOop

Could be David in on to something. Here is the error message:

AbiWord cannot open /tmp/Grocery/Work List-3.wps.

Isn't .wps a Microsoft Works file and not a .doc Word file? I don't have Works here to test this out but I can't recall seeing anything anywhere that says OO reads Works documents...

[sailor]

if it is a "works" file that may be the problem...works files don't even work in some MSoffice versions...for some reason MS made the formats different and it requires a convertor...it the file were saved as a word 97 or word 2000 format , OO should have no problem reading it....I just worked with MSO 97 docs last night on my linux box....

[AliOop]

I think I have my wife do as sailorsgh suggest and see what happens. Thanks for all the input. What a great forum!