Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2005 7:51 am Post subject: problems with converter neooffice and ms word
hi i`ve got some problems with my files ...
some of my files which i use are made with word 2000
if i change a little bit on the layout of the document ... like deleting some
break`s or something like that, i save the document with save as in ms file format .doc ... after clicking save neooffice tells me that something is wrong with the file format when saving into annother format then neooffice ... i know this message but the time before it worked without problems ... ok he told me this message this was the only problem ... after closing the file i reopen the file ... and all layout work i`ve done is away ...
if i save my document to neooffice format the changes theres no problem ... no message and it works after closing and reopen ...
i`ve also tryed to save in neo format and convert it after doing my changes to word format ... but it won`t work ... is this a problem made by myself or is there another problem ?
i run a power book titan with 768 mb of ram 40 gb hd and 400 mhz
system is mac os x 10.3.8 darwin ...
thanks for helping me
Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2005 11:32 am Post subject: Re: problems with converter neooffice and ms word
wolli wrote:
hi i`ve got some problems with my files ...
some of my files which i use are made with word 2000
if i change a little bit on the layout of the document ... like deleting some
break`s or something like that, i save the document with save as in ms file format .doc
after clicking save neooffice tells me that something is wrong with the file format when saving into annother format then neooffice
It appears as if the file's permissions are corrupt. If you can do the following:
Rename the file in Finder. If this does not work, that means you no longer have permission as User to change the file and that MS Office is saving the file as another, possibly System Administrator type, user. This is definately NOT a NeoOffice problem. This appears to be a bug in MS Office, and may not get fixed.
If renaming the file worked. Open NeoOffice and try to save the file as the ORIGINAL name.doc. If this does not work, you may have a file system problem and your Mac needs some file system attention. If it does work, file a bug against NeoOffice that it cannot overwrite an existing file if saved in MS Office.
Joined: May 25, 2003 Posts: 4752 Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2005 11:50 pm Post subject:
Also note that OOo (and, by its design, NeoOffice), is "clever"...
When you save a file in a non OpenOffice.org/OpenDocument format, the application will display a "nag" warning at you saying that some formatting information will be lost unless you save the file in OpenOffice.org/OpenDocument format.
Is this warning meaningful? Yes and no...
Yes in the sense that it is true; you may lose some information when exporting to Microsoft Office formats, such as StarBasic OOo-specific macros and perhaps some formatting information for vector drawing, equations, and other complex elements.
The warning is not important, however, in the sense that if you save in a MS Office format the main content won't be lost. In fact, if you re-open that exported doc. in OOo you'll get a better feel for what you can't actually export to Microsoft formats (it's very limited in my experience).
It's a good warning in that it does remind people that the Microsoft and OOo formats aren't exactly 100% compatible with one another. It's a bad warning in the sense that it's really ominous and implies that users need to save in the OOo format.
That sucks, IMHO, since it seems to "trick" people into using an open format that, for better or for worse, is not able to be read by 90% of the standard business office suites in use. For me, tricking people into thinking the OpenOffice.org/OASIS format is some type of a "requirement" is sleazy.
Ignore the warning and you'll be fine alebit some lost bullet fonts, numbering, and equations. For simple documents and memos there's nearly no difference between savingin OOo and MS formats
"It's a good warning in that it does remind people that the Microsoft and OOo formats aren't exactly 100% compatible with one another. It's a bad warning in the sense that it's really ominous and implies that users need to save in the OOo format.
That sucks, IMHO, since it seems to "trick" people into using an open format that, for better or for worse, is not able to be read by 90% of the standard business office suites in use. For me, tricking people into thinking the OpenOffice.org/OASIS format is some type of a "requirement" is sleazy."
Exactly, the warning did indeed "scare" me when I first started using OOo and Neo/J but you get the "feel" for what it will and won't handle eventually (preserve when saved in .doc format). I still save everything in .doc format because that is "our reality" and that annoys me. (see post a few above re: NEVER reaching 100% compataibility as that takes cooperation on BOTH esides). Actually, I perfer to use Appleworks and roll the dice with whether MacLinks plus can handle the translation but that's another matter. Call me old-fashoned. I guess I'll try iWork eventually..
I was going to post the same thing earlier as it seemed like the original poster was over reacting to the warning in the intial save dialog box and also in the confirming dialog box when you close a document or exit the program(s), which I can understand with the way the boxes are worded.
Joined: May 25, 2003 Posts: 4752 Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2005 9:26 pm Post subject:
Can you think of any better wording for those warnings? I'm sure at least we could change them in NeoJ to be a bit friendlier or at least a bit more relevant. We should be able to change the wording in the res files.
As to the size reduction...this is another pet peeve of mine and one of my reasons why I do hate claims that the OOo format is superior based on size arguments...
The OOo file format is compressed automatically. It's using zlib to save its XML files as compressed archives (note to self, check the version of zlib within OOo to see if that zlib buffer overflow fix is in there). This really is cheating...if you try to re-compress OOo files you get much less compression than for Office files.
To be fair to Microsoft, the "savings" should really be compared after both have been gzipped
Can you think of any better wording for those warnings? I'm sure at least we could change them in NeoJ to be a bit friendlier or at least a bit more relevant. We should be able to change the wording in the res files.
Yes, but we'll need them in a lot of languages..
Something like:
"In some cases, particularly if complicated formatting options or BASIC functions are used, this document might not convert perfectly to Microsoft Word XP/2000/97 format. Would you like to save these changes in Neo/J text document format instead?"
"For some documents, saving in a external file format can cause a loss of data. Are you sure you wish to close this file?"
Not sure if this is much better...
-Oscar _________________ "What do you think of Western Civilization?"
"I think it would be a good idea!"
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
If you want to change the wording in OOo resource files, I really suggest that you to the OOo people. Although Ed makes it sound trivial, it is not in the Neo/J build. As such, I put this type of change in the same category as reorganizing all of the menus, etc.
Joined: May 25, 2003 Posts: 4752 Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2005 4:17 pm Post subject:
Wonk, yeah, I forgot about the translations and the like. Sorry if I made it sound easier then it really is, me stupid American. I only speak English and C++ and some pidgin Objective C...
Wonk, yeah, I forgot about the translations and the like. Sorry if I made it sound easier then it really is, me stupid American. I only speak English and C++ and some pidgin Objective C...
ed
Ed and the others:
I'm another of those "stupid Americans" but I speak/read/write more than one language (some of them are quite interesting and it is a long story). However, I agree with Patrick that changing/adding languages to NeoOffice's warning messages may be an OpenOffice task. Maybe I will look at the Linux version (which the International upgrades are over 600MB) and see how they did it (if they have). I'm thinking that Internationalization and Localization (I work daily with a product that has accomplished the latter but not the first) can be a challanging and heartbreaking project.
I think that Patrick/Ed added languages and with those language packages the error/warning messages could be replaced with the Localized messages. If this is not true, then something can be done, but this may have to be on the OpenOffice level and not just with NeoOffice/J.
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