Filter Available for Microsoft Word 7.0?

[Steve Deville]

I'm starting to see folks sending me attachments in Microsoft Word 7.0 that I'd like to be able to open in Open Office. Does anyone know if a filter exists for this file format and, if so, how to obtain it?

I went to the Open Office download site and started downloading the latest version under the hope it would include this filter. It's now been 2 hours and (so far) it's downloaded 87MB with no end in sight -- no indication of how big the file is, so I don't know if it will be done in another five minutes or five days. And, once done, I don't know if it will include the filter I need.

In the meantime I've been searching the OpenOrg site for any info on filters. Seems like a pretty basic question -- but no hits other than a forum reply from last October.

Any info would be appreciated. Additionally, I'd appreciate knowing if I can subscribe to OO updates (e.g., patches, new filters) -- so that I can just get these files when available instead of taking a chance with a multi-hour download of the whole thing every so often.
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Steve

[Corfy]

To my knowledge, OOo 2.2 doesn't have the filter yet, but I haven't gotten it, so I'm not sure.

Novell has written a filter for OpenOffice.org to be able to open OpenXML files (OpenXML being Microsoft's new file format), but to my knowledge, that is only available for Novell's version of OpenOffice.org... for now. I think it will get incorporated into the regular OpenOffice.org program eventually, but I'm not sure of the time table.

You have to remember that the OpenXML format is still extremely new. It has only been out for less than 2 months. To contrast, OpenOffice.org's default file format, OpenDocument Format, has been out for nearly two years, and Microsoft Office doesn't support it, either.

As for the sizes of 2.2: Linux 109M | SolarisSparc 112M | Solarisx86 103M | Win 82M
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Laugh at life or life will laugh at you.

[Steve Deville]

Corfy,

Thank you for the quick reply.

I've confirmed that the newest download (OO 2.1) does not include the MS 7.0 (OpenXML) filter.

Microsoft's heavy-handed tactic of using their clout to drive their own proprietary practices as de facto standards is (yet another) reason why I refuse to buy their application software. And OO's historic flexibility in being able to relatively seamlessly handle these different formats is an important counter to that strategy.

So... I look forward to the day when (so-called) OpenXML filters are available for OO.

Thanks again.
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Steve