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Rafid
Asked: 2011-01-04 13:58:08 +0800 CST

Opening DocX Files

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I am doing some marking that requires me to open .docx file created using Microsoft Office 2007+. OpenOffice doesn't seem to be doing a good job for it, so far, hid all the images in the documents. Any idea if there is a program that is guaranteed to open .docx file correctly? Please pay attention to the word "guaranteed", because otherwise I might not be fair to the students.

software-recommendation windows microsoft-office file-format doc

5 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Google Docs sometimes does a better job with .docx files than Open Office does-- but definitely no guarantees.

    What should work -- though I wouldn't stake too much on this -- is to get a Windows Live account with Microsoft, upload the .docx file to your Microsoft "skydrive", and use the "Edit in Browser" option (which surprisingly sometimes works even on Linux). Since you're using Microsoft's own software, everything should be OK. I often get something to the effect that the document contains things that only work in standard Word, however, and then it won't let you open it. (Microsoft trying to get money out of you, of course.)

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  2. The only program that is guaranteed to open docx files correctly is Microsoft Office >= 2007. You could potentially try to run this in wine.

    You could require students to hand the work in using a decent file format, such as .odt, or at least the older .doc format, which OpenOffice handles well. This would make life easier for everyone.

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  3. Try LibreOffice 4.1, it loads .docx more compatible than previous version (4.0), mine is version 4.1.0.4, I've tried it to open a .docx file and compared it to LO v4.0.

    Kingsoft office (free proprietary program, available on .deb and .rpm) seems opens .docx more accurately than LO 4.1 and loads .pptx even better. I've tried this program to open a .docx files and compared it to LO 4.1, but I don't study it further to open other .docx files, but I think it will open other .docx better, you can try it.

    I also had have tried IBM Symphony maybe approximately 3 year ago, I abandoned it and sticked to OpenOffice.org (OOo) (at that time LibreOffice is not present yet), then I try again latest Symphony maybe 1 year ago just for review, I think there are improvements, but sticked again to LibreOffice (at that time I've change from OOo to LO) but I think I will prefer the Kingsoft and LO 4.1, LO 4.1 feel faster and stable now.

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  4. Web

    Google Docs

    Linux

    LibreOffice

    INSTALL LibreOffice

    Repository

     sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:libreoffice/ppa

    .

    sudo apt-get update

    .

    sudo apt-get install libreoffice libreoffice-style-breeze
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  5. You might try with another proprietary program. For instance, IBM Lotus Symphony is available for Ubuntu and is able to open .docx files. Perhaps it will give a better display than OpenOffice?

    It permits you not to create a Google or Windows Live account. Nonetheless you have to give an email address to IBM, but normally they won't bother you at any time.

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