Working on a word document

[bai.ganga]

I have been with Windows for nearly 15+ years and I am very comfortable with that. Recently, on advise of a friend, I installed Kubuntu 9.10, (kernel 2.6-31-21-generic is the version which I select during loading) with Windows XP as dual boot. I tried to open and modify a word document ( MS office 2007 version) from the Linux OS. Following problems noticed. Can someone advise what could be done?

1. When I clicked on the icon of that document which is lying in that part of hard disk which operates with windows OS, it opened with open office org version3.1. But, I see that the various fonts which I had used in the document are appearing so different from the original view seen in MS office as also the different colors which I had used in various portions of the text were all shown in single color. Can open office be made to show at least the original colors of the alphabets as existing in the document in .docx format? Even if the fonts appear to be different while the document is open in open office (probably that font is not installed in my system with open office?), it is OK. Later, if I open the same document in MS office, they should look exactly as they were originally - which is not happening. Also, please see item no:4 below about what exactly is happening.

2. When I tried to save the document after some modifications, a query window came which had the following question. The document may contain formatting or content that cannot be saved in MS Word 2007 XML file format. Do you want to save the document in this format anyway? Use the latest ODF file format and be sure all formatting and content is saved correctly. Below this message were two buttons. First one said Keep Current Forma and the second one said Save in ODF format.

3. In the above, if I click Keep current format, a new pop up window comes up saying Error saving the document C: . . . . . . (entire path & document name). General input/output error while assessing media C: . . . . (entire path & document name). After this. there is a button titled OK. If I press OK here, this window goes off.

4. If I press Save in ODF format, the document saves at the location I select. When I go back into Windows and check, the original document which I had is there exactly as it was (without any modification) and the newly saved file is there with all the data as I corrected while in Linux but all the different fonts have changed to a single type, all font colors are black only and there is a slight disturbance in the formatting. Originally I had added some pictures in JPEG format as well as pdf format into the document at different places. If I had edited the document using MS office 2007, the location of those pictures would have remained exactly there in relation to the document although they would have moved slightly down or up on the page - probably even to next page. With the editing done in open office 3.1 it was looking as if everything is going OK. But when the document saved in that ODF format is opened in MS office, the writings have disappeared under the pictures which have remained exactly where they were on the page earlier. And . . . it was extremely difficult to edit that document to get it back to its original form with MS office 2007.

[The Liquidator]

Re: Working on a word document

1. For a number of reasons kubuntu does not come with the windows fonts installed. As a result, any document created with fonts like Arial or Times New Roman will look quite different as Linux will replace those fonts with what it considers to be the closest possible match. You need to install the windows fonts and your quickest option is to install those on your windows system. Go to kmenu/system settings/fonts (or font installer) (IIRC - I'm at a Windows Box at the mo) and add all the fonts that are within the windows/fonts directory (CTRL+A then open). Ensure you use the system wide setting (which will require your password).

That will help of course, but you will never achieve perfect translation between the 2 simply because so much of the MS format is secret and the Openoffice developers have to reverse engineer so many things. As a result the more complex the formatting is the more difficult it will be to go from 1 to the other. You might also find Word 97-2003 format (which is what most people still seem to use) to work better.

2. The warning you are getting is exactly what I refer to in the above paragraph. The program is saying "saving in an alien format may result in imperfection". I've been running OOo for several years now and whilst I know many of the conversion tricks of the trade, such as picking numbering and listing types carefully (you will pick them up fairly quickly if you persevere) there are still some things that won't translate. Again, the more complex things are, the more likely you are to run into trouble.

3. The path c:\ xxxxx\xxxx etc is an invalid file-name to linux. I wonder whether reference to the file path is somehow embedded in the document and when you hit save it tries to take you back there. Presumably that is your my documents folder? If you want to use that from within OOo select tools/options and in the resulting pane configure the my documents path. As a result when you work on a document selecting save as will take you straight to the right directory. Whilst you are in that pane select load/save and under general you can configure your default document format - it will turn off the warnings referred to.

4. We've covered fonts and formats. However, moving graphics is due to differences in the way the 2 "anchor" pictures. From what I see, OOo is more regimented and methodical than MSO. With OOo writer open select view/toolbars/picture. Insert a small picture into a blank document and click on it. The toolbar will appear with an anchor symbol on it. Click on the anchor and see what happens to the picture under the various headings. You will be suprised at the various options, The one that seems most compatible with MSO to me is "as character". That seems to be the closest to the MSO "click and drag" and because it's as character tends to prevent the effect you describe. YMMV but try all the options and see what works. Having said all that is not the problem you describe at the end of paragraph 4 actually pointing out a deficiency in the way MSO handles ODF, which can hardly be the fault of Openoffice

Stick with it, you will as I say earlier, rapidly learn a few tricks. Try out the above and come back with the result please.

[dibl]

Re: Working on a word document

Yes, what Liquidator said.

And, I don't mean to be un-helpful, but the question is really not a Kubuntu-related question, and the better source for tips on OOO - MSO compatibility issues would probably be something like this: http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewforum.phtml?f=2

[zlow]

Re: Working on a word document

But, I see that the various fonts which I had used in the document are appearing so different from the original view seen in MS office as also the different colors which I had used in various portions of the text were all shown in single color.

You should be able to install the core fonts quite easily. They aren't in the default install for legal reasons, but it is simple to remedy.

sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

[askrieger]

Re: Working on a word document

I think that the package zlow was referring to, is actually called "ttf-mscorefonts-installer" in Kubuntu Lucid.

[Ole Juul]

Re: Working on a word document

The Liquidator: As a result, any document created with fonts like Arial or Times New Roman will look quite different as Linux will replace those fonts with what it considers to be the closest possible match.

I just checked and I have those fonts installed.

askrieger: I think that the package zlow was referring to, is actually called "ttf-mscorefonts-installer" in Kubuntu Lucid.

and I don't have "ttf-mscorefonts-installer". I wonder how I got them. Perhaps that is not what zlow was referring to. I remember a couple of years back wanting some MS fonts but I don't remember what I did. It would have been straight out of the repository though.

Anyway, this thread reminds me how a word processor just does not generate a portable document. One should not expect it to do so. If by some chance a document does look the same on another machine, then fine, but that is not the job of a word processor. For that purpose I recommend PDF, and OOo saves to that format like a charm.

[askrieger]

Re: Working on a word document

I do have a slew (60 files worth) of fonts in a directory called /usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts/. Some of them are links, though, so I don't know for sure where they all came from. Some of the files are dated as early as July 10, 1998. Since the computer on which I am typing this was acquired MUCH more recently than that (last year), it is possible that I transported the fonts over from an older machine. However, I do have the ttf-mscorefonts-installer package on this machine, so it is more likely that I got them after I installed Kubuntu. Admittedly, this machine ran windoze (NOT connected to the net) for a roughly 48 hour burn-in period, before I installed Kubuntu. So, I suppose that it is possible that the fonts have always been there, and survived a complete reformat of the hard drive to ext4, but I doubt it.

[bai.ganga]

Re: Working on a word document

Thank you all. After having a "glance" at the site of Open office as referred, I think I will get all the answers there.

[zlow]

Re: Working on a word document

I think that the package zlow was referring to, is actually called "ttf-mscorefonts-installer" in Kubuntu Lucid.

That's right, I forgot the package was renamed a few revs ago.

It should be in the restricted extras repo.

[bai.ganga]

Re: Working on a word document

Thank you all.