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I have many Word docs (docx) files with embedded spreadsheets (Office 2021 and 2016 created on the lates version of Windows). Spreadsheets are embedded and not linked. File contains several dozen pages. Each page begins with a date, typed at the top, several blank lines, followed by an embedded spread. When I open the docx file in Writer, I can see the date, the curser can moved down several lines, then stops, like writer is "seeing" something. But there are no embedded spreadsheets. What am I doing wrong?

Welcome to the Forums.
it's very possible, even likely, that you are doing nothing wrong. OpenOffice just might not recognize the embedded spreadsheets.
You could try using LibreOffice which has a higher compatibility level with Microsoft's formats than what OpenOffice does. In fact, this would be my first suggestion.

Thanks, RusselB! I'll give it a try.

OLE (object linking and embedding) is a Microsoft technology. The embedded object is opened by whatever application uses the right magic spells in the Windows registry. OpenOffice does not register itself as host for embedded Microsoft douments.

Sadly typical. LbreOffice won't open the embedded spreadsheet either. Looks like I’ll have to send more money to Microsoft.

Thanks to all who commented.

Before sending more money, you might try http://www.zamzar.com to convert the file to an OpenDocument format

huskerkevin wrote:Looks like I’ll have to send more money to Microsoft.

You might better try to get a fix for LibreOffice. There are already related bug (or feature request) reports, but they may be too specialized, badly worded, and/or put aside for unknown reasons.
"Create a way to re-associate an embedded OLE object with an appropriate application available on the opening system." might be a rather clear wording for what's needed.

RusselB wrote:...you might try http://www.zamzar.com to convert the file...

Am I the only one who is suspecting "benevolent" "free" services needing a powerful (costly) background to be baits? If somehing is swaying before my eyes and smells well, I'm looking for the line.

I neither have a "Word" nor an "Excel", and can't create an example for myself.
Could somebody supply such an example for the studies I would like to start.

I try to create an example tomorrow at work.

Usually we only associate file-types to AOO/LO.
Here we have to find out, wich reference is used.
Windows will have it's own system to store this as COM/OLE are quite old techniques. (Wikipedia states some info on related objects is stored in the registry)

And even after a possible edit the result have to be givven back to the calling program, instead of a regular save.

J.

If it comes to conversion, exporting embedded objects, converting them, and re-inserting them into the converted parent document might be an option. Without being able to study an example, I can't tell if this is as complictated as it sounds. Sometimes the LibO API supports complex tasks well.

I prepared 2 .doc files with Word 2003 running on old Win7
one contains a .xls from Excel 2003 one a .ods of LO 6.0.7.3 - 32 bit

Original Filenames for the Spreadsheets were Mappe1.xls and Map1.ods
I just dragged the closed Spreadsheets via Drag-n-drop from the Explorer in the text.

I can open both file with LO 6.0.7.3 / Writer and the spreadsheet is visible, can be edited with LO Calc for both files,
while Word will call Excel in one case and opens Calc with Navigator in the second case.

J.

PS: I will try the same on Win10 later...

LO 6.0 and 7.1 on Linux open both embedded objects in place when double-clicked.
AOO on Linux opens them in separate Calc windows.

Mountaineer wrote:I prepared 2 .doc files with Word 2003 running on old Win7

The topic concerns DOCX format, not DOC.

MrProgrammer wrote:

Mountaineer wrote:I prepared 2 .doc files with Word 2003 running on old Win7

The topic concerns DOCX format, not DOC.

and huskerkevin runs OpenOffice which opens all docx documents read-only anyway. I think that the problem can be solved by installing LibreOffice.

https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/li ... penoffice/

MrProgrammer wrote:

Mountaineer wrote:I prepared 2 .doc files with Word 2003 running on old Win7

The topic concerns DOCX format, not DOC.

a bit patience please, when I wasting my time using MS.stuff I barely remember....
(I have a archived system on my machine, but I don't have something current.
There I needed to use the machine of one of our last MS-Office-Users....)

Here are 2 docx Files made with MS Office professional 2019 Win 10 - both open without problems in LO Version 6.0.7.3 /32 bit and differ only a bit in how the table was embedded.

As huskerkevin works on a Mac there may also be a problem with the OS.
Maybe it is no longer allowed to switch between applications via OLE or it
has to be allowed....

J.

huskerkevin wrote:But there are no embedded spreadsheets. What am I doing wrong?

Mac FAQ Q55: Why can't I open the "new" Microsoft formats, DOCX/XLSX/PPTX?

Mountaineer wrote:Here are 2 docx Files made with MS Office professional 2019 Win 10 - both open without problems in LO Version 6.0.7.3 /32 bit and differ only a bit in how the table was embedded.

Thank you for the DOCX attachments, Mountaineer.

I opened OLEWordExcel.docx and OLEWordExcelV2.docx with AOO 4.1.7 on MacOS 10.14.6. Both show the text but not the embedded spreadsheet.

I opened OLEWordExcel.docx and OLEWordExcelV2.docx with Pages, which is a word processor included with MacOS. I'm sure the OP's system has Pages. Both show the text and the embedded spreadsheet. The OP should direct any questions about Pages to an Apple forum.

I opened OLEWordExcel.docx and OLEWordExcelV2.docx with TextEdit, which is a "rich text" processor included with MacOS. I am sure the OP's system has TextEdit. Both show the text but not the embedded spreadsheet. The OP should direct any questions about TextEdit to an Apple forum.

I opened OLEWordExcel.docx and OLEWordExcelV2.docx with Preview, which is a image processor included with MacOS. I am sure the OP's system has Preview. Both show the text and the embedded spreadsheet. The OP should direct any questions about Preview to an Apple forum.

I opened OLEWordExcel.docx and OLEWordExcelV2.docx with QuickLook, which is a file viewer included with MacOS. I am sure the OP's system has QuickLook. Both show the text and the embedded spreadsheet. The OP should direct any questions about QuickLook to an Apple forum.

Both DOCX files contain the embedded spreadsheet in the ZIP archive.

$ zipinfo OLEWordExcel.docx 
Archive:  OLEWordExcel.docx
Zip file size: 25124 bytes, number of entries: 16
-rw----     4.5 fat     1603 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 [Content_Types].xml
-rw----     4.5 fat      590 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 _rels/.rels
-rw----     4.5 fat     1250 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 word/_rels/document.xml.rels
-rw----     4.5 fat    18184 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 word/document.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat     9576 b- stor 80-Jan-01 00:00 word/embeddings/Microsoft_Excel_Worksheet.xlsx
-rw----     4.5 fat     8387 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 word/theme/theme1.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat     4000 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 word/media/image1.emf
-rw----     4.5 fat     2844 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 word/settings.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat     1419 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 word/fontTable.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat      296 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 customXml/_rels/item1.xml.rels
-rw----     4.5 fat      341 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 customXml/itemProps1.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat    29155 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 word/styles.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat      988 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 docProps/app.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat      733 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 docProps/core.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat      655 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 word/webSettings.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat      241 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 customXml/item1.xml
16 files, 80262 bytes uncompressed, 21032 bytes compressed:  73.8%
$ zipinfo OLEWordExcelV2.docx 
Archive:  OLEWordExcelV2.docx
Zip file size: 25061 bytes, number of entries: 16
-rw----     4.5 fat     1603 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 [Content_Types].xml
-rw----     4.5 fat      590 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 _rels/.rels
-rw----     4.5 fat     1250 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 word/_rels/document.xml.rels
-rw----     4.5 fat    18186 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 word/document.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat     9308 b- stor 80-Jan-01 00:00 word/embeddings/Microsoft_Excel_Worksheet.xlsx
-rw----     4.5 fat     8387 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 word/theme/theme1.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat     5444 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 word/media/image1.emf
-rw----     4.5 fat     2865 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 word/settings.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat     1419 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 word/fontTable.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat      296 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 customXml/_rels/item1.xml.rels
-rw----     4.5 fat      341 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 customXml/itemProps1.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat    29155 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 word/styles.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat      988 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 docProps/app.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat      733 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 docProps/core.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat      655 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 word/webSettings.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat      306 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 customXml/item1.xml
16 files, 81526 bytes uncompressed, 20969 bytes compressed:  74.3%

I can extract the spreadsheet with UNZIP. I realize not all OpenOffice users will have the technical skills to do that.

$ unzip -j OLEWordExcel.docx \*.xlsx
Archive:  OLEWordExcel.docx
 extracting: Microsoft_Excel_Worksheet.xlsx  
$ zipinfo Microsoft_Excel_Worksheet.xlsx 
Archive:  Microsoft_Excel_Worksheet.xlsx
Zip file size: 9576 bytes, number of entries: 12
-rw----     4.5 fat     1284 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 [Content_Types].xml
-rw----     4.5 fat      588 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 _rels/.rels
-rw----     4.5 fat      698 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 xl/_rels/workbook.xml.rels
-rw----     4.5 fat     1518 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 xl/workbook.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat      222 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 xl/sharedStrings.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat      322 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 xl/worksheets/_rels/sheet1.xml.rels
-rw----     4.5 fat     8384 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 xl/theme/theme1.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat     1620 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 xl/styles.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat     1361 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 xl/worksheets/sheet1.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat      599 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 docProps/core.xml
-rw----     4.5 fat     1364 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 xl/printerSettings/printerSettings1.bin
-rw----     4.5 fat      816 b- defS 80-Jan-01 00:00 docProps/app.xml
12 files, 18776 bytes uncompressed, 6302 bytes compressed:  66.4%

I can open the extracted XLSX file with either Calc or Numbers, which is a spreadsheet included with MacOS. I'm sure the OP's system has Numbers. The OP should direct any questions about Numbers to an Apple forum.

OO Linux does not show any object embedded in the docx.
LO 6 and 7 display the objects and make them editable.

Lupp wrote:

RusselB wrote:...you might try http://www.zamzar.com to convert the file...

Am I the only one who is suspecting "benevolent" "free" services needing a powerful (costly) background to be baits? If somehing is swaying before my eyes and smells well, I'm looking for the line.

That is the sensible thing to do. There is always a cashflow. Everyone needs to be aware of that. Thanks for reminding us!

True, that free service is bait, but they seem quite honest about that. The "line" is there in plain sight. Nothing covert about this as far as I can tell.

Free service limits input file size to 50MB and throughput to 2 files per day.

Paid service on different levels increases allowed file size, lifts the file count limit and adds shareable (to some extent) cloud storage.

This "credible business model" is why Zamzar is also my go-to recommendation for file conversion. Other services may offer more or charge less. Some are legit, and some have covert elements. If I cannot see where cashflow is generated, I leave it alone.

MrProgrammer wrote:Both DOCX files contain the embedded spreadsheet in the ZIP archive.
...
I can extract the spreadsheet with UNZIP. I realize not all OpenOffice users will have the technical skills to do that.

On Windows

1. rename fred.odt to fred.zip
2. Double click fred.zip - it opens just like a normal folder and the file can be used.