Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

I have an online student who uses Writer Ooo 3.1 while I use Word 2007. I graded a paper she submitted as a .rtf using Comments in Word and saved it as a .rtf. When she opens the file she reports that she is unable to see the Comments/Notes or the litte triangles to indicate there is a note. She has tried a few things (Ctrl+F10 and F5), which haven't worked. Could someone please give me step by step (click here) instructions for how to display the notes in Writer? I want her to be able to see them on the side of the paper as I have seen in several screen shots of 3.1. I don't have the program and have read everything on this forum I could find related to the notes feature and could not find any good step by step instructions. I want to be able to add these to my list of "how to view my comments using your word processing software list". Thanks in advance.

First, thank you for caring about your student! We usually see students who are desperate to send papers to their teachers in a proper way but that's the first time I see a teacher doing the opposite.

Sadly, it's not supported, see [Issue] Saving notes in .rtf (Issue 51469). If there is no complex formatting, you could use .doc format. Beware that versions 3.0.1 and 3.1.0 had troubles saving tables in .doc exported files.

The Teacher can install OO and run it in parallel with MS Office. The only problem will be to make sure MS Office opens all .doc files and OO opens all .odt files, but they are simple settings to sort out.

Thanks for the link Hagar, I had not tried to search for .rtf issues. This is disappointing given the universal nature of .rtf. I use it because of this and because the lack of macros lowers the virus risk. I think I'll just convert her graded file to a .pdf so she can see the comments. I post most course documents as .pdf so this seems the simplest solution. This will become a bigger hassle if I begin getting more students using OO.

I don't have admin privileges on my office computer so installing OO would be a bit of a hassle. I have considered using it on my next home computer because I am not a big fan of MS but this issue makes it a deal breaker at this time. I'm going to leave the topic open for a few more days just in case there are any other good work around ideas. Thanks to all.

I think I'll just convert her graded file to a .pdf so she can see the comments. I post most course documents as .pdf so this seems the simplest solution. This will become a bigger hassle if I begin getting more students using OO.

It would be easier just to save the marked documents in .doc format as OOo has no problems reading notes from those files. As you are using MSO 2007, you could even send them back as .odt files

As an alternative you can install OOo Portable to a USB stick and then run it from there. You don't need to install to your computer.

PortableApps

Cambirder wrote:As you are using MSO 2007, you could even send them back as .odt files

Well, the support is less than correct! See MS Office 2007 to support ODF in SP2.

Thanks for the information. I am going to go ahead and try saving in .odt in Word 2007. I'll let you know if it works. If it doesn't, I will try .doc. If I do have to try that method, does it matter if it is .doc or .docx?

At this point in the semester I am not prepared to download OOo to a flashdrive and play with it. I have 200 students emailing, calling, and stopping by my office and a mountain of papers and exams to grade. But it is interesting to know that I could try that between semesters. I am very interested in learning more OOo as I plan to purchase a new laptop in about 6 months.

chewieweim wrote:does it matter if it is .doc or .docx?

OOo cannot save as .docx. See also those ones then:
- Say NO to the new MS Office OOXML format as ISO standard
- Microsoft OOXML: Dead Format Walking

Wow! I had no idea how complicated the formatting of documents could be. I sent her a .odt file and it worked fine. Thanks for everyone's help.