Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

I am trying to open WordPerfect files (WPD) from an old computer in OpenOffice 3.4 on my new computer and get nothing but pages after pages of gibberish and white space. I'm looking for suggestions on how to open these files properly. If the only option is to go file-by-file and save them as another format, which format would be recommended?

I appreciate any help provided!!

It looks like the wordperfect filters have been removed http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/ ... ct#p229657. Try Libreoffice http://www.libreoffice.org/ although I don't know what version they support. Attache a sample file here and I'll check it. See http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/ ... =74&t=8289.

LibreOffice claims to be able to open wordperfect files - I have none to try so I can't say how good a job it does. Whatever I would convert them to odt so you are not faced with this problem again.
If you don't want to commit to LO, or just want to try it out first, I would try running a virtual machine in VirtualBox and install LO there (using a Linux guest OS would avoid windows licencing problems).
Otherwise search for an online conversion service (I never quite trust them but others do)

May 16, 2012

The WordPerfect filters were removed due to licensing issues. The hope when it was removed was that it would be packaged as an extension. Since that decision a vulnerability has been discovered in the filter (message about it came today).

LibreOffice still has the filters.

Phil

Questions:

1. Will the LibreOffice WPD filters work in OO current (3.4) by simply moving some files into appropriate directories?
1.1 If so, which files and which directories?

2. If not, can the LibreOffice source code be "glued" into the current production OO source code and OO "custom" rebuilt?

I need to be able to import WP files for two reasons: existing WP files that now need to be converted to a current open word processor format,
and the same for Applix Word files. I have a licensed version of ApplixWare that converts to WP -- the conversion to RTF never worked in Applixware. At present, with OO WP support gone, I use ABIword to convert WP to ODT -- as ABIword does have this functionality. However, the fewer steps I need to use, the better.

Why not just use Libreoffice?

Or use Zamzar to convert them.

I have installed and am now contemplating the production use of LibreOffice. My reason for not using LibreOffice is that, unlike OO but like so many community efforts, it is not supported by paid professionals. Example: RedHat Enterprise obviously is so supported, but so is Scientific Linux (Fermilab/CERN) and so is the Princeton EL distribution; likewise, OO was supported first by Sun, and then Oracle, and now Apache. Only Apache is a non-profit under the history of StarOffice than OO (so that Sun could compete with Microsoft), but Apache still does have professional staff, not just volunteers (or so I have been told). However, when there is only volunteer development and support, things often do not get well done (some do, some do not). LibreOffice imported a WP file, converted it to LaTeX, and Kile (a LaTeX open systems GUI IDE of sorts) produced a PDF file acceptable to Adobe Acroread (the most common PDF reader used in my professional environment).

In this case, however, why should one continue with OO? I am not a purist -- I only care that the application works -- and whether it is BSD, GPL, or a proprietary open systems application (provided I can justify the license fee) ultimately does not matter.

not sure why you needed to go to LeTeX and then use Kile to get a pdf as both OOo and LO produce pdf output, that opens fine in Acrobat reader (or has done in my experience)

ykarant wrote:Questions:

1. Will the LibreOffice WPD filters work in OO current (3.4) by simply moving some files into appropriate directories?
1.1 If so, which files and which directories?

2. If not, can the LibreOffice source code be "glued" into the current production OO source code and OO "custom" rebuilt?

I need to be able to import WP files for two reasons: existing WP files that now need to be converted to a current open word processor format,
and the same for Applix Word files. I have a licensed version of ApplixWare that converts to WP -- the conversion to RTF never worked in Applixware. At present, with OO WP support gone, I use ABIword to convert WP to ODT -- as ABIword does have this functionality. However, the fewer steps I need to use, the better.

AFAIK, you only need the libwpd library installed and AOO will recognise it to load wordperfect files, so copying that library from a LibO install should be enough.

RGB wrote: AFAIK, you only need the libwpd library installed and AOO will recognise it to load wordperfect files, so copying that library from a LibO install should be enough.

I need to open WordPerfect files as well. Where do I get the libwpd library, and how do I install it?

dmn150 wrote:

RGB wrote: AFAIK, you only need the libwpd library installed and AOO will recognise it to load wordperfect files, so copying that library from a LibO install should be enough.

I need to open WordPerfect files as well. Where do I get the libwpd library, and how do I install it?

http://libwpd.sourceforge.net/

Edit: http://www.zamzar.com as suggested above may offer a simpler method

I think I need a little more help. The linked page introduces the libwpd file. How do I download and use it?

Hey, I'm with you all here. I can't get into my very numerous files either, so I went to the libwpd link, clicked on the download option on the left, and 3 (actually 6) options come up. How do you know which one you need? I'm running Windows 7 on 2 computers, one is 64 bit, the other 32. If I have to, I'll get an external dvd drive for this netbook and install wordperfect to avoid having to convert hundreds of files to some other format.

Whoa, just found that zamzar link there. Now that's an interesting option. You can convert bunches at once- now that's a possibility if there's just no way open office is going to open wordperfect files anymore. (What a bummer.) I will at least save that link to favorites.

jmwe29 wrote:Whoa, just found that zamzar link there. Now that's an interesting option. You can convert bunches at once- now that's a possibility if there's just no way open office is going to open wordperfect files anymore. (What a bummer.) I will at least save that link to favorites.

zamzar will have other flaws than this office suite. There is no tool able to handle proprietary file formats the same way as the original software does. This is not a short coming of this or that tool. It is simply not possible. Such a tool would require that someone spends billions of Dollars for the development of another office's clone (or at least millions with the help of the stolen source code) plus many more billions to pay some country for protecting you against the US.

Another way I have seen noted to convert WPD documents is to download Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003, Open the document in that, Ctrl A, Ctrl C to select and copy, then Paste Special to paste into into OpenOffice as RTF, for each file. {Last post in
http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=21406
}

No matter which method of conversion you use, there will certainly be some formatting adjustment required. If you have files in WPD format and you are ceasing to use Wordperfect, you should change all your files to some new format. Above I suspect the WPD format referred to is MS Works, not WordPerfect.

Quite frankly I have read through all this thread no finding a suitable answer. I use WordPerfect version X5 regularly because it has among others the feature "reveal codes" that does not exist in OpenOffice 3.4. With earlier versions of OpenOffice I had no problem switching from one to the other, but since version 3.4 no more. I guess you should contact Corel to stop this stupid commercial war -if this is the problem - and get WordPerfect files readable again in OpenOffice. Corel will not loose a client for that !

The answer is to use Libreoffice V3.5. See http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/ ... ct#p240619 for the link to Libreoffice.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Hadeln wrote:I use WordPerfect version X5 regularly because it has among others the feature "reveal codes" that does not exist in OpenOffice 3.4. With earlier versions of OpenOffice I had no problem switching from one to the other, but since version 3.4 no more. I guess you should contact Corel to stop this stupid commercial war -if this is the problem - and get WordPerfect files readable again in OpenOffice. Corel will not loose a client for that !

The filter was dropped from AOO for two reasons - [1] license issues and [2] after {1] the filter has a security vulnerability. Hopefully it was been fixed in LibreOffice.

Phil

thomasjk wrote:The answer is to use Libreoffice V3.5. See http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/ ... ct#p240619 for the link to Libreoffice.

Indeed LibreOffice 3.5 does read WordPerfect files... but now I have 3 word processors on my computer: WordPerfectX5, OpenOffice 3.4 and now LibreOffice. I do not understand why if LibreOffice can do it, that OpenOffice can't. Am I to understand that LibreOffice is unsafe or does not care of Corel copyright ? Anyhow thanks for the tip !

And I do not understand why WordPerfectX5 can not open ODF files. ODF is an international standard for office documents. It is free by any means.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Hadeln wrote:Am I to understand that LibreOffice is unsafe or does not care of Corel copyright ? Anyhow thanks for the tip !

Corel copyright is not the issue. The license for the WP filter is compatible with LO licensing but not Apache licensing.

I would hope that somebody associated with LO has fixed the security vulnerability with the WP filter, but I have yet to read of a fix.

Phil

Just for everyone's information, OO.0 version 3.3.0 seems to handle .WPD fine. but installation of 3.4 wiped my 3.3!

mmarion777 wrote:Just for everyone's information, OO.0 version 3.3.0 seems to handle .WPD fine. but installation of 3.4 wiped my 3.3!

See my earlier post with a link for solution.

WriterPerfect is developed as standalone file converter and used as part of WPD file filter. It can be used as to convert WPD file to ODT file before opening the file with OpenOffice, but it is distributed only as source package.

I used to be able to open my old Word Perfect 5.1 documents with Open Office. It seems they dropped that translator, however Libre Office has kept it and it works fine. I do find Libre Office to be less stable (crash/lockup prone) running in my Windows 7 PC, however it is included in the latest version of Ubuntu and works fine there. Once opened, I can save the old doc's as anything that OpenOffice or Word can handle