Save As Word converts to Internet Explorer

[HLesley]

When I convert an Open Office document to a Word doc it shows as an Internet Explorer document and I the only way I can open it is to right click and use "show me how to open this file" to get back to Open Office. This just started happening after OO decided to do an automatic update. This is very frustrating as I am working remotely proofreading a 300 page document for a client who uses Word and - naturally - I want to be sure he can access the revised version at his end.

All help appreciated.

[RoryOF]

OpenOffice does NOT do automatic updates - one must download and install a version update as a deliberate act. The update in question may have been Windows 10, which is notorious for doing so.

Set File Associations to tell Windows 10 to use OpenOffice to open the files in question.

[John_Ha]

When I convert an Open Office document to a Word doc ... I am working remotely proofreading a 300 page document for a client who uses Word and - naturally - I want to be sure he can access the revised version at his end.

A number of forum posts about interchanging documents between OpenOffice and MS Word suggests that you are likely to run into a number of problems if you use Edit > Record Changes and save as a .doc file. Other posts show you are likely to run into many more problems if the client ever saves the document as a .docx file.

See [Tutorial] Differences between Writer and MS Word files for why you should always work in and save files as .odt.

So what is the best thing for you to do?

First, whatever you decide, if you are using OpenOffice always save as a .odt file.

If the document is simple with little complexity then send the .odt file and ask the client to open the .odt with MS Word. The success depends on how good MS Word is working with .odt files - see Use Word to open or save a document in the OpenDocument Text (.odt) format.

Also see Microsoft Word support for .odt files in Differences between the OpenDocument Text (.odt) format and the Word (.docx) format

The next safest is to create a client-copy as a .doc file from your master .odt file, and send the .doc file to the client.

The only 100% safe method is for both you and the client to use the identical software.