[Solved] Archives, odt (and docx)

[G_Ranger]

Hello,
I have always been able, using ubuntu, to open .odt files or indeed .docx files, using the Ubuntu Archive Manager. This can be quite useful to perform batch operations on metadata (making comments anonymous, for example, when a reviewer has forgotten to remove his/her information). Now, this no longer appears to be possible, with Ubuntu 18.04. I'm not sure if this is question for ubuntu or for OpenOffice, but any help in encouraging the Archive Manager to let me get at the xml files would be appreciated!
G. R.

[jrkrideau]

I was under the impression that one always had to rename the file from myfile.odt to myfile.zip?

[G_Ranger]

Brilliant! Thanks. In the past I'm sure Archive Manager was more obedient but now it claims not to be able to open these "files". Renaming the file did the trick! Thanks.

[Bill]

It may be a regression in the version of Archive Manager in Ubuntu 18.04. Archive Manager opened .ods, .odt and .oxt files for me on Ubuntu 18.10 without having to rename the files. Engrampa Archive Manager in Manjaro will also open the files without renaming.

[RoryOF]

i think a different Archive Manager was used in Ubuntu 16.04; that Archive Manager knew that .odt (etc) files were .zip and opened them. The Engrampa Archive Manager of Xubuntu 18.04 needs these files renamed to .zip.

[John_Ha]

i think a different Archive Manager was used in Ubuntu 16.04; that Archive Manager knew that .odt (etc) files were .zip and opened them. The Engrampa Archive Manager of Xubuntu 18.04 needs these files renamed to .zip.

Does Engrampa Archive Manager have a setting where you can specify that .od* files are to be treated as ZIP files?

[RoryOF]

Not that I can find, John. Possibly in source - may look later.

[robleyd]

Seems Engrampa is just a[nother] GUI front end to the command line utilities like zip and tar; so you could cut out the middle man and simply do this from the command line;

$ unzip oofile.ods

[Bill]

I can't find any options that the user can change in either the Gnome Archive Manager (Ubuntu) or Engrampa (MATE, Xubuntu) that would affect support of ODF files. Since Ubuntu 18.04 is a LTS release, the archive managers in Ubuntu, Ubuntu MATE and Xubuntu 18.04 are old versions. Support for the ODF file formats was probably added to both archive managers after Ubuntu 18.04 was released.

Edit: Engrampa 1.20.2 also opens DOCX files.

[Hagar Delest]

file-roller works fine also, without renaming. I think that I used to use it from a long time ago.